fermentation vessel cap's seal fell in!! Need some help.

So I'm brewing my first homebrew...

Everything went very well (boil, cooling the wort, adding to water in the primary fermentor, pitching the yeast) until the very end. The rubber seal on the fermentor's lid fell in when i attached the airlock. Hindsight says i should have attached it before putting the lid on...but oh well. So the seal fell into the wort.

First attempt at a solution = sanitized my spoon and tried to fish it out. As you can imagine, this did not work.

I finally decided to sanitize both my carboy and siphon and transferred the wort from the bucket to the carboy. Now it's sitting ready to ferment.

So I need some guidance. Does my solution make sense? Did i ruin my beer (i know i know RDWHAHB)? Should i transfer it back to the bucket for the secondary fermentation?

Thanks for you help

You did fine, relax... many beers dont NEED to secondary, I almost never secondary mine unless they are 1.060 OG or higher (read longer ferment). I have done about 30 AG brews and almost never secondary my beers. Generally people do not secondary in plastic, because it tends to be in that vessel longer and some fear plastic is not as impervious to O2 as glass.

I guess you could, but if you have enough head space in the carboy that it won't foam over too bad I'd be inclined at this point to just let it ferment in the carboy for 3 weeks and skip the secondary for this batch. I don't really like a bucket as a secondary vessel. It will work, I just like to be able to check clarity in the secondary and that's harder to do in a bucket.

If you don't have a gallon or so headspace in the carboy, be sure to attach a blowoff tube instead of an airlock for the first few days.

Believe it or not, that is exactly what my first post here was about! I left the little rubber thing in the bucket with the wort, and just stuck the airlock through the hole and duct-taped it down. I went out and bought another rubber grommet, and it never happened again!

I also learned to put the airlock on the lid, then the lid on the bucket. I sound like Rain Man muttering to myself "Airlock on the lid, then lid on the bucket" over and over to remind myself to do just that on brewday.

I would have just left the wort in the primary. Since you already transferred it, though, it'll be fine. I wouldn't recommend using the bucket for secondary- so just leave it in the carboy for about 2-3 weeks, and then bottle it.

Edit- OR if fermentation hasn't started yet, and you're really wanting to use a secondary container on this batch, sanitize the bucket and pour the wort from the carboy back into the bucket. It really doesn't matter, though.

Those bucket lid grommets are crap.

Mine is split in the middle, but I still have a good seal. I ordered two extra grommets with my last batch of gear.

Ocal83 said:

Now it's sitting ready to ferment.

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So wait a minute here. Have you not pitched the yeast yet? If so you really should soon. The longer it sits cool the longer wild organisms will have to start populating. If I misunderstood sorry, just wanted to throw that out there first.

Now, other than that you are fine. If it is a 5 gallon carboy you may need a blow-off tube if it is a full 5 gallons of wort in there. Let it ferment in there. Leave it in there for 2-3 weeks then bottle. It will be fine.

My very first batch of beer I pushed the stopper too hard and it fell into the carboy! It was the only stopper I had so I fished it out. :cross: Needless to say I was not very attuned to importance of sanitation! Nevertheless my porter came out great (least it seemed so to me at the time).

On another occasion it happened to me again. I left the stopper in there and put another one on. No problems except the stopper when I finally got it out was stained the color of the wort. No perceptible off-flavors like rubber detected.

It will be fine.

Thanks for all your replies. I have to say everyone is very positive and makes this a very addicting hobby.

Now onto my beer:
I didn't have a blowoff setup so i attached the bung with the airlock. 5 hours later, when i woke up to let my dog out, the wort had foamed completely through the airlock. Really didn't think the fermentation was going to start this quickly. I thought I would have the next morning to go out and get the blowoff setup. Anyways, I resanitized the original bucket, lid, and airlock. I also attached the rubber seal i had fished out after transferring. Transferred the beer back to the bucket, attaching the airlock Before putting the lid on. Now its sitting in the original bucket bubbling away.

Trying not to let the "Newbie" mistakes get me down. After all, how can you get too stressed out when your making beer!

Ocal83 said:

Trying not to let the "Newbie" mistakes get me down. After all, how can you get too stressed out when your making beer!

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I like you!
Now that you have been initiated into the grommet club and homebrewing, please stick around and join the obsessive fun with the rest of us.

I almost did the very same thing on my first batch. You probably figured this out on the second attempt, but in case you didn't...... twist the airlock a little bit while pushing down. It helps to not push the grommet down for me at least.

When I used a bucket... Id lick the stem of the airlock to get it to slide into the orifice.....

Welcome to the club, you're officially a homebrewer now!!!!

Actually many of HBT most illustrious members (yooper) got their start on here with such an "I dropped my grommet, is my beer ruined" thread.

YooperBrew said:

. I sound like Rain Man muttering to myself "Airlock on the lid, then lid on the bucket" over and over to remind myself to do just that on brewday.

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Thank you for that "Rainman" mental image. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.!!!

How did nobody mention the "Hand in the beer" dilemma?

Laughing_Gnome said:

Thank you for that "Rainman" mental image. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.!!!

How did nobody mention the "Hand in the beer" dilemma?

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Forget that, how'd anybody miss The Pol saying he licked the stem before sliding it into the orifice? :rockin:

I had an uncooperative grommet on my last brew. Just rode it out and fished it out of the yeast cake at racking time. Surprisingly I grabbed that sucker on the first dive.

Losing the grommet seems to be an initiation.

Shecky... I dunno... odd isnt it? Perhaps licking stems and orifices isnt very odd on this forum... hrmmmmmm.