Is it too early to know if my first batch is bad

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Tried my first brew today. While topping off the fermenter with water I dropeed the cap of the spring water jugg in the wort. I fished it out with my hand after I washed them and then added the White Labs yeast and contiuned to air lock the wort and put it in my closet. So, will there be a certain point in time before I would put this brew in the second fermentor that I can tell if the brew is bad or not? Thanks for the help. :cross:

 

[BigKahuna]

You will be fine.
A smarter man than I once said...DON'T EVER POUR OUT A BATCH OF BEER UNTIL IT'S BOTTLED AND MAKES YOU PUKE TO TASTE IT.
Could have been death? Anyway, give it some time. If you air lock is bubbling happily away in a few days...I'll bet you will be in great shape.

 

[tuckferrorists]

google: RDWHAHB

 

[[email protected]]

I have alot of time so this beer will have all the time it needs! Being my first brew I just was not sure if I totally messed it up. I will be sure to check back when it starts bubbling in the air lock:rockin:

 

[Moonshae]

Hopefully you had washed or sanitized your hand first, though.

I recently had a (definitely unsanitized) hairbrush fall into my bottling bucket, and the beer is fine.

 

[AndrwHock]

Don't worry about it too much. Often times the beers we try hard to ruin turn out great. RDWHAHB.

 

[Revvy]

You're beer will be fine! It actually takes a lot to ruin beer...

In the future though you might find it's a good idea to keep a container of sanitizer handy, that way if something needs to be rescued you can dip your hands or a pair of kitchen tongs in the sanitizer before you go fishing around in your wort.

 

[[email protected]]

It would make me fell alot better if there was some sort of CO2 action in the airlock. But, I have a strange feeling that my first brew will go good. It's a Belgian Dubbel and I hope it comes out good. It my favorite type of beer. :fro:

 

[Bobby_M]

That reminds me of that movie "Vacation" where cousin Vicki stirred the Koolaid with her arm.

 

[dibby33]

It is hard to ruin a beer. I am not the most cleanest brewer in the world.
I brew in my cellar, and the external door is nearly always open as the dog sleeps in there. So, who knows what is floating around in there!
I also use the garden hose to top up the water. I do wash the mud off the end of it first though!

So, seriously a little bit of plastic in the beer is nothing. Have a beer and chill out.

 

[Tankard]

Once fermentation has started, the alcohol will kill a lot of the bacteria that may be in there. Unless of course there is so much bacteria present that it lives through fermentation.

After fermentation is complete and you take a hydrometer reading, take a taste test and look out for a sour/puckering taste. If you don't have this, you're pretty much in the clear.

 

[BlindLemonLars]

I would have just left the cap in there, rather than plunge my arm into the wort! There are gazillions (I think that's the scientific term!) of bacteria on your skin, and it's not really practical or possible to sanitize your hands/arms. Still, odds are good that everything will turn out fine. The massive population of yeast you pitched should easily crowd out any competitors.

 

[[email protected]]

Yeah, it being my first brew I was not sure whether I should get it out or not. Now I am worried about the fermentation because I did not use a starter for my liquid yeast. Anybody have any advice on this? Should I add a bit more yeast in a couple of days if no fermentation has not taken placed.? This brew was started on Saturday so I guess it's still a bit early to panic about the yeast but I am concerned.

 

[fratermus]

In the future though you might find it's a good idea to keep a container of sanitizer handy, that way if something needs to be rescued you can dip your hands or a pair of kitchen tongs in the sanitizer before you go fishing around in your wort.

PJ, this is great advice.

I use a 4-gal rubbermaid bucket from walmart. I usually put 2gal of no-rinse sanitizer (iodophor in my case, many prefer starsan), and I keep tongs, a stirring paddle, airlocks, stoppers, etc in there. Anything I'll be using that I'm not using right now lives in the bucket. It makes sanitizing easier than not sanitizing.

A spraybottle for things that are difficult to dunk is also cheap and useful.

When you are not brewing you can store the spraybottle and other items in the bucket.

 

[[email protected]]

:rockin: Checked my airlock and there are bubbles which makes me fell a bit better. Hopefully, later this week I can check the gravity and everything is going well.

 

[Philip1993]

It would make me fell alot better if there was some sort of CO2 action in the airlock.

Repeat 10x slowly: R-D-W-H-A-H-B.

From your first post to this one was 13 hours. Unless you made a big starter, you may not see activity for 12-24 more hours. Use the time to browse here for all the other crap that has fallen into a wort. There has even been a clothes iron filled with stale water that turned out fine...


As for your first Q: "Is it too early to know if my first batch is bad?"

Yes. And once you find out, there isn't anything you can do anyway. So grab a cold one and.... You guessed it! RDWHAHB

 

[[email protected]]

Yeah the relaxing thing is something I need to work on

 

[HOOTER]

Yeah the relaxing thing is something I need to work on

I opened my first brew a week after bottling and it tasted absolutely terrible. I was positive that I screwed something up. I looked for advice and guidance on this board and received the same response repeatedly- RDWHAHB. Sure enough, a couple weeks went by and it was a totally different beer. The moral of the story, don't waste your time worrying about it, everything will be fine.

Cheers!

 

[BlindLemonLars]

Yeah the relaxing thing is something I need to work on

It gets easier once you've got a few batches behind you, and you realize it's harder than you thought to mess up.

Who knows, this batch might turn out spectacular, and we'll all start washing our hands in the wort before pitching!

 

[[email protected]]

If that's what it takes.......

 

[Bosh]

If no sour taste develops you're golden, if a sour taste develops let it age a few months and drink it anyway. Sour beer is an acquired taste, but it does grow on you after a while...

 

[SeaMonster]

I accidently spit into a batch of beer once at bottling time. The damn siphon was giving me hell so I just started it with my mouth (another bad idea).

Got some in my mouth, spat it out on instinct right into the bucket. Bottled it anyways and three weeks later beer tasted great.

So, needless to reiterate, RDWHAHB!

 

[fratermus]

I accidently spit into a batch of beer once at bottling time.

One time I accidentally spit a piece of bubblegum into the warhead section of a tactical thermonuke.

 

[blacklab]

That reminds me of that movie "Vacation" where cousin Vicki stirred the Koolaid with her arm.

Ha! Then Randy Quaid(forgotten the names) opens a new beer for Chevy, and hands him the half drunk one he's already holding.

Classic movie.

 

[tranceamerica]

I accidently spit into a batch of beer once at bottling time. The damn siphon was giving me hell so I just started it with my mouth (another bad idea).

Got some in my mouth, spat it out on instinct right into the bucket. Bottled it anyways and three weeks later beer tasted great.

So, needless to reiterate, RDWHAHB!

LOL, I did this once too! the beer was great! HA HA HA!

 

[Arneba28]

I think just about everyone on here has accidentally spit wort into there beer while bottling because they were tired of filling the racking tube and cane of water.

Then we went and bought an autosyphon...I got mine in the mail last week lol

 

[HOOTER]

I accidently spit into a batch of beer once at bottling time.

I once pinched a loaf into a batch of beer. I was tired and mistook the bucket for a toilet. Once I realized what I did I fished the turd out with a fish net I had just used to remove a dead fish from my kids fish tank. I served it at a wedding and it was a huge hit!

Just playin' Sorry, was that inappropriate?