Another cock-up!

[macca]

After my last bottling disater with a leaky fermenter tap, I have again managed to balls up a kit by rushing. With a John Bull Irish Stout 3kg kit, I added the liquid wort syrup to the fermenter, then the boiling water, but forgot to stir it in before adding the cold water, so ended up with most of the wort syrup all stuck at the bottom the bottom of the 10gal fermenter! I could not reach the bottom with the stirring spoon, so decided to chuck the whole lot into a 10gal boiler (using some more boiling water to get the stuff off the bottom and boiled it up to re sterilise before running back off into a fresh fermenter. As I don't yet have a chiller, and the 10 gal fermenter is too heavy to carry up to the bath, I have had to leave it to cool in the garage at its own pace. Its been over 12 hours and I reckon it will be 18-20 hours before its down to yeast pitching temp. Also in my rush at midnight last night, I didnt really clean the (brand new) boiler before chucking it all in - there were a few plastic shavings from where the holes had been drilled in the boiler for elements / taps etc. floating in the wort after the boil!!

I guess my questions are, how bad a cock-up is this? I suppose there could be a chance of infection setting in as it could be up to 24hrs in fermenter before pitching the yeast. The plastic shavings while undesirable, should at least be sterile as its all been boiled and I guess I can skim them offf the top in due course. Any other debris that was lying in the boiler should be sterile just float to the bottom I suppose. I thought about chucking it all down the drain and starting again, but I have decided just to pitch the yeast, ferment and see what happens.

I will not be making that mistake again - what should have taken an hour to make up a kit, took about 3 last night!!

Macca

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Only time will tell if you get away with it.

[vacant]

When a brew is fermenting vigorously with lots of bubbles through the airlock and your FV is translucent or transparent, you'll see the blobs of yeast moving around in the convection currents like a crazy lava lamp. My point is that if you haven't fully mixed your kit the billions of yeast will easily get down there and ferment it. So don't worry.

The only reason you may want to make sure there is no syrup left sticking on the bottom is to get an accurate Original Gravity reading. If you've got 300g of syrup not mixed, your OG will be 10% less (e.g. 1040 rather than 1044).

Next, you say you couldn't reach to the bottom of your FV - what's wrong with gaffer tape and a gurt big stick to extend your spoon?

Plastic shavings can be strained out. Leaving warm sugary water for 24 hours is pushing your luck so make sure you rehydrate the yeast to check it is healthy and give it a head start. Given the rank conditions in which beer has been made over the centuries you'll probably be lucky.

[macca]

Well that's the rehydrated yeast in after wort been in fermenter about 18hrs. I was pretty scrupulous with sterilization so will hopefully get lucky. Fingers crossed!

[simple one]

It will be fine. I can't see anything that will become a problem.

Sterilised - yes
Plastic shavings - food safe i assume (even if there not it shouldn't have imparted much flavour)
Left 24 hours - If it was covered, in a sterilised container shouldn't become infected

I have left 2 brews now over night, prior to pitching the yeast due to broken hydrometers. Both have been fine. Don't worry.

[macca]

Thanks for the reassurance - it is fermenting away nicely now after 12hrs with the yeast in so at least that bit has gone smoothly!
The plastic bits are food safe, so will just strain them out. Time will tell - I will report back on if I got away with it!