Awe sh#t!!!!

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woollybugger2

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okay, things were moving along smoothly until I turned on the water for the immersion chiller. At first I thought that the outlet hose had whipped around and hit and stuck to the burner, when I pulled it free I realized that it was the inflow and was melted in half. It sprayed into the hot work (i'm not too worried about that) I Cut it off and turned the water off and reattached the shortened hose and finished up. Other than slicing my finger no major problem..

However when I poured the wort into the bucket I noticed that in the dregs there were some small black pellets. Then I realized that the bottom of my thermometer was broken! Yikes, although some were retained in the pot I'm sure that there are some in the bucket too.

Are they safe? or made out of lead? Arggggggg!!!!!!
 
woollybugger2 said:
okay, things were moving along smoothly until I turned on the water for the immersion chiller. At first I thought that the outlet hose had whipped around and hit and stuck to the burner, when I pulled it free I realized that it was the inflow and was melted in half. It sprayed into the hot work (i'm not too worried about that) I Cut it off and turned the water off and reattached the shortened hose and finished up. Other than slicing my finger no major problem..

However when I poured the wort into the bucket I noticed that in the dregs there were some small black pellets. Then I realized that the bottom of my thermometer was broken! Yikes, although some were retained in the pot I'm sure that there are some in the bucket too.

Are they safe? or made out of lead? Arggggggg!!!!!!
Click to expand...

What kind of thermometer ? A traditional thermometer contains mercury and is most definitely not safe. Worse than lead!
 
if you mean a floating thermometer like this:
VC116582.jpg


then, yes; those little pellets are lead.
 
ericm said:
if you mean a floating thermometer like this:
VC116582.jpg


then, yes; those little pellets are lead.
Click to expand...

If it's like the thermometer above you may be able to filter out the lead pellets but you need to check if the inner mercury tube is still intact.
 
Diablo said:
If it's like the thermometer above you may be able to filter out the lead pellets but you need to check if the inner mercury tube is still intact.
Click to expand...
most cheap thermometers these days use alcohol or something along those lines in the tube instead of mercury. (if the liquid that expands with increasing temperature is red, it's not mercury; if it's silver it probably is)
 
the tube is intact and the red liquid it alcohol, mercury has not been used in thermometers for quite some time, with the exception of scientific instruments....
 
ericm said:
most cheap thermometers these days use alcohol or something along those lines in the tube instead of mercury. (if the liquid that expands with increasing temperature is red, it's not mercury; if it's silver it probably is)
Click to expand...

So if it's red it may actually improve your brew :)
 
since they crack and shatter when squeezed in pincers, as opposed to squish, I'm going to assume that they are something other than lead....
 
I'd rack off to another fermenter to get it off the beads. That amount of lead won't be any problem, the yeast will precipitate it out when they flocculate since they'll absorb it., but I wouldn't leave it on the beads by choice. Also if they are steel beads you don't want them rusting in your wort.
 
I looked up some info on other forums

shekes
12-06-2005, 12:51 PM
i tried a magnet off my fridge. and it worked!

so then i thought, lead can be magnetized????
No, it can't. They must be iron balls. The "lead" is iron and the "mercury" is dyied alcohol. Just forget about the whole incident. You could've left the balls in the tank. I told you. And the WC was unnecessary too. Peolple who manufacture these thermometers aren't complete idiots you know.
And the glass should be OK in a couple of weeks as well.
Relax! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Are they magnetic? If not they still might be bismuth. I think your brew will be fine.
 
We need a Mythbusters sticky for threads like this. :drunk:

The floating thermometers sold by LHBS are food safe, they are steel beads and alcohol. They will not poison you. If they did they wouldn't be sold by LHBS!

They break all the time which is why I don't use them anymore, if you so much as sneeze they will break...
 
they are magnetic, and it transfered the wort into another primary leaving about .3 gallons of trub behind... just pitched the yeast... RDWHAHB...


AHS said that there is no way there should be any lead that could possibly come in contact with food, so a food grade floating thermometer shouldn't be a worry. as for the "glue" that holds the balls in place? Wax!

chillin'
 
I've had the "wax" melt in my floating thermometers, pretty crappy stuff. Maybe it is a highish temp wax, not high enough for whatever I was measuring though (I think I was making candi sugar)
 
springer said:
they told you it was wax? seems hard to believe since wax has a low melting point. Much lower than water boiling temp.
Click to expand...

Yep the wax melted when I tested them to see if they were accurate at 212*F. It seems to melt around 160*F. I ended up with red crap on the scale when I heated my sparge water!

I use a ThermoWorks digital now. They are worth the $$$...
 
I have read enough of these broken thermo stories to never use one. I know the clip on metal ones are only accurate to about +- 10 degrees, the the digital ones work really well and are only like $15. I just do not understand why people keep using them?
 
I think people are not concerned about the glass since we know it is non-toxic and it settles out rather quick. He also transferred to a new fermenter so that left behind the glass and the beads. When he transfers to keg/bottling bucket anything that made it in the transfer( very very unlikely) will be left behind in the yeast trub.
 
I'm one of the ones that did this before and posted a question about it here. I did all the research and as you have figured out already, no mercury no lead. I always strain my wort so no pellets or glass made it into my fermenter as far as I could tell. I just went on about my business. It was a kolsch I was making and it turned out well. I'm drinking it like crazy. I'm still alive too.

Dennis
 
Thanks Dennis...

It's fermenting like crazy now... just a little short in volume due to the extra pour into the second bucket, which could turn out to be a good thing ;)

I just sniffed the blow off RDWHAHB -- well actually I'm going to try my first bottle of Apfelwein for lunch :tank:
 

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