Did I ruin it???

I was putting the airlock on the primary bucket and the rubber was pushed through into the wort, I quickly reached in and grabbed it, it was at the bottom, and replaced it and sealed the lid and put the airlock back on not pushing so hard this time. The question is is this contamination cause for concern?

You're probably fine, but in the future make sure you clean, rinse, and sanitize your arm (or anything else) before sticking it into the beer.

Thanks, My arm's still sticky! At least I feel better, Better have a nother Brew!

Long Live Liver said:

I was putting the airlock on the primary bucket and the rubber was pushed through into the wort, I quickly reached in and grabbed it, it was at the bottom, and replaced it and sealed the lid and put the airlock back on not pushing so hard this time. The question is is this contamination cause for concern?

Click to expand...

Any time your beer comes in contact with anything unsanitized then you are risking contamination. It is not uncommon for a lot of us to accidentally push the stopper into the wort. However, the correct thing to do is either fish it out with a sanitized tool (coat hanger) or just leave it in and replaced with another sanitized one. Just keep an eye on it for any signs of contamination and hope for the best.

I bet if you took a poll, you would find that a quarter to a half of the folks here did the exact same thing in their first batch. It is a mistake you don't make twice. I scrubbed my arm with detergent and rinsed with the hottest tap water, then did as you did - reached in and retrieved.

Another solution that I was told about afterwards is to forget it, leave it there, but have an extra gasket ready.

Did the Beer turn out O.K.?

Well sure!

It was my second batch

Turned out fine

The thing that gets me about scenarios like this is paranoia that any little flavor was caused by the "mishap". I had rigged something to hold my floating thermometer verticle in the wort using a pair of rubber coated tweezers for pulling memory chips in computers. It was working great until I hit the thermometer and sent the tweezers in. It took me a good minute mid-boil to get them out with a sanitized untencil. Most everybody said the beer was good, but I couldn't get past the idea, in my head or not that it tasted of rubber.

I dropped my stopper into my primary earlier this week when taking a sample. The opening is far too narrow for me to reach inside and grab it, so I just left it. And since I didn't have another stopper to replace it, I just used a clean dishcloth. I've since racked to secondary and tasted, and it tastes just fine. Haven't quite figured out how to get the stopper back out yet...

I dropped my hydrometer into my primary when I was trying to pull a sample. Shoulda just laid that sucker on the counter, but no....I just HAD to put it in my shirt pocket. Made taking a gravity check simple . I'm pretty sure I had just washed and sterilized everything so I'm not worried about it.

It's kinda convenient having a 7wk old in the house since we now sanitize EVERYTHING. Is it weird to have one side of the sink full of Clorox and water at least 3 days a week??

My brew buddy seems to have a heavy hand with stoppers, as he's done this to three batches in a row. However, I really don't understand how so many people can manage to get their hands into their carboys.........