Pitched dry yeast into 57F wort, underfilled the fermenter with water... have I ruined my batch?

So, I was brewing my Brewer's Best Kolsch LME kit, and I made four errors. First, I skipped rehydrating, yielding to the boxed instructions instead of the packet. Second, I overestimated how cold my bottled water jugs were (i left them in the freezer to cool) and after cooling the wort, I ended up cooling it down to 57F when I pitched it. Didn't realize my mistake until I affixed the thermometer strip to the fermenter. To top it all off, I filled to the 5 gal mark initially, but once the head settled, I can see it's at ~4.33 gals. And I skipped checking the OG, so I can't tell how off I am.

After 24 hrs, the airlock is bubbling at a rate of 4 bubbles per min and is now 68-69F.

Have I ruined my beer?

Topic mistakes first-time-brewer fermentation-temperature primary-fermentation homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

Nope. Beer will fight very hard to be beer. :)

Your beer will not taste exactly like planned, but if it is bubbling then you are off to a good start.

Kolsch uses a lager yeast and they are happy with the colder temps. As the beer warms up the yeast will also warm up and work faster, but keep the temps reasonable!

A lower amount of water will mean that your beer will have a higher OG and possibly a higher FG, but none of these are problems for what I assume is a beer of low to normal strength.

The beer might end up with a slightly higher ABV, but nothing spectacular.

Relax and enjoy your beer!

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