Soap in my fermenter - Help

Everything was perfect until I set my wort chiller in what I thought was a clean star san bucket.
Turns out I did not rinse all the soap out of this bucket before star sanning as when i pulled my wort chiller out of the wort there was a soap bubble in between the coils.
I still aerated the wort and pitched the yeast - is there anything I can do?
I read you could add som Calcium carbonate and it might react with the soap and fall out of solution.

Should I just let it ferment in primary and then proceed as usual.
Is my beer ruined? - I don't think it was much soap but I know there was some in there.

Or is there possibly a fine strainer I could use when I go from fermenter to keg?
Like I said everything else went perfect - scared of soap taste (don't care about head retention at this point)

5 gallons of liquid vs. ??? drops of soap ! I doubt you will taste it but I'd just wait it out instead of adding things trying to fix something that you don't know is broken.

Just proceed as usual at this point.....

At bottling, I would taste carefully to make sure there is no bandaid or soap flavor....if there is, there is no saving it, don't even bottle.

It will probably be OK.

I'm crossing my fingers for you!

So you put your wort chiller into a bucket of StarSan, and when you pulled it out you had a bubble? Or when you pulled it out of the wort there was a bubble?

this is part of the reason I don't use any soap while cleaning or brewing. Just hot water and sanitizer. Once a year I clean everything with PBW but that is it

I pulled it out of the star san and there was a bubble (i thought it was a star san bubble and dropped it into the wort) then I was like oh wait a second and tested it again by putting the wort chiller back in the star san bucket when i was done cooling and it was definitely a soap bubble). I usually only use sanitizer as well but ran out and had to use soap (won't do that again). - I will have a good taste before going through the process of kegging so I dont waste the time

the only other thing i'd be worried about with the soap would be the results on your intestinal system. Might act as a laxative in a high enough amount

Star San does bubble up quite a bit on its own and the bubbles are harmless. Are you sure it wasn't just the star san bubbles.

Doesn't matter what the bubble was, soap was present.

Isn't star san just soap that turns into yeast nutrient?

........star san is, yes, dish soap ISN'T. Which is kinda the problem here.

Yes I actually did a quick taste of the bubble and it was definitely soap.
Per samc, I am hoping the 5.5 gallon to a few drops of soap ratio is not going to affect things. - maybe some of the soap bubbles will bubble out of the air lock
(yeast is pretty active as of last night so we shall see)

DrawTap88 said:

Isn't star san just soap that turns into yeast nutrient?

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Nope, StarSan is a phosphoric acid-based sanitizer with a form of a pesticide in it (it causes cells to exploded, hence the sanitation and the warning label on the bottle).

Soap is a dispersant, and a lot of old soaps contained phosphorus, but its not allowed to the general public anymore because of the water quality problems it poses (algal blooms and eutrophication).

I am still confused: did you run out of star san and try using dish soap as a sanitizing solution? I would never do that again, b/c 1) it won't sanitize anything and 2) soap destroys head retention in beer and can act as a laxative.

You could just put your IC in the boil for the last 10-15 min to sanitize it. I thought that was what everyone did?

Agreeing with funkswing - sanitizing agents like Star San are meant to KILL bacteria and yeast. The point is to prevent infections. Regular soap does not do the job.

Boiling also works to sanitize (kills the wild bacteria and yeast). I think most people would recommend sanitizing the immersion wort chiller merely by introducing it to the hot water near the end of the boil.

Aside from the initial water/vinegar bath when I first got it, I only clean my immersion chiller with regular running water and my bare hands after each use.

Sanitize with Boil: http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixC.html
Cleaning Copper: http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter2-2-2.html

As far as your current soap problem, I doubt the residual from the wort chiller would be enough to make a strong taste in 5 gallons of beer. On the other hand dish soap has a pretty harsh taste, so who knows? The proof is in the drinking. I recommend not using dish soap on your bottles (buy sanitizer!) and giving your serving glasses a regular water rinse before pouring to make sure no more soap gets introduced to final product.

Generally I have a bucket of star san set aside to clean anything when needed.
I drop my wort chiller, hydrometer, aearater, yeast vile, etc in there as I need it while brewing (just personal preference why I don't boil the wort chiller - i figure why start out with a 200 plus degree wort chiller when you can start cooling wort immediately when taking from the star san solution).
--To explain: In this case I thought I had run out of star san and cleaned a bucket with soap and then happened to find a little left in storage and so was able to fill a partial bucket of start san after the fact. (hence the sanitizing solution with soap residue) - You are correct I usually do not clean with soap at all.
--At this point head retention is the least of my worries / I can deal with the that (just keeping my fingers crossed on a batch gone soapy)

I think your beer will be fine. Thanks for clarifying.

I like your logic on not boiling the IC to sanitize. Funny thing is that with boiling to sanitize I'm always having to bring the pot back to a boil for ~1 min after adding in the IC.

funkswing said:

Nope, StarSan is a phosphoric acid-based sanitizer with a form of a pesticide in it (it causes cells to exploded, hence the sanitation and the warning label on the bottle).

Soap is a dispersant, and a lot of old soaps contained phosphorus, but its not allowed to the general public anymore because of the water quality problems it poses (algal blooms and eutrophication).

I am still confused: did you run out of star san and try using dish soap as a sanitizing solution? I would never do that again, b/c 1) it won't sanitize anything and 2) soap destroys head retention in beer and can act as a laxative.

You could just put your IC in the boil for the last 10-15 min to sanitize it. I thought that was what everyone did?

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Thank you Cheezy and funkswing.

JonK331 said:

Star San does bubble up quite a bit on its own and the bubbles are harmless. Are you sure it wasn't just the star san bubbles.

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Oh, sorry I didn't realize you were there.

Thanks for all the feeback guys.
I always hate that nervous feeling when you think something might have gone wrong.
I've settled down a bit now- Will just sit back and relax and wait until time to keg and give it a try.
Might give me an excuse to may another batch this weekend (as a backup).

Hell yes, you should make another batch this weekend!

funkswing said:

Hell yes, you should make another batch this weekend!

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Frankly I think this is urgent, I wouldn't wait until the weekend.

Don't be hasty Frodo.