Urgent help needed! Have I ruined my brew!!!

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Adam's Apples

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Ok, brew day was going so well, until I f**ked up big time, I think!

I was supposed to add some brewing salts (added to increase the calcium level of my mash water) to the grist in my mash tun, but added 7 grams (0.25oz) of my cleaning powder - TSP (tri-sodium phosphate solution) - instead.

Will this kill my beer! As I'm boiling the wort anyway, will this be ok, or should I ditch it!

Please help.

Cheers
 
Well, unfortunately the TSP isn't going to boil away and it's going to raise the pH of your mash, so I don't how that's going to affect it. At the very least, it'll probably taste a bit soapy. Sorry to hear about that.
 
Man, I don't know. Pull a sample and see if it's noticeable.

I'm seeing a trend here with people putting the wrong stuff in their brews these days. A few ziplock baggies and a Sharpie™ ahead of time would probably help avoid these mistakes. Review your recipe well before cracking open any beer for yourself. Have your ingredients pre-measured and marked with both contents and times for additions. Lay these ingredients out in order that they are to be used. Have a copy of your brew instructions printed out and at hand while you brew. Don't get too trashed before you pitch.

( Not trying to insinuate the OP is/was trashed here, just saying...)
 
Has anyone checked the TSP container...isn't TSP poisonous if ingested???

It won't kill you, if that's what you mean. It'll be varying degrees of unpleasant, depending on how much you ingest, but it won't kill you, especially at only 7 grams in 5 gallons.
 
Sounds like pulling a sample is a bad idea...
I stand corrected. I didn't say to swallow though.
Sorry about your brew, and I stand by the rest of the advice.
 
I vote for dumping it...it ain't worth it...

and for god sakes switch to a cleaner like oxyclean or something like pbw that is meant to be used around food preparation....

It's the 21st century, we don't need to use such oldschool stuff anymore when there are plenty of products that we know is safe to use.
 
I'm with the other users here. Sadly, you should write this one off as a bad experience and not continue further. Switch to something made to be used around food prep. Why take the chance?
Accidents happen. You shouldn't have to pay long-term, don't let this batch go any further.
I lay out my ingredients/steps side-by-side in the order of which they get used (for additions, etc) -and pre-measure and put in zip-locks (with labels) everything that gets pitched. It makes for a much nicer brewday experience (I pre-measure and ziplock before brewday -as brewday is always much to busy to clutter up further with this kind of thing) -then I set the pot(s) on the burner (s), pull a big stein full of my favorite draft, and set to brewing.
 
I lay out my ingredients/steps side-by-side in the order of which they get used (for additions, etc) -and pre-measure and put in zip-locks (with labels) everything that gets pitched. It makes for a much nicer brewday experience (I pre-measure and ziplock before brewday -as brewday is always much to busy to clutter up further with this kind of thing) -then I set the pot(s) on the burner (s), pull a big stein full of my favorite draft, and set to brewing.

It sounds like you have the perfect solution for druken brewing...pre laying everything out...

:mug:
 
Yikes! This is one of the few times I'll say:

DUMP IT NOW. DO NOT PASS GO; DO NOT COLLECT $200.

In fact, do not collect anything other than a ding on the ear. That's not just an "Oops" stunt - that's something that could make you or someone you love very ill indeed. What might have happened if you failed to notice the mistake? A fascinating modern, very organic tribute to a Jackson Pollock painting on the floor at the very least.

Like ma2brew wrote, pre-stage everything and mark it well before you put anything into your brewhouse. Let this painful blow to your wallet and ego be a lesson to you, young Padawan. Thank Ninkasi it went no further than this.

If I seem to be overreacting, rest assured I am decidedly not. There are terribly Darwinian things in breweries - chemicals, carbon dioxide and flammable gasses, glass. Carbon dioxide nearly killed me once. If my being a bit mean translates to preventing one of the soft brains being culled from the herd, I can live with that.

Now learn from this, go forth and conquer!

Bob
 
Let's take a breath before dumping....

if this is PURE trisodium phosphate, it's just the most basic salt form of phosphoric acid. The other less basic salt forms are monosodium and disodium phosphate, used in pH5.2 buffer. Phosphoric acid is the sanitizer in StarSan. It's a strong base and doesn't like to stay as phosphate in water, it wants to take protons from water and become a less basic form, raising the pH in the process.

All the other forms of phosphate salts are beneficial to yeast growthSo the phosphate in itself isn't going to do you harm, it's the change in pH. Lots of TSP in water will make a very basic solution, pH of 12 or so. A little tsp will not have a huge effect. Check the pH, if it's out of the 5.1-5.5 range, add a little acid or gypsum to lower it.

7.5g of TSP in 5 gallons of wort is a 2mM solution, I doubt it affected your pH at all.

If there is something else in the box as a filler, then you may want to pitch it for that reason.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. I have tossed the mash and written this off as a bad brew day.

I took a drive to my LHBS, which I have never found closed before, and it was closed. So much bad luck today makdes me feel like the brew Gods have conspired against me :(

After work tomorrow I have to go to the dentist and then to my wedding rehearsal, so it's gonna be a couple of days before I can re-do this. I've bought some commercial beers and I'm gonna drown my sorrows tonight.

Cheers
 
well I'll hoist one up in your honor, good luck on the wedding, and one day you will look back on this as nothing but another memory to be chatted about over hefty mugs of homebrew -we've all been there (or will be) .
I recall a brewday from hell where everything seemed to go wrong -in fact, I was so glad to finally pitch my yeast, and was so exhausted, I left the 'cleanup' until morning and went straight to bed (bad idea -SWMBO was more than a little P.O.ed in the AM and some of that stuff required a bit more effort to clean than it would have if I'd followed standard procedure and just cleaned it then).
Long story short, it actually turned into one of my best beers.
You just never know.
 
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