Is there anyway to salvage this mess?

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celts

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I was cooling my wort with an immersion chiller and taking readings occasionally with my thermometer, which is very similar to
accfloatingtherm-2T.jpg
. It broke on the immersion chiller sometime in the processes, probably when I would occasionally stir the wort to ensure even cooling. Is there anyway to salvage the brew? The thermometer itself is still intact, but the outer casing, including some of the conducting elements fell into the wort. I'm more worried about either glass/plastic being in the wort and hurting somebody or the stuff on the inside being toxic. Any ideas?

Initial thoughts were maybe filtering through a coffee filter?

Thanks
 
Be safe and ditch it in my opinion. Why take a chance for a few bucks. Brew another batch and you have only lost a few hours of effort at this point.
 
At one time, thermometers had mercury in them which was obviously poisonous, but these days I don't think they carry anything harmful anymore. Although, I still agree with the last poster and say toss it. Not worth the trouble. i personally would be too paranoid to even drink it
 
i would try filtering it, even though the glass presumably sank to the bottom. You could probably just rack, keeping a few inches of wort in the boil kettle, and be safe....but im not condoning, only suggesting it, and hereby relieve myself of all liability ;)
 
I don't think you have to worry about anything toxic inside the thermometer. Your concern would be glass. Theoretically, the glass should sink to the bottom of the wort/beer and if you siphon off and leave an inch behind, then you shouldn't get the glass. But the question is whether or not you really want to take the chance of glass getting into your final product.
 
Dunno if it'd work but maybe.. when you go to siphon it out, affix a few layers of cheese cloth to your cane? Might be a little faster than coffee filters.
 
I'm with everyone else on this, I think even though you should be okay... it's just not worth the risk. Who knows what those things are treated with, even though it's not mercury, you still probably don't want to be drinking it. As for little shards of glass that may sneak their way in no matter what filtering process you try... definately not worth the risk.
 
A fine mesh strainer is a better bet, but I doubt the thermometer was sterile on the inside.
 
I'm a new brewer, so take this for what its worth.

there shouldn't be anything toxic in it and even though the inside wasn't cleaned or sanitized, it might not affect the brew.

the glass should settle to the bottom. if you transfer to the fermenter leaving a little extra in the bottom of the pot, you shouldn't have a problem with glass.

further, if you siphon to a secondary, leaving a bit more in the bottom of the fermenter, again, the glass should have surely settled out.

and repeat again when siphoning to bottling bucket, the chances of any glass making it into a bottle or very small. there's still a chance, but i don't think it would be likely
 
david_42 said:
A fine mesh strainer is a better bet, but I doubt the thermometer was sterile on the inside.
Click to expand...

It was in boiling water. Its sterile.


Chances are, anything that came out of the thermometer is going to end up in the trub. Just siphon out and leave an inch of beer after fermentation and don't worry about it.

(theres just alchohol and coloring in a thermometer).
 
broken glass = dangerous. these guys are all "assuming" that sharp broken glass will settle to the bottom. I would assume alot of it would, but there could be some pieces so small that they may float at the top.
 
Synovia said:
If they're small enough to float once the beer has settled out, they're small enough that they're not going to hurt anyone.
Click to expand...

it doesn't matter the size, density of glass is the same regardless of the size of the glass (density compared to water is what makes things sink or float in water). if the glass has a higher specific gravity than your wort it will sink regardless of its size (in theory). but small pieces would be easier to stir up from the bottom.

if this was me i would rack always holding my siphon a few inches above the bottom, and leave a little bit behind, and then rack to a secondary to be safer. and then rack to a bottling bucket, and then into bottles, and just pour every bottle into a glass before you drink it and just be aware!

just out of curiosity what did you end up doing?
 
I had already added the yeast, so I figured I might as well let it ferment and watch the beauty unfold. As far as the filtering goes, I still don't quite know yet. I'm going to call the lhbs to verify that it is a glass outside, I might grab a Whatman filter from where I use to work and use that when transferring the beer to bottling. I figure it has very small pores 25 micron and smaller that i can probably use. Again, its not worth the risk. I doubt there's anything toxic in it. Infection I'm not worried about. It was the loose glass/plastic that I am worried about. So we'll see what I do. I'll let you all know if the future. Thanks for the advice.
 
Call the manufacturer and ask what the fluid is.

There's a better than fair shot it'll be some FDA approved substance like Ethyl Alcohol and FDC approved red dye.

And of course bear in mind that in the 5-gallon batch it'll be a very attenuated titration.

So even if the alcohol is denatured you should still be OK.

