Rookie Mistake.....

So, I brew a Brown ale... a Newcastle Clone.
I do everything like usual... alll is going well. I pitch the yeast, and put one of my corks on the primary so I can shake the hell out of it... So far... so good.

I go to put the airlock in (you know where this is going) I think eh, why not try to just shove the airlock in the whole while the cork is on the jug??? (******* move!!!)

Regardless, I now have a cork at the bottom of the primary. I will be racking to the secondary this friday.... How the hell am I suppose to get the cork out of the 6.5 gallon glass Carboy.

ANy suggestions are greatly appreciated. The cork was sanitized so hopefully it didn't do any harm to the beer... and I doubt it will give a rubber flavor (but I don't know.. will it?). Well anyways, any help would be great.

Dang, that's a bummer. These sorts of things happen to any of us, and the mark of a good homebrewer is not not making mistakes, but being able to push on and finish off the brew, improvising if necessary, and most importantly, not worrying too much If it were possible to make a device that you could insert through the hole in the bung, and have it open up to a T after it gets through, you might be able to pull it out. Something like those spring loaded hanger things that you use for drywall ceilings, but smaller. I dunno. You might be able to loop some string around it, but that would be super tricky. Probably the easiest thing to do would be to use some sort of small blade and cut the thing into peices so it can fit through the opening. The bungs aren't that expensive, and if it means spending all afternoon poking at your carboy to save 50 cents, I would just buy a new one. Good luck!

Use a bent wire coat hanger and pull it back out. Be sure to lace the wire through the narrow end first. This way the large end will be pulled through last (just like how it was originally done).

i was able to fish one out with a butter knife... i had to hold the carboy upside down so the bung rolled down to the neck and i was able to use the knife to wedge it into the opening then pry it out. coat hanger seems like a better idea though

check out my disaster averted thread in the gen forum, i did the same thing a while back

use a coat hanger to pull the bung into the neck of the carboy
then use a pair of pointy nose pliers and grab the bung to pull it out.

so far the wire hanger is the best (simplest) idea.... I will give it a try.
Yeah, i was sittin there thinking.... bummer, it's in the wort......

Oh well, I am sure the stuff will still get me drunk. But I was happy i had an extra cork laying around.

ha

thanks all

My buddy just had new carpet put in his basement. He was moving a carboy of dark ale when it slipped and hit something and broke all over the new carpet. Needless to say he had to replace the carpet. That was about the end of brewing over there. Everyone is capable of a bonehead move. I'm sure we all have done one or two during our brewing processes.

I ALWAYS carry my carboys in a milk crate, even when empty.

Another thing about milk crates is I cut a piece of cardboard to the size of the inside bottom of the crate. I have 2-3 layers in some of them. This gives extra cushion for when you transport your full carboys .

Just don't go cheap on the crates or else the handles will give out and break off.

That milk crate Idea is great.....

Just as a follow up... late last week I moved the Brown Ale from Primary to secondary. I used a sanitized wire hanger to "retrieve" the cork. No problems. Then dumped my Honey Brown Ale on the Yeast Cake....
Fermented pretty good for about 3 days..

All is good... beer is great!

Not Here

Did this once. The absolute best and least believable way to extract the rubber bung is by putting a plain ol'l plastic shopping bag in the carboy (holding one end of the bag, of course), turn the carboy upside down and pull the bag.

No lie. 2 tries it was out. I was amazed.

Shred said:

Did this once. The absolute best and least believable way to extract the rubber bung is by putting a plain ol'l plastic shopping bag in the carboy (holding one end of the bag, of course), turn the carboy upside down and pull the bag.

No lie. 2 tries it was out. I was amazed.

Click to expand...

I will vouch for this. I did this on my 3rd brew and couldn't figure out how to get the stopper out. Someone suggested the plastic bag trick and told me to check YouTube. Needless to say, it worked great! Got the stopper out in 1 try.