Popped the O-ring in the fermentor

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Guitarmike7495

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Hey guys I recently bought a starters brewing kit and i mixed up my beer to the hydrometer reading and all that. I then put on the lid and started to put in the air lock, I guess that I was pushing the airlock so hard that the O-ring that kept the air tight seal for it fell in. I then tried to fish it out with a sterile spoon and failed so i just sealed it up and created a make shift seal out of duct tape. It works because the air lock is bubbling but do you guys think the O-ring will infect the beer? I did sterilize everything so I dont know.

Thanks so much guys.
 
No, the o-ring will not affect the beer. This happens more times than you know. You will be fine. In the future, have a couple o-rings handy, or some tubing that you can jam in the hole and create a make-shift blowoff tube.
 
I've made my past few batches with kitchen roll stuffed into the gap in the bucket instead of an airlock - hey, it keeps air in and stuff out. They were fine. You ain't got much to worry about - there's a million and one fears of infection, but it's not actually that common as long as you're careful enough.
 
You're now officially a homebrewer. Even one of our Mod's first posts was exactly about this.

In the future, if something goes in, especially sanitized, leave it. You risk more harm trying to fish something out than leaving it.

Look at the mistakes we've all made in here, where everything's turned out fine. Our beer's pretty resilient.
 
Haha okay thanks, also if the beer is infected and I dont notice it what would happen if you drink it?
thanks
 
It would taste a little to a lot off, but would not harm you at all (aside from the harmful effects of alcohol, but that's the kind of harm we like ;)).
 
Yeah, just look for a medicinal sort of taste, you'll be able to tell if it's there. If you don't mind it, you havn't ruined it - hahah.
 
According to the website it's made of 17 varieties of apples and matured for nearly 2 years. I'm guessing the woody flavour comes from oak vats, as that's a pretty common thing in Bulmers/Thatchers etc over here.

It really is commercial crap though mate, it's basically fizzy pop. Try a Thatchers Gold or Katy if you want a really really good cider.
 
Haha the amount of times I have done this! Just remember to look for it when you rack to a bottling bucket so you can pull it out and not ingest it :)
 
Had that happen couple batches ago. Grabbed one off a spare fermentor and its chugging along nicely. Bought a couple spares from the LHBS so spare fermentor could be put to use couple days later. Just got to remember to grab it when I go to keg that batch.
 
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