New Brewer.

[scsnyder4]

We did our first brew last night. It's an English Brown Ale. The only concern I have is that when we boiled the wort, the recipe said to add water to the fermentation bucket with the wort to have it to a total of 5 gallons. Is our beer going to be contaminated if we did not boil the extra water? This was our first home brew so were trying to figure this out as we go!! thanks for the help

 

[FastTalker]

There is definitely a chance of contaminating the wort by doing this. Many people do it and never have an issue. If you can boil the entire volume of wort do it. If you want to spend the extra time boiling and cooling your top up water, you can help to reduce the chance of contamination. I did that when I was doing partial boils and it was a pain. A large pot was a great investment.

So to answer your question, you'll probably be fine.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

You're most likely going to be fine. If you pitched a good amount of healthy yeast quickly it shouldn't get infected.

Due to fermentation and hops (plus other bittering/antiseptic agents) beer has been used as a source of safe water for many many years. There is absolutely nothing that can live in beer that can harm humans.

At the absolute worst you'll end up with a sour beer, which many people enjoy. At best you'll have a delicious English Brown... and honestly the odds are on your side if you gave the yeast a fighting chance.

 

[Dawnhulio]

You'll probably be fine. I did this with several batches until I had equipment to do a full volume boil. Never had an issue with it myself and my guess is as long as you sanitized your equipment you'll be just fine. Welcome, by the way!

 

[whirlybirds]

I've been dong it for over a year now and haven't had a single issue. Like others have said, you do run a chance of contamination, but as long as the water you use was clean, there shouldn't be a problem.

 

[ChessRockwell]

Done that for every brew I've ever done, aside from a couple all grain, full boil batches. Haven't had a problem yet!