Washer drops in the Wort.....Should I dump?

This is my very first batch. I boiled a gllon of water, mixe in the sugar, can of cooper's, all that stuff. A day later, I had to move the seven gallon bucket and the ferment lock came off. I sanitized the pieces and, as I was fitting it backinto the hole in the lid, the washer fell in the batch! I went in with a strainer to find the thing, no luck. It is now sitting in my closet with a new washer around the carboy, but that freaking little washer is in the batch. I assumed I should dump it, but I have yet to see a scenario where it has been recommended. that being said, SHOULD I DUMP THIS BATCH?

Washer? Do you mean the drilled stopper? If so, it sounds like you sanitized it before it fell it, so just leave it until you rack. Won't be a problem.

Don't worry, the grommet will still be in there when fermentation is finished, it wont affect the beer at all. It has happened to plenty of homebrewers. I do hope you steralized the strainer before you used it?

My goodness no! Never dump a batch unless it's obviously contaminated or tastes like s**t. Even if it tastes "off" give it some time, that usually smooths it out. You'll be fine.

I've done this a few times...No problem. Your beer will come out fine..

I've sent many a drilled stopper to Davy Jones' beer locker. Never caused a problem with the beer. No worries.

If you sanitize your airlocks and stoppers and stuff like you should, I would think that anything you do to try to "rescue" something that falls in would contaminate your wort or must worse than what you're trying to fish out of there.

A few weeks ago I had a 4" piece of tubing fall off my bottling spigot into the bottle - I decided it was more risk to try getting it out than to just leave it in. I had forgotten about it until yesterday, when I was pouring a pint and something came out of the bottle. No worse for the wear and the beer was fine too.

The more you brew, you will find that it is very hard to ruin your beer.

RDWHAHB!

I know it's hard, but just forgot about the washer/grommet. The more you mess with it the more chance you have of getting an infection. In other words, avoid your urge to try to fish the thing out again. Just let it go, and your beer will be fine. I've done way dumber things than dropping a washer into my beer, and it has turned out fine.

That is a comforting thing to hear.

I once dropped "the Joy of HomeBrewing" in the beer just prior to bottling. It was under one edge of the carboy to angle it and I forgot about it when I moved the carboy after transfer. Plop, into the bottling bucket.
No problems with that batch.
I dropped several small implements into the unfermented wort as well as several other violations of good sanitary practice.
Sanitation is still important, but you just can't sweat the occasional slip-up.

Well, the first batch of homebrew I made was a saison I called "Bras D'Or", or "Golden Arm."

Want to guess why?

The rubber grommet fell in just as happened to you. Not knowing what to do, and not knowing any better, I washed and sanitized my hand and arm...and reached in. I found the grommet, and the beer turned out so well that I am fully addicted to homebrewing.

Now, that was during primary fermentation, and it was a warm fermentation with a particularly voracious saison yeast (Wyeast 3711), so perhaps not for every one.

I have since resisted the temptation to dunk my arm in every batch I brew, but should you decide to go fishing, you won't have been the first.

Germey said:

I once dropped "the Joy of HomeBrewing" in the beer just prior to bottling. It was under one edge of the carboy to angle it and I forgot about it when I moved the carboy after transfer. Plop, into the bottling bucket.
No problems with that batch.
I dropped several small implements into the unfermented wort as well as several other violations of good sanitary practice.
Sanitation is still important, but you just can't sweat the occasional slip-up.

Click to expand...

Nice! That exact thing happened to me.. Using "the joy" to prop my carboy up, because it's about the perfect height.. Dropped it in the bottling bucket and everything.. Funny stuff