Infection risk? or I am just worrying?

OK guys, so I brewed an extract IPA on March 17th ( a fitting way to spend st. pats if I ever heard one). MY OG was spot on at 1.054. Tonight, I came home from work and decided to take a gravity reading. I am 9 days into my fermentation an am sitting right at 1.020. I took a sip from my hydrometer jar and was pleasntly surprised that it tasted like beer. I am going to leave it sit for a few more days. I will check the SG again once I reach the 14 day mark. I wont even think about bottling until i reach the proper SG reading as directed by the kit directions.

So as I was moving my fermentation bucket back into the closet, I must have depressed the lid a bit and as I released it, I watched in horror as the airlock sucked in a tiny bit of water. I am using a 3 piece airlock filled with water. I am guessing maybe a fraction of an ounce made it into my bucket...I know my fermentation is well under way and I am hoping the current environment is not infection friendly......Should I be overly worried about this mishap causing an infection, or am I just freaking out over nothing?.....Perhaps I just need a drink.

+1 on just grabbing a drink. The beer will be fine. You could try vodka, or some Star San sanitizer in the airlock next time. That way you don't have to worry about that.

FYI Sounds like the fermentation has went well. The 1.020 seems to be a terminal gravity for a lot of extract batches. I think it's just the nature of extract.

BREWECU said:

Perhaps I just need a drink.

Click to expand...

look you've solved your problem all on your own!

fill it with star san next time and you won't have to even think twice if some gets sucked in.

but you should still grab a drink when it happens...

I always use a cheap vodka just for this reason, because when I fiddle with my airlock, its inevitable that 50% of the time I'll get some liquid overflow into the beer. I've had this happen several times with Vodka and can't taste any difference in the beer. However... my experience with most tap water is alright too as I've never had any problems when tap water made its way into my beer (accidental addition of 1 oz. tap water from rinsing procedures during bottling) and I'd consider my water supply to be moderate in quality.