after being on here for a few months, i've come to the conclusion that 'wilson' is synonymous with 'screw up'. if that's true, i wilsoned the hell outta this...

my brew day, friday, consisted of a trip to the lhbs, bottling a yuengling clone, boiling a mexican lager, and getting it in the fermenter...

everyhting went well with the bottling, which was my first time with glass bottles and a bottling wand. loved it. it all went well. batch primed, bottled, no problem. i needed to make another batch and having a need for the fermenter i just emptied, i put it (once emptied of the yuengling clone) in the tub of one-step water i used to sanitize the bottles. i let it soak for about 15 mins to clean out the krausen ring and it worked nicely. brought it over to the kitchen sink and washed it with ivory dishsoap and set it in the drainboard to air dry.

i started to boil my mexican lager, and dropped it in an ice batch in the sink to cool. it did, and i grabbed the keg, and poured the wort in. i grabbed the sanitized whick and gave the wort a whip, pitched the notty yeast, waited about 10 mins, and whipped again to aerate. i closed the lid, and tucked it, all snug and wrapped up in a blanket, into a picnic cooler in the basement. i'm walking up the stairs and it hits me... i forgot to sanitize the keg after i cleaned it with dishsoap, before poured the wort in and pitched the yeast. poop.

i just threw a hot water bottle into the cooler to keep everything around 60* and gave it a little peek... the beer seems to be happily fermenting away with a nice layer of krausen. all in all, i'm guessing i'm ok... just one of those "D'OH!" moments.

With my third premium kit I didn't bother to sanitize the keg or the bottles when new. I figured everything was factory fresh. That batch came out just fine but ever since then I have sanitized everything. With the Co2 and as the alcohol is generated not to mention the presence of the hops you should be O.K. if you really cleaned the keg well.

Since you *did* sanitize the keg (just before you washed it), I'm guessing that you're almost certainly going to be fine...especially since you've got a really great environment for Nottingham to grow, so it should overpower any nasties that may have been trying to sneak in.

Definitely _not_ a Wilson but it sure as shootin' earns you a Golden Mammy.

as long as in the end, i get something... whether it's a superlative, or a successful homebrew.

Wouldn't a wilson or a mammy be more of a subperlative?

Contrary to popular opinion, A "Wilsoned" Beer is one that turns out good despite you screwing up soemthing durring the brewing process.

and her i thought it meant a plain old f%@& up. so, i hope this beer does turn out to be a wilson, then.

learn something new every day... especially around here.