is my batch doomed?

Novice brewer here. After I cooled my wort and transfered to fermentor and added yeast I put on lid and attached air lock. Then.. ooops. I pressed the airlock too hard and rummer O ring dropped into wort. In panic (really didn't expect that to happen) I transfered wort to bottling bucket to find O ring in bottom of fermentor. Transfered beer back to fermentor and reattched O ring and air lock. Now if my conditions were 'sanitary' enough does my batch stand a chance? there is fermation going on now but I am not sure if I had caused my batch to be doomed?

if things were clean, your beer is fine. don't worry about it.

-walker

Should be fine. Sanitary enough is the key, because the extra O2 from pouring back & forth can only help!

As a number of people can personally attest, you can do far worse to your beer and have it come out fine. It's all a matter of odds sometimes, but it sounds like you'll be just fine.

Next time be sure to "lubricate" your airlock before pushing it in to the grommet.

homebrewer_99 said:

Next time be sure to "lubricate" your airlock before pushing it in to the grommet.

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Obviously a novice mistake. Has this happened to any of you the 'first' time? What to lubricate it with?

fearthechin said:

Obviously a novice mistake. Has this happened to any of you the 'first' time? What to lubricate it with?

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just some plain old water is fine. vodka for the uber-paranoid.

-walker

This one comes up every few weeks. Don't worry. When I did that, also on my first batch, I scrubbed my arm as well as I could, with very hot water and detergent, rinsed it off, and reached right in and felt around until I found that little ring. Others have done more or less the same thing.

I was sure that I had ruined my beer but it turned out fine. Yours most likely will too.

That actually makes me feel a little better steve. I considered sticking my hand in but thought that would be a total No no.

fearthechin said:

That actually makes me feel a little better steve. I considered sticking my hand in but thought that would be a total No no.

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You obviously missed the thread about Cock Ale.

If you can throw a half-cooked rooster into a batch of ale, then your arm is probably no big deal.

-walker

I've done much worse and had things come out fine. Heck I once counted one six pack of clean bottles twice and ended up six short for bottling, so I had to go outside to my recycling bin and grab six more, I didn't have time to properly clean them and just rinsed them with warm water and the beer tasted great when I opened them.

SuperBrew said:

I've done much worse and had things come out fine. Heck I once counted one six pack of clean bottles twice and ended up six short for bottling, so I had to go outside to my recycling bin and grab six more, I didn't have time to properly clean them and just rinsed them with warm water and the beer tasted great when I opened them.

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As much as that made me cringe it does have the effect of reducing my parania around bottling time!

Thanks for all your kind words. The batch turned out fine... now 3 more weeks to drink.

I did the exact same thing on my first batch -- I shoved the airlock down onto the o-ring and it dissapeared into my dark wort. I chose to rinse my arm in bleach and them retrieve the o-ring by hand. Yeast took off fine and no contamination.

Always make sure it is wet, Never slide it in dry!

Beermaker said:

Always make sure it is wet, Never slide it in dry!

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.. and that advise is valuable in more places than just brewing.

Steve Miller..."everything's better when wet..."

I had the same thing happpen my first batch, too. Now what I do is sanitize the gromment and tip of the airlock and install it in the lid before putting the lid on the fermentation bucket. Then I just sanitize the rest of the lid real well. Works fine so far!