what is my ELI?

[.code.decode.]

ELI: Estimated Likelihood of Infection. i just made this up since everyone in this hobby is so enamored with using acronyms and buzzwords to describe things and processes that don't necessarily require them (at least from a virgin homebrewer's incredibly ignorant perception); why not add another one??

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i brewed tonight, reusing the yeast from my 1st batch, and i'm leaving town for the weekend tomorrow evening, so i consider it wise to rig a blow off tube in case it starts foaming something fierce while i'm gone. as i'm pushing the modified airlock into the receptacle, the rubber gasket dislodges and falls into my now cooled wort. after a few minutes of failed attempts at fetching it blindly with a long handled spoon, and a short-lived consideration of leaving it in there for 2 weeks, i spot a bottle of vodka in the corner of the room and, seconds later, i'm dousing my right arm with it to hopefully kill whatever nasty crap is living on it. then, i take the plunge, luckily find it right away, and perform the rescue.

so, what is my ELI? i'm not scrrrrrrrd, but should i be?

 

[Cheesefood]

as i'm pushing the modified airlock into the receptacle, the rubber gasket dislodges and falls into my now cooled wort. after a few minutes of failed attempts at fetching it blindly with a long handled spoon, and a short-lived consideration of leaving it in there for 2 weeks, i spot a bottle of vodka in the corner of the room and, seconds later, i'm dousing my right arm with it to hopefully kill whatever nasty crap is living on it. then, i take the plunge, luckily find it right away, and perform the rescue.

You've discovered the secret initiation into the homebrewers club: pushing the gasket through and fisting your wort to retrieve it.

As for infection, well...how dirty are you, Mr. VodkaArm?

You could have just left the gasket in there, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. Most of us have had weird stuff fall into our wort.

 

[jpuf]

Scale of 1-10 I'd give it a 2. We've all been there.

 

[pfranco81]

Wait.... you're not supposed to stick your arm in the wort? I think I've done that every brew session so far.

 

[olllllo]

Eli = 1/rdwhahb

No caps. Forum censorship sucks.

 

[ProfLight]

> i'm dousing my right arm with it to hopefully kill whatever nasty crap is living on it.

I quite nearly spewed fried rice all over my monitor when I read this. ROFL!!

Your ELI is about the same as it would be by just opening the fermenter. Personally I would have donned a big rubber glove and sprayed it with StarSan (or your favorite sanitizer) and done the same. Pores probably hold some measure of "nasty crap", but I can't begin to calculate the likelihood that it a) escaped the vodka bath, b) managed to work itself into the wort, or c) will produce something in your beer.

In short... don't worry.

Tony

 

[nuclearguy]

What brand of vodka? It really doesn't matter I just want to know how much it costs to remove a rubber gasket from wort. It should be fine, but next time I would think about leaving it( that's why I have an extra two, why two, because I have done it twice on the same brew)

 

[Rhoobarb]

Great! Now I can't get that out of my head!!!