Expert: Spencer W Thomas - 6/18/2008

Question
I am a rookie.  There are a few things I didn't do and I wanted to see if it will
cause any major problems.  One thing is that I did not take a Hydrometer
reading before I sealed everything.  I also had the lid off for about 2 hours as I
cooled the wort before adding the yeast not even thinking that I should keep it
on to avoid any contamination.  Are these major issues I should be concerned
about?

Answer
Not taking a hydrometer reading won't wreck anything.  It's a useful piece of information, as it can help you predict how strong your beer will be, but it's not needed.

Having the lid off for 2 hours may cause problems, because it gave an opportunity for undesirable "wild" yeast and bacteria to "fall into" your beer.  At this point, all you can do about that is hope that your beer is ok.  I'd suggest that you let it finish fermenting.  You should taste it before bottling.  If it's got really nasty flavors (such as being really sour or having an obvious plastic or medicinal flavor) then you might have to dump it and chalk it up to experience.  Otherwise, go ahead and bottle it.  Once it's carbonated, you can taste it again and decide whether you think it's bad or not.  If you like it, then you're in luck.  

One thing to be aware of -- wild yeast can continue to work in the bottle and to cause it to get more and more carbonated.  If the beer "gushes" after it's been bottled for a while, you may have an infection, or you may have bottled too soon, before fermentation was really finished.  Whatever the cause, f that happens, and the beer tastes ok, you should refrigerate the rest of the bottles so that they don't turn into "bottle bombs."  (If it doesn't taste ok, then you should probably dump it.)

My apologies for the delay in answering -- I'm currently attending the National Homebrewers Conference, and haven't been checking my email.