air lock water went into fermenter, twice!

Hi,

I hope I didn't ruin my brew. This is my first brew and I've been really careful but this got me. When I was done with my first fermentation before going into the carboy, i tried to lift up the bucket and some of the airlock water got in.

Well, i didn't learn.... 3 weeks later (today), i went to pull out my beer to start bottling it, and i went to lift the carboy and the airlock sucked into the beer a second time! ARRRR!!!! But, the beer did smell good!

Fortunately, the water from the tap that I used in the airlock smells like it's from a swimming pool... which after sitting in the airlock for 3 weeks probably lost almost all it's free chlorine.

So, what do you think? Will this ruin my beer?

It should be fine. Don't worry.

RDWHAHB (if you can't get your hands on one, go ahead and have a store bought)

Both times (as long as the fermentation took off) there was alcohol present. Even if you did it before fermentation, the CO2 would keep anything bad from happening. You really got to work at screwing up a batch. Sanitation is the key!

Agreed, should be fine. From advice on here, I now only use cheap Vodka in my airlocks. $5 a bottle stuff that will permanently damage your taste buds if you were to drink it straight...

Definitely worth it, to not have to stress over suck-back!

Your beer will be great! In the future though, use cheap vodka like DMaCato suggests or some sanitizer solution like starsan.

I used to use starsan for everything, but now I use cheap vodka just like the others mentioned. It was recommended to me originally by Gremlyn1, and works great.

Stuff like this happens all the time, in fact there's at least one thread a day somewhat similar to your predicament,and their beers turn out fine...It's not an ideal situation (and why many folks use vodka or sanitzer as the airlock liquid) but it is quite common. And the beer usually turnsout fine.