Tap water airlock

[Tinytankard]

Hello, new to these forums and today I spent a good 5 hours brewing my first beer! Pretty sure I jacked everything up from boiling water straight from my tap, not chilling the wort quickly or sanitary enough, not getting it low enough in temp before putting in the yeast, and rehydrating the yeast even if the instructions in the extract said not to. Anywho still had fun even though my beer is probably not going to be drinkable lol.

My biggest concern though is that I made mistakes with the airlock, I sanitized the whole thing, put tap water in, pushed in down and swear I saw water being sucked into the fermenter then I noticed the water wasnt up to the fill line. So of course I took it out re sanitized put in my tap water same thing happened, rinse and repeat I took the damn thing out like 4 or 5 times probably getting tap water into the fermenter every time. Did I potentially just contaminate the hell out of my probably already contaminated beer? Would using some of my sanitizing solution next time be a better bet?

 

[S-Met]

I use cheap vodka in my airlock. Any suck-back would be result of negative pressure created from cooling wort. If your Brew is not down to your pitch temperature then you will continually draw in air as it's cooling. You can Loosely cover with aluminum foil or plastic wrap until it is down to temperature and then place your air lock.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Man I wish I still had all those exciting worries

Welcome to the forum. Pretty much everything you said will work out fine. I've had water leak out the airlock plenty of times, I boil tap water every brew, some people let the beer chill overnight before pitching. As long as you sanitized your bucket and equipment you should be fine.

Your concerns are if you pitched your yeast WAY to hot...that would be a problem...but even if you did you could pitch a new pack at the correct temp...so not the end of the world.

I'm thinking you did extract and not all grain. I forget exactly how the mash/boil part of that works with extract...its been awhile

 

[Tinytankard]

Thanks! Yeast was around 80 so doesnt seem like a huge deal. Yeah it was an extract.

 

[shoengine]

I generally pitch warm with no ill effects. Rarely do I pitch at ferm temp.

 

[RM-MN]

Unless you normally get sick often from drinking your tap water (bacterial infection) the biggest problem with using it could be the chlorine or chloramine that city water departments use to keep the water sanitary. Those chemicals can give you a medicinal flavor to your beer. 1/4 of a Campden tablet per 5 gallons of water will remove either and do it nearly instantly. Boiling the water would have driven off chlorine but chloramine does not boil off.

Tap water is usually pretty sanitary so getting a little sucked into the fermenter is no big deal. Often the extract kits will have you boil a smaller amount of water and extract, then top off with tap water. The little amount of bacteria that might be present will be quickly overwhelmed by the yeast and once the fermentation starts the bacteria cannot reproduce.

One of the biggest improvements to my beers came when I found out about the proper temperature to keep the fermenting beer as the higher temperatures tend to give you beer with plenty of off flavors. The yeast producers will have information about the proper temperature range for each yeast. Keeping the beer to the lower part of this range usually gets you cleaner flavors. Once the initial fast part of the ferment dies down you can let the beer warm to room temp for the remainder of the time it stays in the fermenter.

 

[dkeller12]

This is one of the reasons I switched to a 3 piece airlock from the one piece. The three piece ones don't allow the liquid to get sucked back into the fermentor.

 

[JohnSand]

I think your beer will probably be good. The yeast might have off flavors if fermented warm. The airlock sucked water in because you flexed the lid when you pushed it in. Insert the airlock first, then fill it. Keep us posted.

 

[Ronald C Gregory]

I used straight tap water for my first beer. I boiled it the night before brewing and then let it cool with cheese cloth covering the pot. You should be fine with your beer. If you dont jave a filter for your tap water it doesnt hurt to boil it before brewing helps with chlorine and any hard minerals that might be in it. As long as you know what mistakes you have made so you can correct them next time you will be fine. Welcome to the hobby and relax you made beer it will be drinkable.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

This is one of the reasons I switched to a 3 piece airlock from the one piece. The three piece ones don't allow the liquid to get sucked back into the fermentor.

They kinda do if you push down on bucket lid. It sorta pushes air out and sucks it back in and down the tube. Not a big deal really Never had an ill effect from it that I know of

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Thanks! Yeast was around 80 so doesnt seem like a huge deal. Yeah it was an extract.

Youll be fine at 80

 

[Calder]

This is one of the reasons I switched to a 3 piece airlock from the one piece. The three piece ones don't allow the liquid to get sucked back into the fermentor.

I use the 3-piece airlocks mostly because they are a lot easier to clean. But I think the 1-piece airlocks are less likely to suck back liquid. If you keep the liquid below the line on the airlock it will allow air to pass back rather than the liquid.

 

[DVCNick]

I changed my practices for the second batch, but my first ever batch was a partial boil extract kit that had 2 gallons of straight un-boiled tap water added to the fermenter. I think it was definitely the best out of my first three batches.

 

[Ronald C Gregory]

I changed my practices for the second batch, but my first ever batch was a partial boil extract kit that had 2 gallons of straight un-boiled tap water added to the fermenter. I think it was definitely the best out of my first three batches.

can you tell us what you changed in the second 2 batches you did? Just a little curios personally as I like to keep lots of notes from things I have read

 

[DVCNick]

I'm a newbie, so take this for what it's worth, but for subsequent partial boil extract kits, I boiled the top-off water and put it in sanitized jugs the night before brew day just to be on the safe side. But like I said, didn't notice any ill effects from using unboiled tap water in the first batch.

I've just switched to all-grain, so this won't be a concern in the future/if you go that route.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

For my first couple brews of extract I used tap water in the airlock. I used tap water to top off after my boil, so there seemed to be no reason I shouldn't. Nothing bad happened. I use sanitizer in the airlock now though, because I do full boil and figure it's a tad bit safer not letting unboiled water in. Not that I really want sanitizer in there either. The vodka idea isn't bad...

 

[davidabcd]

After four years, I'm still using tap water to top up to five gallons and never had an issue.

You're using a plastic fermenting vessel? And 80 degree wort? With that in mind, it sounds like you were pressing the lid down (pushing out air) while putting in the airlock and when you stopped pushing the lid it went back to its original position (pulled in air and water)? Maybe, maybe not.
If so, make sure the bottom of the airlock is wet (goes in more easily) and twist in gently without pressing or you could leave the lid cracked until you have it in there.

First time I lifted a full, plastic fermenter by the handle, the bucket flexed and when I set it down, "whoosh" went the sanitizer into the beer like flushing a toilet. Was devastated. Turned out was a very minor, basically irrelevant error.

Good luck.