Bottom of the airlock dropped into the carboy

chromatist · Dec 30, 2009

Hi all,

Just a quick question to see if anybody else has experienced this before. I was transferring from my primary to secondary, went to put the airlock in and realized it was pushed down too far, I tried pulling it back out, but before I knew it, the rubber bottom of the airlock had separated and fell in the carboy.

I have another airlock, and the bottom part was sanitized, but i'm wondering if:

a) The rubber being in the secondary will affect the beer at all, and
b) How I'm going to get it out once I've bottled.

Any ideas/advice?
Cheers

Joeywhat · Dec 30, 2009

It won't matter unless it brought in some nasties with it. There's a chance it could cause an infection, however if the beer is pretty far along or if the stopper was well sanitized don't worry about it. It's happened to me, it didn't change the outcome.

I don't remember how I get it out...probably needle nose pliers and a lot of swearing...

CiscoKid · Dec 30, 2009

Don't worry about it. This, or something similar (like the rubber grommet in a bucket lid falling in) will happen to everyone at some point. Relax. Don't worry.
There's a small percentage of a chance you'll ruin your beer. But there's a 100% chance that worrying about it will ruin your enjoyment of the process.

Nurmey · Dec 30, 2009

Welcome to HBT!

It has happened to many of us. The bung will not create any problems with the beer. To get the bung out, let the beer finish up and rack as normal. Give the carboy a rinse to remove the trub and yeast to make it less messy. Then follow the steps on the link below to remove.

BCNbeer · Dec 30, 2009

chromatist said:
Hi all,

Just a quick question to see if anybody else has experienced this before. I was transferring from my primary to secondary, went to put the airlock in and realized it was pushed down too far, I tried pulling it back out, but before I knew it, the rubber bottom of the airlock had separated and fell in the carboy.

I have another airlock, and the bottom part was sanitized, but i'm wondering if:

a) The rubber being in the secondary will affect the beer at all, and
b) How I'm going to get it out once I've bottled.

Any ideas/advice?
Cheers

I had this happen to me, best porter I ever made! RDWHAHB!

chromatist · Dec 30, 2009

Awesome, thanks all for your quick responses, and thanks to Nurmey for the vid.

Not worried at all about a ruined batch, as the whole airlock was freshly sanitized as I put it in, so looks like it should be fine.

Thanks again everyone.

BCNbeer · Dec 30, 2009

That's a really cool video by the way.

BCNbeer · Dec 30, 2009

chromatist said:
Awesome, thanks all for your quick responses, and thanks to Nurmey for the vid.

Not worried at all about a ruined batch, as the whole airlock was freshly sanitized as I put it in, so looks like it should be fine.

Thanks again everyone.

With secondary you have to remember, there's alcohol in there and a bunch of yeast, so it becomes hard for other things to grow in it. This will be an awesome batch.

Grizzlybrew · Dec 30, 2009

If you were going from primary to secondary, chances are there is enough alcohol at this point to ward off any nasties that may have dropped in... Don't worry, be happy.

Cellarbrau · Jan 9, 2010

I have the same trouble. It hasn't fallen in yet and it seems well sealed. I just pushed the bung in way too far. I'm certain that when I pull the airlock out the bung will fall in.

Thanks for the video! Here's hoping I can pull it off.

C2H5OH · Jan 9, 2010

Nurmey said:
Welcome to HBT!

It has happened to many of us. The bung will not create any problems with the beer. To get the bung out, let the beer finish up and rack as normal. Give the carboy a rinse to remove the trub and yeast to make it less messy. Then follow the steps on the link below to remove.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDr9B5ebuRo

I've never seen that trick before. Great stuff!

BeerBrewingEquipment · Sep 17, 2010

Wow, awesome video. I think this video just saved me a lot of headaches. I'm going to need this trick to retrieve a bung.

Thanks a lot!

pwndabear · Sep 17, 2010

nurmey said:
welcome to hbt!

It has happened to many of us. The bung will not create any problems with the beer. To get the bung out, let the beer finish up and rack as normal. Give the carboy a rinse to remove the trub and yeast to make it less messy. Then follow the steps on the link below to remove.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdr9b5eburo

hey! You stole my glory!

Bottom of the airlock dropped into the carboy

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