So this is my first batch, and I have a bunch of questions and a few concerns…sorry if these are Noob questions but i seriously need some advice .
Firstly … let me tell you about my basement. My house was built in 1900…in maine this tends to mean an often damp, musty basement…mine is pretty much the norm. Im a little worried the dampness and age of my basement may have infected my first batch of homebrew. Today was bottling day, and upon inspecting my carboy, i have managed to attract many TINY little bugs…all over my air lock and bung, although it did appear as if they were not able to get into the carboy…anyone know what these are? and how to keep them from coming back? They were literally so small i had to put my eye within two inches to see they were moving…and ive got perfect eye sight. Worried about the cleanliness of the area, i moved the batch, as quietly as possible to my kitchen, cleared away all the tiny bugs with paper towel soaked in sanitizer and racked to the bottling bucket.
Also, inside the carboy, there were a few floating specks on top of the beer that had not been there a few days ago, they sank to the bottom as soon as i began to move the batch to my kitchen…is this just dead yeast or could this be contamination??
Should i be replacing the liquid (sanitizing solution) in the air lock? I did not lose any to evaporation over the four week secondary so i did not add any or replace but I think it may have gone bad allowing for the possible contamination…I have read that it should be good for up to four weeks.
As if this were not bad enough, my first bottling day technique was off, and even if my beer was still ok after what i put it through i think i may have messed up the bottle carb levels. I measured out the right weight of sugar for the temp, and type of beer, boiled it in 16 oz of water …and then forgot to let it cool before adding it to the bottling bucket, and forgot to stir with my auto siphon after i added all the beer to the bottling bucket …but i did have the tubing in such a way as to cause swirling around the bucket without splashing, heres hoping this managed to mix it enough…Just thinking about this is giving me a serious headache…