Expert: John Snyder - 4/21/2008

Question
QUESTION: When I was cooling the wort in a sink of cool water I did not put a lid on my pot.  It took about an hour to cool with an open pot to under 90 degrees.  Could this have infected my batch by not putting the lid on?

ANSWER: there is that possibiliy,especially since wort is a sugar solution,and great for bacteria growth.Get an active fermentation going,as fast as possible,this will greatly decrease your chance of a bacterial infection.

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QUESTION: I got an active fermentation going in less than 24 hours and it went for three days.  Is the only way to tell that the batch is infected by taste or is there a way to tell before I bottle it?

Answer
Taste,unless you are equipped with a lab to do wort plating,and incubation.Just prior to bottling,taste the beer,looking for any of the following tastes,celery,parsnip,sour,buttery,if none detected you are most likely home free.DO NOT allow air into your beer,while bottling