Rookies Making Rookie Mistakes: Blow-Off Solution Sucked into Fermenter During Crash

[WarmWindBrewing]

Hi HBT! Newbie here in a small panic while learning the hard way!

I'll spare the backstory and get to it - this morning before I went to work, I fired up the chiller to begin crashing a batch. I checked in on it this evening and after looking at the blowoff tube and bucket, my heart sank - I neglected to do anything about the blowoff hose and I am almost positive it has now sucked a fair amount of Star San.

Almost positive. I don't know 100% for sure unfortunately. But if it did...is it dead now?

 

[mac_1103]

Some folks say that they can taste small amounts of starsan and take great pains to exclude any trace from their beer, but I think most of us would say that a little starsan isn't going to ruin your batch. And it's probably better than sucking back air.

There are a number of ways to protect your beer from suckback during cold crashing, and most of them have been discussed on this forum. NorCal solution. Brewhardware solution. You can also DIY similar devices if you're so inclined.

 

[PCABrewing]

Hi HBT! Newbie here in a small panic while learning the hard way!

I'll spare the backstory and get to it - this morning before I went to work, I fired up the chiller to begin crashing a batch. I checked in on it this evening and after looking at the blowoff tube and bucket, my heart sank - I neglected to do anything about the blowoff hose and I am almost positive it has now sucked a fair amount of Star San.

Almost positive. I don't know 100% for sure unfortunately. But if it did...is it dead now?

Been there and done that.
The experience I had turned out fine, not noticeable to taste and didn't interfere with carbonation.

 

[skunkape]

I was trying to think back over all the dumb mistakes I've made and the batch turned out fine in spite of me.

Lets see...

-There's this chilling and airlock suck back thing of course - only with just water instead of Starsan. Probably an even worse chance of ruining the batch.
-Forgot to tighten the valve on the fermenter bucket and it leaked. Had to stick an unsanitized arm down in fresh room temp wort to tighten it.
-Dropped the rubber stopper from my starter flask into a batch during pitch and just left it in there instead of fishing it out. Permanently stained now.
-Turned the valve the wrong way trying to cut it off and overflowed bottles.
-Bottling wand popped out of the hose. Had to crimp it and cut off the valve. The 3 Stooges would have been proud. Just fill right from the tap now.
-Capping away as I fill bottles and then notice the priming sugar still on the table. Opened, added fizz drops and then recapped every bottle.
-Dropped the hop spider into the boil and had to fish it out with a coat hanger.
-Started bottling without removing the airlock. Instant suck back.
-Kettle boil-over. Only did that once. That cleanup has induced hyper vigilance ever since.
-Forgot to install trub filter in the Grainfather and pumped loads of hop trash into the fermenter.
-Assorted bottle bombs, wort burns, grain spills, DME caking incidents, and insect mishaps.

Any hobby that provides a perfect situation to drink while you work is bound to spawn a boo-boo or 3.

 

[WarmWindBrewing]

Thanks for the quick replies. My main concern is that this wasn't "fresh" sanitizer - it had previously been run through the boil kettle and cleaned out a keg to transfer the prior batch, and the bucket was covered but not sealed off really. But for what can go wrong given that, is this still a scenario of, if it looks, smells and tastes fine - then all good?

 

[WarmWindBrewing]

I was trying to think back over all the dumb mistakes I've made and the batch turned out fine in spite of me.

Lets see...

-Kettle boil-over. Only did that once. That cleanup has induced hyper vigilance ever since.

That was my first batch and first crack at this recipe...probably worse was this was in my basement with a lid sitting on top to maximize projection; and not only did I turn my back on a hot kettle, I left the room! Kettle read 202 degrees, had been rising slowly and thought to myself, I could run up and get a head start on cleaning a few things while this climbs a bit higher. Little did I know at the time, I actually did not have time to run up and get a head start on cleaning things while this climbs a bit higher.

I'm actually proud of myself for not only spending the rest of the day cleaning (not that I had a lot of choice, being that it was inside the house), but I managed to stay motivated enough to set up again and try another beer the next day..which did turn out wonderfully, and I was super mad about not only screwing this one up AGAIN, but we're also about out of that other batch!

 

[wallyLOZ]

We've all had our share of mistakes. Important thing is to learn from it, and not repeat it.

In this case you should be fine. RDWHAHB!

 

[WarmWindBrewing]

Took a small sample today - smells great! But, the taste is a little off, however I bet a little more time and carbonation will hopefully put it where I was hoping if my first round was any indicator. Thanks again everyone for the support, cheers!

 

[Climb]

Suck back sucks! I have been burned by this several times. The beer was always drinkable.

My preference was to give away as much as I could. This way, if it was bad, my friends would never ask for more free home brew.

I have read that StarSan will be metabolized by yeast during fermentation, but cold crashing is done after fermentation is complete.???

I have also been burned with suck back by putting room temp kegs in the fermentation chamber that were to be purged by fermentation CO2. Thankfully I daisy chain two 5 gallon kegs to the fermenter (10 gallon batches) and I only had to dump the StarSan out of the last keg.

I found that the easiest way to deal with suck back prevention during cold crashing is to pressure ferment to 5 PSI or so with a spunding valve.

 

[MaxStout]

Been there, done that. Had a pint or so of Starsan sucked back into a Schwarzbier when I cold-crashed. The beer was drinkable--barely. Some people claim that you can't taste it. I could. It gave a sort of harsh acidic twang.

I bought a CO2 Harvester from NorCal. Worth every penny.

 

[WarmWindBrewing]

Update: it’s ok, I think? My plan of attack here was to start with clone beers so I could have a “template” to compare to. I think it’s going to be off a bit, but been a while since I have had this beer. But it’s totally drinkable, so it won’t be getting trashed, and that’s a victory for this scenario I would say. But, still looking forward to finally getting the spunding valve from Black Friday here so I can try that on for size..

 

[IslandLizard]

Welcome to the homebrewing hobby and HBT!

Took a small sample today - smells great! But, the taste is a little off,

Relax!
As the others already said, I too seriously doubt that bit of Starsan suckback will ruin your beer. Even a quart of it may not even be detectable in a 5 gallon batch. Bigger mistakes can and have been made... still yielding very quaffable beer in the end.

My plan of attack here was to start with clone beers so I could have a “template” to compare to. I think it’s going to be off a bit, but been a while since I have had this beer.

That's a wonderful idea, yes!
Just realize even the best "clone beers" rarely taste exactly like the original either, and many may not be even that close. Original beers themselves can slowly shift quite a bit over time. There's much more to a perfect clone batch than the sum of ingredients. The big variants are process, process, and more process, at every step. At homebrew level, every brewer and their system have a big influence on those various processes. And, with relatively large variations too from batch to batch, due to the batches being relatively small.

 

[WarmWindBrewing]

Latest battle: (2nd hand) CO2 regulator, that doesn’t, really. CO2PO of unknown age, 8-10 years I would guess based on the equipment I got along with it. But we’re getting to know each other and tonight I have found a point where I got the first acceptable pour I would say. And it’s wonderful! Thank you again everyone!