I havent had the best of nights.

Was all ramped up to do the summer ale extract kit. Had planned on using my new boiler and homemade mash tun to make things nice and easy. It started fine, Heated up the water for steeping, stuck it in the mash tun with the crystal malt, left it for 30 mins. Beautiful.

Transferred back into the boiler ready to boil up with the hops. This did not go so well. Had real trouble keeping a rolling boil going for the hour. To the point where it was more often not boiling, than it was. I realised this wasn't ideal, but couldn't see much other option but to just keep going. So I did.

After an hour, emptied into my FV which I had modified last night with a nice tap to make things easier when it comes to bottling. However, I neglected to check I'd got it water tight, so of course it starts dripping. Not massively, but enough to make me quickly grab my spare bucket, sanitise and transfer it into there.

They say trouble comes in 3's, so in keeping with tradition I pitched the yeast too hastily, so the temp was still around 30c.

So, my question is, by not boiling the hops in properly, what have I done? Is this now going to be awful? It smelt and looked OK. And what about the yeast being pitched into too hot a wort?

Massive learning curve tonight. I guess it can only get easier.

Stu