Oxygen In Hot Wort - Help

[captainbrewer]

Can someone provide advice to me as I think I have ruined a brew before
even putting it in the carboy to ferment.

I did a boil with a can of coopers heritage lager, 500grams LDME, and
pride of Ringwood hops for 20 minutes, added hallertau hops at flame out,
added dextrose and maltodextrose while still hot.

I then did a stupid thing, added cold water to the hot wort, quite
vigorously, then tipped into carboy and continued to fill to the required
20 odd litre mark.

Have I ruined the brew by introducing oxygen to the hot wort?

The brew was put down on Sunday, it was bubbling in the airlock from
Monday to Wednesday at about 17 degrees, but has since ceased. Should I
take the lid off and have a good sniff or let it ago another 5 or so days
and taste it, or just dump and start again.

This is the first time that I have boiled the wort, as per a recipe posted
a few weeks ago.

Any information would be appreciated.

 

[Steve]

Captain! Dont dump it - its fine. I made hundreds of kits by pouring the kit of goo in the fermenter with some dry malt etc etc and dissolving it with boiling water and then topping up vigourasly with cold water.....shes's fine.
Cheers
Steve

Captain - maybe next time sit your pot of hot wort in the kitchen sink filled with cold water for half an hour to bring the temp down. Put a frozen coke bottle in the sink water too. You will need to replace the water a couple of times as it warms up pretty quick.
Cheers
Steve

Weird - I just sent two replies a couple of minutes in between and it grouped them into one post? Never seen that before?

 

[Jerry]

captain,

I agree with Steve, you shouldn't have any problem.

I have done exactly the same thing in the past (I don't do it anymore) and have never had any problems or noticed any off flavours.

Cheers

 

[berapnopod]

Captain,
Sorry I have to use you as an example, but I am in a funny mood today and have decided to go on a crusade on AHB.

First of all, you should listen to the advice of others and don't dump it.

However, the best person to answer this question is you!

In homebrewing circles there is always a lot of heresay about whats good and bad for beer.
In your case, its aeration of hot wort. The professionals will tell you its a biiiig problem. Well, nearly all of them - Anheuser-Busch won't because they use aeration of hot wort when they produce Budweiser. Other people (like Steve and Jerry) will tell you its no problem.

But I digress.
My point is that you have inadvertantly turned your brew into a valuable scientific experiment and you'll be doing the brewing community a disservice if you don't tell us what you find!

I suggest you keep the beer, bottle and condition as normal, and then damn well tell us how it turned out!!!

Berp.

 

[Voosher]

I'll join the chorus of agreement. Nothing to worry about.
It's better to cool hot wort before splashing it around too much but like most I've splashed it hot plenty of times in the bad old days without noticeable detrimental effect.
The only time I think I've detected oxidation was when I've splashed brews at bottling.
One suggestion I'd make. There's no need to boil the whole can of extract and LDME with your hops.
As you have LDME I would do a boil of around 100g LDME in a litre of water with your hops for the required time, then add the rest of your ingredients. The hop extraction rates will be about the same for a full boil and you'll have less volume to cool. That'll save time and gas.

 

[captainbrewer]

Thanks for the information guys. I will continue to brew as normal. This will be the first brew that I am going to put into secondary, just on this point, do I need a hydrometer when I rack to the secondary cube or do I just rack it and then put it in the fridge for a few weeks before kegging it. Sorry for the basic question but once again any advice would be good.

 

[berapnopod]

Captain,
If you rack the beer to secondary, usually a hydrometer won't be necessary because if the beer hasn't finished fermenting, the action of racking will get it going again, and you'll see airlock activity. So maybe just rack it, leave it out of the fridge for a day and check for activity. If there's none, just chuck it in the fridge. If there is activity, just let it finish off before cold conditioning.

Berp.

Edit: tidied up

 

[poppa joe]

Captain..
If u added cold water that would bring u under temp for HSA...????[anyone}
I did a similar thing today....Added cool ?wort to fermenter {with some cold water already in it}
Then dumped rest of cold water on top..splashing to aerate..?
Hope we are both not in trouble.....?
Cheers
PJ

 

[matti]

did exactly the same to achive a descent cold beak with 2 degrees C pre-prepared water. (Boiled-cooled, adjusted ph to 6.4-6.6.)
Had to wait for the trub to settle a bit b4 syphon it to fermenter.
I would Second it at least for a week to allow to ferment out. very hard to give advice when limited info provided though...
Matti

 

[Trough Lolly]

You'll be fine - you added cold water which would rapidly drop the temp of the wort anyway. HSA is one of those hoary old chestnuts that brewers argue over with gay abandon as to whether or not it exists!
...I'll go out on a limb and I say it does, but it's not as common as some proponents suggest.
It's also one of the least understood topics in brewing. For example, did you know that you can introduce HSA aspects to the wort during the mash and sparge and they will not be removed during the subsequent boil?

Cheers,
TL

 

[mika]

Captainbrewer, if you were trying to bring down the temp of the wort, I sit the pot in the laundry tub full of water (generally have to swap the water half way thru) and wait for it to get down close to pitching temp for the yeast, say 25deg. If the water your adding is colder it will drop the temp further and get down close to 20deg, good for ales.
And once you have the wort down at say 25deg, splash away till your hearts content.