But if in doubt dump it.
If you want you can ferment it and use it to fertilize the wife's flower garden. Plants love beer.

as an aside I just read that some thermometers use mineral spirits too.
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2005-12/1134348794.Ch.r.html
Sooooooo you are pretty much being driven into the arms of the manufacturer.
 
Well I damn sure wouldn't drink it. For all the trouble it's worth, it would be quicker to make a new batch than "filter" it to make it presumably safe. Just my .02.
 
I just thought a little bit more about it, the less successful filtering would be. Since the yeast had already been pitched, I would have to repopulate the brew for bottling and that would be a giant pain in the ass. So I've elected to dump it. Can anyone play Taps for me?
 
bdleedahl said:
it doesn't matter the size, density of glass is the same regardless of the size of the glass (density compared to water is what makes things sink or float in water). if the glass has a higher specific gravity than your wort it will sink regardless of its size (in theory). but small pieces would be easier to stir up from the bottom.
Click to expand...

Right, but smaller pieces are more likely to get stuck in yeast rafts and kreuzen and such.
 
I have been looking for a post like this before I admited my own mistakes. My first batch, the directions said 'disolve DME in warm water', I heated some water and wanting to document everything I measured temp. While I was writing, I forgot to remove the themometer and it broke on the first stir. I didnt know what to do, but ended up continuing disolving then straining the uncooked mixture. Later, on the same batch I dropped and broke my hydrometer (on the floor).
My second batch I broke the thermometer again. This time in just water, which I dumped. Neither time did the actual thermometer break, just the outer glass, dropping broken glass and lead pellets into the pot.
My theory is i: both lead and glass are heavier than water and should settle to the bottom of the kettle, fermenter, secondary if used, and finally the bottle or keg. ii: lead is quite toxic for children, but not so much for adults. No kids will be drinking my beer. iii: A Whopper with cheese probably has more toxins.
If the thermometer was silver (mercury) I would have dumped it.

Needless to say,I will never buy another glass floating thermometer.
 
Mikethepoolguy said:
I have been looking for a post like this before I admited my own mistakes. My first batch, the directions said 'disolve DME in warm water', I heated some water and wanting to document everything I measured temp. While I was writing, I forgot to remove the themometer and it broke on the first stir. I didnt know what to do, but ended up continuing disolving then straining the uncooked mixture. Later, on the same batch I dropped and broke my hydrometer (on the floor).
My second batch I broke the thermometer again. This time in just water, which I dumped. Neither time did the actual thermometer break, just the outer glass, dropping broken glass and lead pellets into the pot.
My theory is i: both lead and glass are heavier than water and should settle to the bottom of the kettle, fermenter, secondary if used, and finally the bottle or keg. ii: lead is quite toxic for children, but not so much for adults. No kids will be drinking my beer. iii: A Whopper with cheese probably has more toxins.
If the thermometer was silver (mercury) I would have dumped it.

Needless to say,I will never buy another glass floating thermometer.
Click to expand...

There hasn't been lead in thermometers for years. They're most likely just steel balls.
 
in the thermometer I used they seemed to be ceramic. They cracked with a pliers. Very satisfying sound when your frustrated. haha.
 
bdleedahl said:
it doesn't matter the size, density of glass is the same regardless of the size of the glass (density compared to water is what makes things sink or float in water). if the glass has a higher specific gravity than your wort it will sink regardless of its size (in theory).
Click to expand...

Thats really only half true. surface tension and impurities can cause objects with higher densities to float on top. I go prospecting quite a bit and it is pretty easy for fine gold to float out of the pan when processing the concentrates. The solution is to add fabric softener to the pan to reduce the surface tension, but I don't think that would work too well in this case.

Even though the glass that would make it into your body would be small, It would be tough for me to knowingly drink something that I knew might contain glass. It might even be impossible to get any since the carbonation would do a good job of breaking surface tension, but I think it would just creep me out.
 
This EXACT thing just happened to me and it is my first brew. My local supplier I purchased everything from told me that (in my kit anyway) the thermometer does not contain mercury and the weight ballast they put in the bottom of the tube is not made of lead. I assume you have a similar thermometer. Also as to consuming tiny tiny shards of glass (which you shouldn't if you leave a few inches while racking), shouldn't hurt you. I mean... has anyone seen that guy who eats full pieces of glass? God only knows what kinds of crap little kids eat and it doesn't kill them. I am going through with my batch. The wort tasted ... well like it smelled, however I am a day or so away from bottling all my beer and tasting it now ... it tastes much more like beer. So if it is not ruined, then I would follow through with it if I were you. Just drink your beer out of a glass, or filter it out into a glass everytime you crack a brew if you are that paranoid.
 

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