How bad did I mess this up?

[brewnewb1]

Ok guys, so today was my first brew ever, and I decided to do a partial mash. Things went fine up until the cooling stage. It was taking a very long time to cool. Upwards of a half hour, and I live in an apartment with a small sink, so there wasn't much I could do to make it go any faster. A friend told me I could just transfer it to the carboy and top off with water to cool, so I did. In the process of transferring to the carboy, though, my funnel kept clogging up, so I'd have to poor some beer back into the boiling vessel and then back into the funnel. From there, of course I pushed my rubber stopper too far and it fell into the carboy. I currently have a sanitized piece of aluminum foil over the top of the carboy with the airlock sticking out of that. I'll probably get a new rubber stopper tomorrow.

So my question is, with all the things I did wrong, is my beer ruined? Is there still a chance for salvation?

 

[JuiceyJay]

It'll be fine, let it do it's thing

 

[seigex]

Agree with JuiceyJay .. you'll be fine .. let it ferment out, crash, bottle it, condition and drink. A lot harder to ruin beer than you think.

 

[RM-MN]

As an experiment I brewed a batch and poured it into my plastic bucket fermenter while still boiling. It took over 30 hours to cool and it tastes the same as an identical batch that I chilled quickly.

 

[brewnewb1]

Well, it looks like everything is ok. Went and bought a new rubber stopper today and the airlock is bubbling away. Thanks guys!

 

[IslandLizard]

As an experiment I brewed a batch and poured it into my plastic bucket fermenter while still boiling. It took over 30 hours to cool and it tastes the same as an identical batch that I chilled quickly.

Yes, that's safe in plastic.
As long as no-one tries to pour hot liquid into a glass carboy....

Good to hear that it doesn't impart the taste.
Quick chilling gives a better cold break, and therefore potentially clearer beer without having to use gelatin.

Many people use No-chill which is similar, except they have 0 air-space to fight off possible infection.

As long as your sanitation is impeccable you should be fine to let it cool naturally in a (closed) bucket. However, there is a very long period where the wort is at infection-prone temperatures and since cooling liquids shrink, air gets sucked into the fermentor.

All you need to do now is aerate the wort and pitch the yeast at its optimal temperature.

 

[woozy]

Everyone screws up their first beer. And most of the screw ups are in the cooling down. And most of the beers are decent and drinkable and better than the person expects.

Sanitation is a numbers game. Every brewers immediate concern is "I don't want *this* batch to get infected" and the brewer can pretty much spit and dunk his bare hands in the wort and the odds will be better than not that it won't get infected[*]. The experienced *ongoing* brewers concerns are "I want to *never* get an infection" and "I want to develop control over my environment". Well, those come with time and practice. But in the beginning you do the best you can and you learn by experience.

[*] Okay, I exagerate. But not by much. Point is... you spill your wort all over your counter? Well, you quickly slosh it back into the kettle and hope for the best. Maybe it'll be infected but maybe it won't. You did your best and that's all you can hope for the first time.

 

[brewnewb1]

K guys, so I bottled everything yesterday into 22oz bottles. I filled about 20 of them, so I wasnt at exactly 5 gallons, but close enough. Now of course I've been reading about bottle bombs and my nervous self is slowly freaking out that I'm going to have bottles exploding everywhere. Can someone break down what causes this?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Bottling a beer with either too much priming sugar. Or before fermentation is complete.

I believe 1oz. Corn sugar/priming sugar(dextrose) per gallon of beer is an average for sugar usage. And ensure fermentation was complete by getting a steady gravity reading at least 3days apart

 

[brewnewb1]

Great. I hit my fg and used the priming sugar that came with the kit, so hopefully I should be good.

 

[Littlejoe]

I'm sure you are probably okay if you were following a recipe. What were your OG and FG? How much priming sugar did you use?

 

[two_one_seven]

Over carbonation or infection. Only two causes of bottle bombs. How much priming sugar and what type did you use. Infection is an unlikely cause. I recommend using a carbonation calculator to make sure you are on target. It is very unlikely that will get exploding bottles. No worries it will all work out. Trust me my first batch I spilled all over my kitchen floor......that about the only way it will be undrinkable.......

 

[Littlejoe]

sorry I'm alittle slow tonight