Boyfriend contaminated beer....is it salvageable?

This is my first brew, I'm doing a one gallon batch. I had my boyfriend help me bottle the beer, in which we were using the tube to suction from the pot and bf sucks the sanitizer through the tube with his mouth until the beer comes through (possibly not the greatest technique) and he then spits the sanitizer into my batch of brew, without thinking.

Is there any chance in hell my batch isn't ruined? I bottled it anyway out of sheer desperation. Really just hoping the sanitizer might have cleaned his mouth out enough that all isn't lost.

Let it go three weeks and give it a try people have been making beeer for thousands of years with very little sanitation

Suck start the bottling wand honey!

Wow. You should be ok but only time will tell. Put them in a safe stop for a month.

Also: go buy an autosiphon, wand and bottling bucket

If someone, even my girlfriend spit in my beer, I'd prolly pass. Just saying.

Hahaha. Yes, I'd carb them in a Tupperware box, and drink them quickly. There is alcohol in the beer, which should help, but I wouldn't want to give those bugs too much opportunity to grow up.

Is it salvageable ? The beer or the boyfriend?

JustLooking said:

If someone, even my girlfriend spit in my beer, I'd prolly pass. Just saying.

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I take it you don't kiss her either?

I personally wouldn't worry too much. I wouldn't make a habit out of it, but I would guess it would be safe. I'm sure most of what he spit was sanitizer, not saliva and bits of Cheetos. Assuming it is Star-San, it is a no rinse sanitizer, which will not cause off-flavors, unless you get a ton in there. Also, since it was done, there is alcohol in there to kill nasties too. It may be off, it may not be. You won't know until you know. I would tell anyone drinking it what happened to it beforehand though.

While you are learning from his mistake and waiting for it to carb, buy an auto-siphon.

Dump both of them!

Keep it and put them somewhere that can take a bottle bomb. Once you know it's carbed put ALL of them in the fridge. Should be easy enough to do with only a 1 gallon batch. That's not even a 12 pack.

Plus one on the auto-siphon, and look long and hard at whether the B/F is actual value-added.

leighna said:

This is my first brew, I'm doing a one gallon batch. I had my ex-boyfriend help me bottle the beer, in which we were using the tube to suction from the pot and ex-bf sucks the sanitizer through the tube with his mouth until the beer comes through (possibly not the greatest technique) and he then spits the sanitizer into my batch of brew, without thinking.

Is there any chance in hell my batch isn't ruined? I bottled it anyway out of sheer desperation. Really just hoping the sanitizer might have cleaned his mouth out enough that all isn't lost.

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Fixed it for you

In the future, get a bottling bucket and if you don't have an auto siphon or a three way siphon, fill your siphon up with star san and quickly put it where it needs to go. Siphon where you need to until the star san is pushed out.

It depends entirely on your character. The beer is probably fine but are you the type of person that gets grossed out easily? Because if you are, you will think about it and make the beer taste funny in your head.

Cant imagine why anyone would spit in the beer! unless you have that kind of relationship. Honey heres your soup I just flavored it for you! lol

There's absolutely no way in hell your beer is ruined. There's no way in hell anyone will notice anything about the beer. And there's no way in hell I'd every drink so much as a single sip of that beer.

Your beer is absolutely fine! Toss it all because that's disgusting.

There won't likely be anything wrong with it at all...

While we're on the topic - google Chicha to learn how it is traditionally made. Keep the boyfriend - he was only trying to help with the fermentation process!

Smokeater233 said:

There won't likely be anything wrong with it at all...

While we're on the topic - google Chicha to learn how it is traditionally made. Keep the boyfriend - he was only trying to help with the fermentation process!

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I've made traditional(ish) Chicha maybe that's why it doesn't bother me. But if my wife spit in my food, I really wouldn't care unless it was a big goopy loogie. We swap spit regularly anyway. If it's my spit, I wouldn't care either. It's in my mouth all day. Now, if it's someone else's spit, then it seems gross.

[ame="http://youtu.be/4JzM1NdQDOQ?t=14s"][YOUTUBE]4JzM1NdQDOQ?t=14s[/YOUTUBE][/ame]

I did the exact same thing on my first beer - and it turned out great.
Shhhh. None of my friends know.
I bought an auto-siphon the very next day.

Incidentally, I have tried to replicate that recipe 3 times since then, minus the spit, and it just isn't the same.

I *really* want to comment on his proclivity to spit, but since I'm a mod now, I will refrain.

And in all seriousness, mouth bacteria is one of the worst types that can commonly infect a batch. Chicha is fine because they drink it when it's still fermenting. Normal beer, OTOH will likely turn sour after a while.

My advice is to cross your fingers and drink it fresh.

dump both of them!

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lmfao!

I'm still trying to wrap my head around why he would start the siphon and then spit back into the beer

Either way, we're only talking a gallon here. Drink it up on a friday/saturday night and call it done and done.

You should have asked him why didn't he swallow?

Isn't it usually the girl who... Or am I assuming too much?

Thanks guys, for the info and hilarious replies.

I'm gonna see how the beer turns out. It'll only be me drinking it cos it's gluten free, so I shall determine the grossness of it when it comes to drinking time. Friends won't be sampling it and if boyfriend drinks it, who cares, is his spit anyway.

I shall invest in an auto-siphon ASAP.

as others have said, drink quickly. give it 2 weeks to carbonate in a warm place (ideally 70-75*F), then throw one in the fridge for 24 hours and taste. if it's sufficiently carbonated, put all the bottle in the fridge. if it isn't fully carbed, wait a week and try again.

the standard advice is to wait 3 weeks before trying a beer, but in this case we want to refrigerate the beer as soon as it's ready. sometimes it takes 3 weeks, sometimes it takes only 2... we don't want to give the spit-bugs any longer than we have to to make the beer funky.

auto-siphon is perfect for racking from one vessel to another, for example from your fermenter to a bottling bucket. it isn't the best for filling bottles. for bottling, you really want a bottling bucket and a bottling wand.

welcome to the hobby!