Emergency question about broken thermometer

I just hit a boil and dropped in my NB bittering hops. My floating thermometer bounced off the bottom of my BK and broke off the bottom 1/4" of the tip.

Are those black beads in the thermometer toxic?

If those beads won't kill us, I'm thinking about running this whole batch through a sanitized colander, stainer, and cheesecloth to catch everything I can on the way into the bucket.

Crisis averted (hopefully). A little googling tells me that everything in these thermos are safe. The beads are either lead or stainless. Even if the little beads are lead, that small amount wouldn't be enough to hurt us.

I'll run it through the strainer (or just rack it) on the way to the fermenter. Any glass or metal should settle first, leaving a thick layer of trub on top. Shouldn't have anything make it's way into the bottling bucket.

if it's lead, you may want to see just how much can cause toxicity problems. I remember some time back, people getting lead poisoning from cheap novelty jewelry. That was just from skin contact, though regular and extended, but still. If you can absorb lead through your skin, it stands to reason it could well contaminate liquid.

Just be sure you get all of it.

NOT lead. This is about the third post I personally have replied to about this. I broke my floating thermo 2 batches ago.

They are steel, the fluid inside is dyed alcohol. Silver ones have the mercury.
No food-safe thermometers contain lead, or mercury.

I had the same accident, didnt break the thermo itself, just the very end of the glass and had those balls drop in. I swirled the boil kettle and it all gathered into a pile in the center. Very easy to gather or just siphon and not pick it up. I drank that whole batch so this is proof you too can do this and live.

PanzerBanana said:

if it's lead, you may want to see just how much can cause toxicity problems. I remember some time back, people getting lead poisoning from cheap novelty jewelry. That was just from skin contact, though regular and extended, but still. If you can absorb lead through your skin, it stands to reason it could well contaminate liquid.

Just be sure you get all of it.

Click to expand...

if it didn't hurt the ancient Romans it wont hurt you ... oh wait.

We see this all the time. There is an easy solution to prevent future mishaps: STOP MONITORING THE BOIL TEMP! A boil is a boil is a boil. You can see it. There is no need to confirm it with numbers.

Yuri, your so smart. Like... genious smart. A boil is a boil is a boil. I'm going to put that one in my brewing tips note book.