Sanitization

I have a stupid question arising from a stupid mistake. For a blow-off tube I use a siphoning tube and just jam it into my stopper, which has been working fine. Except that today I hadn't checked on my Vanilla Creme Ale (now in day 3 of fermentation) up until about 10 minutes ago, where I found a small splash of beer on the floor and my hose next to it. I resanitized and jammed it back in and am confident it's fine, but it got me thinking. At what point does the yeast in the beer take over enough that other bacteria will be outcompeted and die off? Also, at what point is there enough alcohol to prevent other nasties from growing? If it helps, I washed a full yeast cake of Wyeast Scottish Ale yeast and made a starter with it, so I should have had plenty of viable yeast.

If its only on day three there is so much CO2 coming out of there nothing got in, no worries.

pirate252 said:

If its only on day three there is so much CO2 coming out of there nothing got in, no worries.

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Yeah, after less than a minute of putting the tube back on, it was bubbling. But I was more asking in general at what point it's okay that something like this happens, particularly if you don't make a starter or something. But it's nice to have it confirmed that my beer is safe.

In day 3 of fermentation I think its safe to say that it would be impossible for any nasties to crawl their way up your blowoff when there is so much CO2 being expelled from the yeast.

I'm under the impression that beer can be contaminated at anytime. The alcohol content for most beers is not enough to kill off some bacterial strains.

An active primary ferment is pretty safe. There is a lot of CO2 keeping the bacteria out. The yeast will also keep bacteria at bay, but once the primary ferment finishes, There is still a lot of residual sugar that other critters will thrive on.

Bacteria doesn't seek out targets. It just goes where the drafts, dust, and dirty tools take it.

There are a lot of threads about secondary, and bottling contamination. Most had good beer from the prior step.

Barry