Will hot water in the fermenter take on a plastic taste?

[Kaiser442]

I hope this question hasn't been asked a million times. I'm brewing my first batch now and I'm hoping someone will answer quickly before it's ready to be cooled and put in the fermenter.

I have 2 sets of instructions... The one from the homebrew store says after my wort is cooked and cooled to put it in the fermenter (I am using a 5 gallon plastic bucket for this - with a top and a water lock) and then ADD COOL WATER TO BRING THE TOTAL VOLUME UP TO 5.25 GALLONS.

The How To Brew thing from John Palmer says to boil 2.5 gallons of water and put it in the fermenter to cool while I'm cooking the rest of the wort (which I'm doing now).

My concern is that, now that I've dumped 2.5 gallons of near-boiling water in my bucket it's good and hot and it smells plastic-y. I don't want that water to take on the plastic taste and ruin my beer.

Should I stick with what I'm doing.... or should I dump out what's in the fermenter and just add cool water to the wort when done?

Thanks!

 

[Nurmey]

Welcome to HBT!
It is much more efficient to cool your wort or water in the metal pan. Plastic takes forever to transfer the heat out, however, no harm done to your beer.

 

[Kaiser442]

That pretty much answers my question - but just to be clear:

What I'm talking about is the "extra" water added to the wort to bring the total volume up to 5gal. Is it better to boil that water and have it cool in the plastic bucket (the ship has sailed on cooling it in the metal pot because I'm in the middle of the wort cook now... unless I do that boil afterward) or just use cool unboiled tap water for the extra.

Thanks for the quick response!

 

[buzzkill]

when I was doing partial boils,I just added cold tap water to bucket with wort in it. hit it with the sprayer to help add O2.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

I never boiled my top off water either, but I did use filtered water. In the future, go ahead and boil your wort, let cool for a while, and then pour into the fermenter and top off with cool water. Your temp may wind up being too hot to pitch the yeast, but it's safe to leave it sealed in the fermenter over night and then pitch when the temp is right. Or even better, place your pot of wort in the sink with ice surrounding it until it cools to <100ºF, and then top off and pitch.

Oh, BTW, welcome to HBT and the obsession.

 

[Ellis]

I think you need to be careful with your "near-boiling temp" water in the bucket. Those plastic buckets are rated food-grade safe up to 180 F. Past that, they are probably melting.

 

[Revvy]

i never boiled my top off water, nor did I ever use filtered. I just took the spigot hose from my sink and filled my bucket with that. If your water is good enough to drink, and isn't overly chlorine tasting to your tastbuds, then it is really fine for topping off. If there's no boil water advisory going on in your town on brew day, there's really no need to go the extra step. unless you want to. It's not required.

 

[Kaiser442]

I ended up dumping that water out and using water from my kitchen sink's spray hose to top off. I think I got some really nice aeration from that - we'll see how it turns out!

No bubbling in the water lock yet - but it's only been about 4.5 hours.

Oh, this is the honey brown ale recipe from Austin Homebrew - I see that they have a presence here and that people like them.... lucky for me that they're right around the corner from me

 

[homebeerbrewer]

Don't worry if there aren't any bubbles in the airlock. Those buckets can be a little finicky when you try to seal them, and if there is a space for the CO2 to escape besides the airlock, it'll take that route. CO2, like water, will take the path of least resistance, so no bubbles don't mean no fermentation.

Sounds like all is well. I'd leave that in the bucket for 3-4 weeks before racking.

Oh, and one more piece of advise: get yourself another bucket so you can start another batch while this one is fermenting. If you can be patient with your first batch and let it do its thing for 3-4 weeks, you'll never have to be patient again. Just brew every two weeks, and you'll always have homebrew to drink.