Stupid Stupid move by a Beginner!!!!! HELP

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BeerArchitect54

BeerArchitect54

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So I just racked my first batch of all grain into the secondary.... Here is where I screwed up....

Before starting to drain the beer from the primary to the secondary I forgot to take the blow off tube out of the blow off jug.... It was filled with sanitized water but before I caught it, it sucked about 1/2 of a gallon of water.... Did I really screw up the batch or is it not a huge deal??????

I hope I just didn’t ruin my beer...

Other things to note... Its a cream ale.. I got an original gravity of 1.042 and it just read 1.012.. Is that right??? It was in the primary for 10 days.. It was not blowing off any more...

Thanks....I'm hoping for the best!!!!
 
Probably not! The sanitizer might have been a bit, um, icky, but it might be just fine. If you're feeling brave, go sanitize a turkey baster and pull out a sample and taste it/smell it/look at it and report back to us.
We can probably reassure you if it looks, tastes and smells ok. Drinking 1/2 gallon of sanitizer won't hurt you, but might not taste all that great.
 
.. a half gallon? be sure to report on the taste. *gulp* I'd probably dump it if it were me.. but I don't know, its worth a try.

Cheers, I hope for you the best!
 
I did that already... It was a beer like color... Tasted like really watered down beer.. It had turb at the bottom of the jug.. It also smelled like beer... I know this was a big big huge misytake but will it be ok???? I did have 5 gal. of beer so im figuring that 1/2 a gallong might not have that much of an effect..... What do you think????
 
BeerArchitect54 said:
So I just racked my first batch of all grain into the secondary.... Here is where I screwed up....

Before starting to drain the beer from the primary to the secondary I forgot to take the blow off tube out of the blow off jug.... It was filled with sanitized water but before I caught it, it sucked about 1/2 of a gallon of water.... Did I really screw up the batch or is it not a huge deal??????
Click to expand...

Is the liquid that got sucked back water that you sanitized (by boiling, perhaps?) or a water/sanitizer mixture?
 
If it was Star San, I wouldn't worry. I'd definitely wait it out (and buy another bucket to start your next batch -- you know.. cure for the anxiety and all. Hell-- why not two?). If it didn't taste bad, it's probably fine.

RDWH12HB.
 
It was Star San that was mixed with water... Im thinking that it was only a half gallon of water that went into 5 gal. of water.. I dont think it will effect the taste any.. Im just worried about a possible infection or something....
 
I think it is extremely unlikely that any nasties that could infect your beer would be able to survive very long in a Star San solution, so I wouldn't worry too much about infection.
As for what a 90% beer/10% Star San mixture tastes like, I don't know, but you can (and have) judged for yourself.

-a.
 
Starsan is a sanitizer. The likelihood of a sanitizer holding an infectious contamination and transporting that through your blow-off tube to your beer is highly unlikely. Plus, your beer was done fermenting and therefore has alcohol to kill baddies. Worst case, it may taste slightly watered down.
 
I have a beginners question for you. What kind of fermenter are you using that you can get a racking cane into without removing the blowoff tube from the fermenter.
I am guessing there is a piece of equipment that I don't know about.
 
I did not use a racking cane... What I did was fit a tube to my tap on the primary buckett and ran it into the secondary bucket so I could leave the turb behind... Worked great except for the blowoff water I sucked back in because im an idiot!!!!! Im really worried about the beer... Do you think it is going to be alright???
 
BeerArchitect54 said:
I did not use a racking cane... What I did was fit a tube to my tap on the primary buckett and ran it into the secondary bucket so I could leave the turb behind... Worked great except for the blowoff water I sucked back in because im an idiot!!!!! Im really worried about the beer... Do you think it is going to be alright???
Click to expand...

It won't be harmful. It just might not taste very good.
 
For one thing, you're not idiot. This hobby is full of lessons learned.

What's done is done. Bottle it and try it.
 
You are absolutly right about the lessons learned thing... I had a few screw ups in this first batch... I brewed the cream ale for a reason... It was cheap and I figured if I screwed it up I would only be out 18 bucks.... I took a sample from the secondary this morning and it tasted fine... Like a flat beer.. Maybe a bit watered down, but im used to darker fuller beers with more flavor like brown ales, IPAs, and stuff like that... Im not a big light beer drinker so... I dont know why im so down on myself I guess I just really wanted this first batch to work out!!!
 
BeerArchitect54 said:
Has anyone else ever done something like this that can add to this conversation???
Click to expand...

No you are alone, well besides the other 95% of us on this board who have done something at least this "bad" and had our beer turn out fine. You'r beer will not be infected. It was sanitizing solution that went into your beer.
 
I did basically the same thing, though I just had an airlock on top of my bucket instead of a blowoff tube. I knew something was going wrong when I heard all sorts of action happening in the airlock when I started transferring through the spigot into my secondary! Since it was just the airlock, I didn't get much (if anything) pulled back into my wort, and it tastes fine!
 
BeerArchitect54 said:
So I just racked my first batch of all grain into the secondary.... Here is where I screwed up....

Before starting to drain the beer from the primary to the secondary I forgot to take the blow off tube out of the blow off jug.... It was filled with sanitized water but before I caught it, it sucked about 1/2 of a gallon of water.... Did I really screw up the batch or is it not a huge deal??????

I hope I just didn’t ruin my beer...

Other things to note... Its a cream ale.. I got an original gravity of 1.042 and it just read 1.012.. Is that right??? It was in the primary for 10 days.. It was not blowing off any more...

Thanks....I'm hoping for the best!!!!
Click to expand...


No joke. I've read this 12 times and still can't figure out how you managed to do what seems impossible to me. I'll start reading and figure it out.
 
BeerArchitect54 said:
I did not use a racking cane... What I did was fit a tube to my tap on the primary buckett and ran it into the secondary bucket so I could leave the turb behind... Worked great except for the blowoff water I sucked back in because im an idiot!!!!! Im really worried about the beer... Do you think it is going to be alright???
Click to expand...

There is the answer I was looking for.

I have spigot's on my bottling bucket and on my kegs... but not on my fermenters. I guess I'm safe.
 

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