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Reboiling you wort
If you think your wort has been contaminated after it cooled to 80-degrees and you've already pitched your yeast, is it okay to reboil, cool, and pitch new yeast? What if fermentation has begun, even if just slightly? I'd give more details, but it's a little embarrassing.
You could probably reboil the wort, depending on how long you've been fermenting you may lose a lot of quality or just a little. You'll also lose some gravity points if the yeast were able to work very long. What is making you want to reboil? Is it something you should just dump?
Well what's embarrassing is that it was avoidable. Unfortunately I didn't think of an appropriate solution until 18 hours later (this morning). The rubber grommet which seals the stem of my airlock was punched down into the wort after I had sealed the lid. So that's lesson #1: Put your airlock on your lid before placing the lid on the bucket. So obviously the best thing to have done would be to rack it to another bucket, get the grommet from the bottom of the now empty bucket, and do it again (lesson #2). Unfortunately I was to upset to think clearly (which is when most mistakes happen in our lives) and after trying to fish it out with my stirring spoon, I did my best to sterilize my arm and reached in and grabbed it. So I can just imagine how many billions of bacteria are in there right now!
On a good note, I used a Wyeast Activator yeast and there's no noticeable fermenting yet (we're at about 20 hours from pitching the yeast), so maybe it's not too late? What do you think?
You know, you might be a bit surprised to find out how santized you can get your body parts. Something similar happened to me when I was showing a friend how to brew, as he plunged his hands into our cooled wort. I went ahead and picthed, and everything turned out ok.
You should be able to boil the wort again, but I would wonder what would happen if you did get a contanimation going. If you already started developing off flavors, I don't think these would go away by boiling, but I may be wrong. You would also need to repitch (obviously).
I would just let it go now. You actually could have just covered the hole in the bucket with a san'd piece of foil and let it go. You wouldn't be able to watch bubbles, but that wouldn't matter. The fact that you're yeast didn't go 20 hours later is probably the most concerning part of the whole story. Did you make a starter?
norcalnewb: Would I be able to detect any off-flavoring already? It's encouraging to hear your experience and know that I at least have a chance.
cmanley542: Thanks for the tip on the foil, that would have been the simplest thing to do. On my yeast, no I didn't make a starter. It's my first time using the Wyeast Activator pack which says you can activate and pitch after 4 hours out of the fridge. Their regular Propagator pack does recommend it, though. I used White Labs yeast on my first batch and it was very successful and started right away, but for this one I wanted to try something else.
The best thing you can do now is let it sit for a week and check it then. Cover up the airlock hole with something light fitting and clean, put the bucket somewhere where you won't look at it every 5 minutes, and check back in a week. Not a whole lot you can do to mend it if there is a problem, just sit and wait.
Thanks, that's the same advice my wife gave me. Not that she's knows anything about homebrewing, she's just tired of hearing me worry about it!
I agree, the best thing now is just to let it go for a week or so and then check it.
But, you may have some fermentation that just is not very active at the moment, but still going. Are you using a 3 peice air lock? If so, you can check the inner peice. If it is floating against the top, you have active fermentation, as you have a slight positve pressure in your bucket. By this time, you should at least see this much going on.
Yes, I have a 3 piece airlock, and the internal pressure is building, so something's going on. That's for your help!
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