sanitation FAIL

[soupfist]

Partly bummed & partly amused with myself...I wasn't really emotionally attached to the Vienna Lager I just bottled, but it sucks to end almost two months of work like this:

Went to bottle and followed the process I usually do: make a big bucket of Star San to sanitize the bottling bucket, siphon, and then soak the bottles & bottle caps. Except I got distracted and didn't realize until I'd already capped a case and a half that I forgot to add the StarSan.

So I essentially sanitized all my bottling day materials with cold Georgia tap water.

I'm willing to take my lumps for that. mostly just fishing for "yeah, I did that and it all turned out fine" stories. Don't really expect any, but it'd be a real morale booster.

 

[Revvy]

We have a whole thread of them.

 

[helibrewer]

I'll bet it comes out fine

 

[RJS]

Never have i seen that thread Revvy, wonderful.

In my experience, rinsing with water can be sufficient if your equipment is already "clean", nothing stuck on the surface. There is a good Basic Brewing podcast with James Spencer, somewhere on this site, with the creator of Star San stating that if something is clean and rinsed its good to go. I dont think sanitizers are always necessary.

 

[badbrew]

Thanks for the LOLs. I might have just infected my wort with steam drips from above. :fro:

 

[Doomsday]

I used diluted bleach on my whole arm so I could stick it in the fermenter.

Just to attach a piece that made less sediment come out of the spigot....
Reached in, felt around and found out that I had to remove the spigot to attach it lol.
Such a waste, and would have been pissed if I infected that batch for nothing. But it turned out fine.

 

[soupfist]

We have a whole thread of them.

heh, yeah, I even contributed a story to that thread, the one about bottling thru a spigot clogged with a beetle. But at least I soaked that beetle in Star San for a good 30 minutes...

I relaxed, I didn't worry, I had a homebrew, got up this morning & brewed a nice dunkelweizen to bubble away over the holidays. Life goes on.

 

[harrydrez]

It may still be ok; though I would place those bottles in some kind of container to be safe- bottle bombs make a mess at best.

 

[soupfist]

Update: Hahahaha...another victory for RDWHAHB. I left my unsanitized bottled Vienna to carbonate over the holidays. Fridged one up & cracked it open last night...perfection.

Is concluding that it's really hard to screw up beer the final thing to learn in order to graduate from Beer Jedi Academy?

 

[RJS]

no! The final thing to learn is this...

You can never stop learning, there is always room for improvement.

Congrats are in order, besides, a little Lacto isnt bad for ya

 

[Boru]

Dude, congrats! Glad to hear this turned out okay.