InityBrew

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Last night I notice two dead fruit flies in my airlock. I immediately removed the airlock, covered the bung hole with sanitized foil, and washed the airlock out in the sink with hot water. I then stuck the airlock into the clean keg filled with recently mixed starSan for a couple of minutes. Also note.. this is the keg that I plan on racking the beer into today.

My question is.. should I A) reclean the keg completely with PBW knowing that I didn't sterilize the airlock before throwing into the keg filled with starsan, or B) should I relax and rack into the keg as planned today and just sanitize it again.

Please advise.. I lost sleep over this.

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Haus Of Kane

TopherM

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Here's what I just posted to someone else:

It is HARRRRD to contaminate beer.

Remember that label on hand sanatizer that says it kills 99.99% of all germs and human pathogens? Guess what's the active ingredient in most hand sanatizers? Ethanol. Guess what yeast pump into your beer? Ethanol.

A 1.6% ABV solution will kill just about anything that can ruin your beer besides wild yeasts and some bacteria like lacto and brett that are perfectly fine to drink, even though they won't taste very good unless you control them.

Here's a short list of things that a 2% ABV beer would kill pretty easily. You could literally toss these in the wort (at some reasonable volume), and the beer would turn out just fine:

HIV
Sars
Flesh Eating Virus
Malaria
Bird Flu
Cholera
Hepatitis A through Z
Measles
Meningitis
Tuberculosis
Typhoid Fever
Herpes

Notice that "two fruit flies" could easily sneak onto that list.

In fact, saison/farmhouse beer in France was basically developed so that people could drink water that was contaminated with all sorts of nastiness, at the time of the black plague. They figured out that making about a 2% beer would make it potable. Beer (or alcohol at least), literally saved humankind throughout history.

Interestingly, the one thing that will jack you up that alcohol DOESN'T kill is ringworm (which is a fungus). As long as your fruitflies didn't have ringworm, you're good.

RDWHAHB!!

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Primary #1 - Summer Hopped Hefeweizen
Primary #2 - EMPTY!
Primary #3 - EMPTY!
Secondary #1 - Downtown Flanders Brown (Due June 2013)
Secondary #2 - Pinot Noir Wine (Due December 2013)
Keg #1 - Bavarian Pilsner Ale
Keg #2 - Hard Cider (Spring SeaCider)
Keg #3 - Centennial Blonde
Bottled - NONE!

gcdowd

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HIV beer? Oh boy...

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God invented whiskey to keep the Irish from ruling the world.

xmacro

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To be fair, most if not all the diseases you listed are aquatic viruses; they die as soon as they come in contact with air

unionrdr

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Everything works if ya let it-Roady(meatloaf)

InityBrew

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Or C) i am insane...

Anyhow, I was thinking acetobacter from them.. but I guess at this point in a 6% ABV it is not possible?

Also, would properly diluted starsan kill the acetobacter on a fruit fly it it was carrying it?

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Haus Of Kane

unionrdr

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Everything works if ya let it-Roady(meatloaf)

dgrums

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Using vodka or the like in your airlock may give you some peace of mind. Anything that creeps in there is instantly killed

unionrdr

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Everything works if ya let it-Roady(meatloaf)

BamaRooster

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+1 on the vodka.....I buy the really cheap stuff

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wait....what do you mean all the beer is gone!