Dog hair in the wort!

I cooked out side yesterday, all was going well. The wort was cooling a little slower that hoped for. as it reached 78 degrees I noticed a hair floating in the wort. It was one hair about 1 inch long. I removed it with the thermomoter and pitched the yeast etc. etc.

Do you think this will be infected?

not likely. I just cleaned out a bucket after i racked the beer out and found a few pieces of grass that managed their way in somehow. I've also had the dog hair problem before and everything has turned out fine. RDWHAHB!

My guess is probably not.

Generally homebrewers sanitize, not sterilize, so some wild yeast and bacteria winds up in just about every batch of wort we make. The trick is to keep their numbers down so that the yeast we do want simply overpower them via sheer numbers.

Time will tell, but with just one dog hair, I think you'll probably be fine.

Sounds like you have a name for the beer. Hair of the Dog Ale.

Probably the yeast will get going and override any infection.

Name the brew "Wolf Mane Ale"

Nothing to do but hope not anyway.

But the odds are pretty low. Sanitation is a numbers game. No one thing is likely to infect (but everything *could*). You control the odds buy controlling the sheer number of things that can go wrong but you can never eliminate them all (nor can you increase them so that infection is guarenteed).

Also you don't know when the hair got in there. It very likely got in their during the boil in which case it's been sanitized.

I would be more worried if it was my 11 year old son's hair. A couple of dog hairs, meh, the good yeast pitch will win the war and the hair will be in the bottom of the trub.

I feel 100% better thanks to all!

kh54s10 said:

Probably the yeast will get going and override any infection.

Name the brew "Wolf Mane Ale"

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Hes a siberian Husky so how about "Wannabe wolf Ale" lol

Doghair Head Ale

My dog's hair makes it into every single beer one way or the other. He sheds a lot. Never had a problem. I chalk it up to his contribution.

donk5 said:

My dog's hair makes it into every single beer one way or the other. He sheds a lot. Never had a problem. I chalk it up to his contribution.

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I racked it yesterday, it tasted fine, actually one of the best yet!

yewtah-brewha said:

I racked it yesterday, it tasted fine, actually one of the best yet!

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Now the real question is will you brew it again?? Sub question and will you have to brew it with dog hair to archive said results??? Hmmmm.

donk5 said:

My dog's hair makes it into every single beer one way or the other. He sheds a lot. Never had a problem. I chalk it up to his contribution.

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I've named my "brewery" Black Dog Brewery. My motto is "a black dog hair in every batch".

lol! I wont be adding any dog hair on purpose in the future!

I'm dating a redhead and If I ever do make a ginger beer I'll probably throw some of her hair in on purpose! :rockin: lol

But thinking after I posted that comment, I realize this is about dog hair and now I seem like an ass lol.

buhay said:

But thinking after I posted that comment, I realize this is about dog hair and now I seem like an ass lol.

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I didn't think anthing other than "that would be cool!" Fire cracker Ale!

geckholm said:

Sounds like you have a name for the beer. Hair of the Dog Ale.

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I've been beaten to a "hair of the dog" joke.

No problem. I've found things at the bottom of my bottling bucket, and I don't have pets!