Have I ruined my first brew?

[Jules Brown]

Hey guys,

So confessions first, I'm a newbie to brewing and to the site (which looks awesome) and this is my first post. And yes, I'm humbly looking for a bit of advice. I have had a poke around previous threads and the library (which looks like an amazing resource) but can't find any answers to my specific questions, so here's hoping one of you good people can help me. 

I put my first kit down to ferment on Saturday, "Obligatory NZ Pale Ale" from Te Aro Brewing Co, and used Michael Donaldson's book, The Big Book of Home Brew as a guide. But, in the process, I think I may have made two potentially critical mistakes, as follows:

1. I didn't find out about the effects of UV light on beer until my wort had been in the fermenter for around 24 hours (12 hours of which were daylight). I then covered it in a black cloth to keep it in the dark. Wort went in at 3pm Sat, and the cloth went on at 2pm Sunday. It's fermenting in my utility, a coolish room that receives no direct sunshine, and is in an opaque/white plastic iMake fermenter. I'm kind of hoping that the process was in an early enough stage that insufficient alpha acids had formed to be affected by the UV light in the room, and that I've escaped any skunking. So, do you reckon it's too late or might I have got away with it?

2. Potentially, a much more serious problem - my kit came with some Brewtopia Sodium Percarbonate Detergent & Steriliser, which I used to thoroughly sterilise everything in the kit. But the kit did not include any Iodophor, so I did not use any. Was this a catastrophic mistake?

Thank you very much in advance for anyone who can help me with these questions.

Cheers,

Jules

[Sam DT]

Hi Jules,

On all accounts I think you will be just fine.

There's an old saying in brewing circles RDWHAHB - Relax, don't worry, have a home brew. Now being your first brew you're unlikely to have any on hand but as it sounds like you're in Wellington I'm sure a quality pint won't be far away.

1. - This is a relatively slow process - had you done it for the whole brew then you wouldn't have the best beer in the world but then again it'd probably still be drinkable. Also as it's opaque you've probably already prevented a fair chunk of UV getting in. In any case you wouldn't be the first or the last person to have their fermentor sitting in a light spot for a while.

2. - Some people only use per-carbonate for sterilising and never have any issues - seeing this is your first brew your gear is probably nice and clean and bug free so shouldn't be much of a worry. I have had infections so I use per-carbonate to clean, rinse and then starsan (it's expensive but goes a hell of a long way).

As it sounds like your room is on the cooler side I'd be tempted to shift it after the first week of fermentation to somewhere that'll get the temp up to around 20-23 degrees just to make sure you have a complete fermentation.

Anyway - go grab that beer - it's hard to make great beer but luckily it's also hard to completely mess it up.

Good luck!

[Jules Brown]

Hey Sam/Andrew, thanks for putting my mind at rest guys. I was kind of hoping I was safe on the light issue, but was pretty concerned about the lack of starsan. Will pick some up before the next batch :)

I think my temp situation is okay thanks Sam, wort went in at 18 degrees, rose to 23 overnight, and is now sitting at 21 to 22 degs. She's bubbling away very satisfyingly so fingers crossed. And yes, I have a couple of Panheads in the fridge, so without further . . . Cheers

[Andrew Graham]

It will probably be fine.

1. Skunk is normal in many "premium" green bottle lagers so you may not even notice it, depending on your particular sensitivity to it.

2. I'm sure many people on here used Sodium Percarbonate or similar when first starting out and before learning better. Most of the beers would have been perfectly drinkable too.

[Nathan]

Its ruined

Best course now is to let it ferment out as per normal also bottle as per planned and sent the lot to me for disposal...

But really it should be fine.....Congrats on the brew im sure you will enjoy the results

[Jules Brown]

Haha. Thanks dude. 

[Jules Brown]

So, day 6. Fermentation has pretty much ceased. Gravity of 1.009 and tasting pretty good, reminiscent of a warm English Ale, and its bitterness has already rounded off and softened compared to when I took a gravity measurement yesterday 1.010. I just dry hopped it and noticed there was no krausen on the top, just a scattering of bits and pieces. Hoping this is pretty normal at this stage of the process but thought I'd ask you guys. What do you think?

[Cain Harland]

Sounds good. The English taste is probably a few esters the warmer fermentation