ru41285

Recipes 

So I made a dunkleweizen yesterday. Everything went swimmingly until this morning when I checked on the brew. I had affixed a blow off tube going into a growler of water. This morning it appeared that some water was creeping up the tube (about 3inches worth) so I, for some reason, lifted the tube to let it out. A couple drips came out before it suddenly shot backward, through the tube into the wort (it hadn't started fermenting yet). I never saw it coming.

Should I start kicking myself or will it more than likely be okay? I know I won't officially know till it ferments but just thought I would poll the community. For what its worth, the growler was a fairly clean growler. Recently had some brew in it, rinsed out and hung out in my kitchen.

Thanks in advance.

smiller

Recipes 

Was it a Star San or other sanitizer solution in the growler, or just water? If not, just do that in the future and you'll save yourself some headache. You're right, you won't know until you taste it (or there are obvious signs in the krausen), but using a sanitized blow-off vessel filled with sanitizer is the safest bet.

Edit: But yes, for now rdwhahb!

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Bottled: Downdraught Imperial Stout, Barrel-Aged Residence Time Barleywine, Sea Smoke Porter

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Jeepaholic

Recipes 

Yep just relax. If it was plain tap water there is a chance that bugs could have gotten in. but a strong fermentation should be able to stop them before they get a foot hold. That's why i always use starsan solution in my blow off jug. that way if it gets sucked back in there's no worries at all.

ru41285

Recipes 

Just water. I never planned on having it defy gravity into the wort. The blow off tube and airlock it passed through were fully sanitized.

ru41285

Recipes 

And I have star san lying around too, I just didn't bother. Oh well, lesson learned. It's the wyeast hefe yeast so.it should kick in soon and go bananas. Hopefully that'll protect everything.

homebrewhaha

Recipes 

Your title says it all.

The water was sucked into the fermentor because the wort had decreased in temperature. When you lifted the blowoff tube out of the water, the pressure created by the tube being submerged in the growler was probably lost, causing the suck-back effect.

A lot of people worry about their airlock water getting sucked into the fermentor, and it's usually after cold crashing. In most cases everything works out fine in those situations.

One thing you might want to check is to make sure your fermentor is in a warm enough place (appropriate range for your yeast). What temp did you pitch your yeast at? What is the temp in the room where you're fermenting? Does your fermentor have one of those temp stickers on it?

Good luck!

ETA:
Did someone say bananas?