Screwed Up Fermentation?

[redtangent]

Hey all,

Need some advice, been brewing for a long time but may have screwed something new up this time. 5.5-6 gallon batch of beer in a SS Brew Tech brew bucket fermenting in a the fermentation fridge, I used a blow off tube into a small bucket of starsan (mabye 2 qt.). Crash cooled from 70->38 over the course of a few days ( a bit colder than I normally do). Finally went to keg it maybe a week later and found the blow off tube bucket empty, no sanitizer left at all. Where did the sanatizer go...my thought is in the beer?! I have trouble beliving it siphoned up 24 inches of vertical tube into the beer, but i can't explain it otherwise. I've never had that happen so I have no idea of the effects. The beer tasted ok, but i was likely biased knowing there may be sanatizer in the beer. I've been fermenting this way for nearly 2 years and have never had this effect, maybe the 38 degree fridge was so dry it evaporated (wishful thinking)?

Questions:

Is the sanatizer in the beer?
Is it safe to drink if it is indeed in there?

Thanks,

Steve

 

[paperairplane]

Very likely it siphoned into the fermenter. Star San is safe to drink as far as I know - I don't think there's any harm done, per se... if it tastes okay, I would just move forward and not think about it too much.

 

[Yooper]

Temperature changes cause all sorts of weird things. If it gets warmer, the gas in the fermenter goes out of the airlock, and through the liquid. If the liquid in the fermenter gets colder, it pulls a vacuum and sucks up the liquid in the airlock or blow off tube, plus air and whatever else is available.

Normally, before you cold crash you'd replace the set up with an S airlock, or a carboy cap, to avoid sucking up whatever is in the blow off set up.

If it tastes ok, and doesn't bother you to drink it, then it's ok. I would not.

 

[Stauffbier]

Yeah, it's in the beer. May or may not taste too good now. I just use dry airlocks when I crash my better bottles. On my buckets, it isn't a problem, since the lids don't seal well.. I'm with Yooper. I likely wouldn't want to drink it. Not that it can harm you... It just doesn't sound tasty or desirable.

 

[redtangent]

Well that was some damned fast responses!

I forgot to mention the FG was 1.015 before and after the cold crash (and possible starsan ingestion). Reading taken with a finishing gravity hydrometer and temp. corrected. In my mind 2 qts of starsan would change that, but its a guess, not scientific.

I've made many lagers this way, but i guess it was going from maybe 60 down to 38ish, maybe the extra temperature difference was enough to siphon way more than I would have thought.

Either way it tasted ok, so if it won't kill me i'll let it carb and see how it turns out.

Thanks for the responses so far.