What will become of this mess?

Started a Honey Weizen kit from Northern Brewer on 4/25. The first issue I had was about 28 hours later the fermentation went insane. I used a Wyeast 1010 for the first time so I'm not sure if that made the difference. Anyways, wife called me at work to tell me the fermentor was hissing and the airlock is clogged up. I ended up leaving work early to tend to my beer. I pulled the airlock, removed the lid, sanitized and put it all back together.

Everything was fine after that until yesterday when I decided to rack to secondary. I popped the top and the yeast cake was still floating on top. Being the impatient person that I am I decided to continue anyways. While in the process I put about 12oz of sanitizing solution (one-step) into the carboy. I forget that it was in there and started the siphoning process. Didn't remember about the solution until I was about half way siphoning. How bad will one-step affect the taste, or will it make me die?

Ryan

I assume you mean 12 oz of mixed solution, using the usual 1 tablespoon/gallon ratio?

If so, the amount of actual sanitizer in 12 oz is pretty small, and since it is a no-rinse sanitizer, it is safe to get some in your beer. I did a quick google search, and what I read was that one-step works by producing hydrogen peroxide, which will then break down into water and oxygen (so no big deal) and "the only residue is a thin film of minerals that are naturally found in most water supplies."

So it isn't going to kill you. As far as other effects, I seriously doubt the amount of sanitizer in 12 oz is enough to kill the yeast. As far as taste, my guess is someone else is going pop in and say they accidentally added way more to a batch of beer and it tasted fine.

The first yeast to hit the sanitizer probably died but yeast contain enzymes that degrade hydrogen peroxide. So by the time you finished racking I am sure the peroxide was broken down and/or diluted to safe levels. At worse I would imagine you might get oxidation of the beer from the oxygen produced but it will still be safe to drink.

You should probably change your user name.

You left the krausen in the primary when you transferred to the secondary?

Yes. As much gunk as I could avoid siphoning up is now chilling in the weeds behind my house.

betterbeer1 said:

...wife called me at work to tell me the fermentor was hissing and the airlock is clogged up. I ended up leaving work early to tend to my beer. I pulled the airlock, removed the lid, sanitized and put it all back together.

Click to expand...

Time to train the little lady to take care of the small things!

Lol, I tried to get her to put a blanket over the fermentor in case it popped so beer wouldn't go everywhere. She chickened out and ended up just covering her shoes nearby. When I came home her and the cat were in the bedroom with the door closed and tv turned up.