Messed up beer with Ice?

[Drake413]

I know now that it is probably to late, but after I made my wort, I was short of 5 gallons and the recipe I used said to add water after brewing as needed to make the 5 gallons. So.... I thought that ice would do the trick so I went down to twice the ice and threw in ice to help the chilling process speed up and now I am thinking it may have ruined the batch, please advise. Also, if it has been fermenting for a couple of days, can I open the lid to look at it to see if it is totally spoiled or with that mess it up? I am a total newb.

 

[Peruvian802]

RDWAHAHB.

If the ice was tainted, it could wreck your beer. There is a chance that happened but probably not.

Is there any off smell from the airlock?

 

[J187]

I wouldn't get into the habbit of putting ice in your wort... as you seem to already know - bad stuff can fester in ice. It's a good place to big up some nasties. Having said that, the odds are on your side that you are ok this time. I'd give it a week or so in the fermenter, open it up and take a sample and check the gracity. If everything looks ok and tastes ok, check it again in a few days, if the gravity stays consistent, it's done. Give it a total of two weeks in the primary before racking it to bottle if that's what you are doing.

 

[Drake413]

There is a smell, I would not call it horrible, but it is far from roses. It was a belgium wit if that matters.

 

[peterj]

I wouldn't make a habit out of doing it this way, but it'll probably be fine. When I did half boils I used to top up with tap water from the faucet and I never had any problems. I would think (hope) that the ice is similarly free of contaminants, but I wouldn't put too much trust in those thin plastic bags and unknown handling processes.

So for this beer, I would say just let it go like normal. If it's still in the very active part of fermentation then opening up the fermenter wouldn't be too bad because it's still producing enough CO2 to purge the oxygen you add when you open it. But if fermentation has begun to die down I wouldn't open it because it would risk oxidation. Honestly you probably won't be able to tell if it's infected right now anyway, so I wouldn't worry about looking. Sounds like you should be fine though.

 

[Drake413]

Is there a way to take off the top and know for sure it is or isnt ruined? That way it doesnt just fester and get my hopes up?

 

[WayFrae]

Is there a way to take off the top and know for sure it is or isnt ruined? That way it doesnt just fester and get my hopes up?

Opening the lid won't tell you anything at this point. Like the others said, just wait. Relax, don't worry, and have a homebrew.

 

[garcia]

Settle down young man. You'll be fine.

 

[J187]

Is there a way to take off the top and know for sure it is or isnt ruined? That way it doesnt just fester and get my hopes up?

The tricky thing is, we know there are some less-than-wonderful flavors in there right now. That's why we leave our fermentation for a couple weeks - for the yeast to ferment the fermentables, and to clean up. A taste now might fool you if you taste some off flavors that might be cleaned up in a week. If you wait the two weeks, you'll know the wort should taste good - if it doesn't, or there is clearly something growing in it or whatever, you'll know something went unexpectedly.

 

[dstranger99]

For some reason "Midwest Supplies" has the "ice" option on their brew instruction page that comes with an order......Frozen water bottles would be your best bet if you have no wort chiller......

 

[GHBWNY]

Settle down young man. You'll be fine.

**this** Afterall, it's not like you've added LIQUID PROPANE or something to your brew... :smack:

 

[EJay]

There is a smell, I would not call it horrible, but it is far from roses. It was a belgium wit if that matters.

That's normal for Belgian yeasts in my limited experience (which consists of something in my fermenter now...very funky smells at first).

You're probably fine.

 

[hikemor]

I use city tap water for both homemade ice added to the wort and for top off. Some risk but I have not had any problems. Commercial ice from the store may be a bit riskier since you don't know the source/equipment used but I think the risk is still minimal.

I don't think sniffing the airlock will provide much indication good or bad.

 

[Drake413]

I am gonna roll with it thanks guys!

 

[theck]

I used to take 2 gallons of distilled water purchased at the store put it into the freezer an hour or so before brewing and when it got close to freezing pulled it... pour that into wort to chill faster. I've used ice before to cool and tap water to top off, unless your ice (which I can see in the winter) is months old and you put your peas and perogies on top of it I doubt it can harm anything.