I forgot to add water to my airlock will my wort survive?

[Wheaties]

The title pretty much says it all, this is my first time brewing and I am doing it 100% solo, I have read several guides but none of them ever detailed putting water into the airlock and I kept wondering why my brew was not "bubbling" and how it could. After finally getting my internet back to dsl speeds and seeing the bubbling videos on the internet, I realized how fundamental water is to creating the airlock. However, this is after my brew has been fermenting for 3 days. I have added water now, however I am not seeing bubbling, although I suspect that I will have to wait for a significant gas buildup prior to bubbling occurring so I will give it 24 hours to see if it happens. Prior to the airlock getting water, there was always condensation (just a few miniscule drops) in the sides of the airlock. Has anyone had this experience before, and could shed any light on the odds of my beer surviving?

wow I just tasted a bit after checking the hydrometer for specific density, and it is delicious, just a bit flat. probably the my child syndrome, but it is wonderful what a feeling.

 

[Mutilated1]

yeah it will be fine - germs can't fly or crawl - they have to ride into the wort on some dust or something, if you had the lock on there where nothing could fall in you'll be fine

 

[Blender]

Yes, I think your beer will be OK since fermentation expels CO2 during the process. Now that you have the water in the airlock let it ferment for 10 days and take a gravity reading to determine if it is done. Do you have a hydrometer?

What did you make?

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Wheaties - First of all, welcome to homebrewing.
99.9% of the time it will be fine if you had everything clean and sanitized that touched the wort.
A little more air may have been able to seep in, but fermentation provides a nice blanket of C02 that help.
Your most likely beyond the first primary active fermentation, take a measurement in 3 days, and one two days later, and one 3 days later. They should all be the same.
Just a few other notes, hopefully your able to keep the temperature at the ideal level for your yeast, sanitize everything touching the beer from now on and I'm sure your have some great stuff.

 

[Wheaties]

Yea it is looking good, I am not seeing bubbling yet in the airlock, although possibly my main fermenting is already done? I have had 5 people test it and they all agree that it is good, although none are beer aficionados they have a decent appreciation for it and know bad beer lol. It has a light wheatlike flavor initially and gets a nice bitter finish, but isn't bitter enough to annoy me, so it is pretty good for me. As far as what I used, 4 lb of Edme hopped malt extract, 1 lb of muntons wheat, and 2 generic things of yeast. The good thing I think is that my ice bath worked like a charm and my cold break was under 10 min.

Ed. The Edme is a wheat beer extract.

P.p.s. just checked the gravity, it is at 1.01 right now, and the bit I put into the beaker retained a 1.5cm head which is the first I have seen from this beer. I am almost 100% certain that my reading with the wort right before pitching it was like 1.08 does that sound right?

 

[Revvy]

Yea it is looking good, I am not seeing bubbling yet in the airlock, although possibly my main fermenting is already done?

Airlock activity means nothing, and should not be used as a gauge of it, it is meant to be nothing more than a blowoff valve to keep from painiting your cealing due to excess co2 blowing the lid/bung off the fermenter...nothing more. Half of my brews if not more, DON'T have any airlock activity whatsoever.

Opening it to take a reading may interrupt the bubbling process (because the gas is venting), but won't do anything to your fermentation...

The airlock is just a cheap bit of plastic and should never be thought of as a precise gauge of anything.

Read my blog, I talk about it in there.

http://blogs.homebrewtalk.com/Revvy/Think_evaluation_before_action/

Oh, and don't keep having people sample your fermenting wort...you won't have much left when it's actually drinkable in 4-6 weeks.