Have I contaminated my wort?

[RLA51]

First time brewer - cooked up a batch of stout last night, everything went fine but tonight there was still no activity in the airlock. I investigated and found that when I put the airlock in the lid of my bucket last night, I apparently pushed the grommet through the lid and into the wort, so no seal. The only way I could get the grommet out of the wort was to fish it out with my hand.

I'm assuming that I have probably contaminated my wort, and that I should dump it out and start over, but thought I would check in with you guys here first....

Thanks,
Rick

 

[sudsmcgee]

Let it ride. It can take 3 days before signs of fermentation are apparent. Leave it in the primary for 3-4 weeks, don't open it again until then, and then bottle.

As far as sticking your hand into your beer, I did this on my first batch and it turned out pretty well. Don't worry about it now because it's probably fine unless you wiped your arse right before you stuck your hand in. Yeast are pretty resilient organisms.



Never ever dump your beer! Always let it go! Only after a few months in the bottle/keg should you consider dumping it.

 

[SpottedDogBrewing]

Nope don't worry!
Give the yeast at least 2 days kick off!

Sent from my iPhone using HB Talk

 

[balzern]

Bro you are fine!!! Yeasties and alcohol make it tough for other things to survive! You are ok man just give it a couple of weeks man! RDWHAHB!

 

[RLA51]

Hey thanks! Glad to know that I didn't blow it.

 

[CABeerMaker]

Relax, step away from the edge....things will be just fine. If you need something to read to kill time while you wait I would suggest.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/think-you-ruined-your-beer-set-your-fears-aside-74520/
You will see things that are way worse than what you did and everything was fine. The big thing is that yeast is very territorial and will kill almost anything else in their world add in the alcohol and you have a very clean world.