Cold Crash Mishap

Hey guys,
I cold crashed an oatmeal brown ale with the blowoff tube still attached after 3 weeks. The cold crash created a vacuum and some of the water got into the fermenter. Am I screwed? Bottle it now? Wait?

will the alcohol stave off infection?

Was the blowoff tube in a bucket of sterilized water?

I'm sure you are fine. Next time, boil that water and sanitize the bucket/pot the blow off goes in to...

It wasn't sterilized water. Usually I do star san, but I just did water this time for some stupid reason. It's been over three weeks now, so I'm hoping that there's enough alcohol to fight anything that found its way in.

Next time you cold crash, put a S type airlock on. It will just bubble in reverse.

I wasn't even thinking vacuum when I cold crashed. Live and learn. I hope this still turns out okay. The sample from the hydrometer this weekend was very good.

MacGruber said:

I wasn't even thinking vacuum when I cold crashed. Live and learn. I hope this still turns out okay. The sample from the hydrometer this weekend was very good.

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Thanks for screwing up for me. I'm doing my first cold crash now and will be sure to use a S type air lock with star san.

mr_tripp said:

Thanks for screwing up for me. I'm doing my first cold crash now and will be sure to use a S type air lock with star san.

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Yeah. That's what we do !

FWIW, I don't use any airlock when cold crashing. I just cap the carboy or use a plain stopper for buckets. A slight vacuum forms, but does not seem to do any harm to the beer that I can detect. The "S" type air locks allow oxygen to enter the fermenter which can't be a good thing at that stage.

a little tip for cold conditioning.. I always put in the bubbler then use vodka as the liquid. if the vodka gets sucked in, there is no big deal.
cheap vodka also makes a great quick sanitizer when taking a quick sample or whatever.

I usually use vodka too when I replace the blowoff tube with a 3 piece airlock. I just totally screwed up this time. I wanted to just leave the blowoff tube on and not expose any oxygen to the beer. The result was a few drops of the water from my catch bucket sneaking into the finished beer.

You're welcome for the screw up tripp. Seriously, it is what we do here. I've learned so much from others' mistakes.