Bleach in Wort!

[smandeville]

I successfully brewed up a 5 gallon batch of a SNPA clone. I then racked into the 6.5 gallon primary and attached a blow off hose and submerged the other end of the vinyl tubing into a 50/50 bleach water solution in a small gatorade bottle. I was told that you should add bleach or sanitizing solution to the water to prevent mold.

Anyways...

I noticed the bleach/water solution sneeking up the blow off hose, so I pulled the hose out of the gatorade bottle (I know, bad move) and the water went straight into the wort.

It was roughly 2-3 ounces of solution.

Is this batch ruined? The yeast is taking off, which I thought it would just kill the yeast.

Is it worth saving? I hate to toss a batch...

 

[BarryNL]

Hmm, wont campden nutralise bleach? Could you perhaps chuck some campden in there and then repitch some new yeast after 12 hours or something?

Anyone got some more expertise on this?

 

[Zymurgrafi]

Hold on there mister. Just one thing to do.

Wait.

Do not add anything else. Do not dump it. Just let it do its thing. How much do you estimate got in there?

It may be fine but you have to wait and not worry. Next time, use vodka if you are concerned, otherwise, just use water.

 

[SilverAnalyst]

I'm just going on that wich I've heard, but a living beer should be able to survive with a small amount of bleach. However, I'm not sure how much. If it's still producing CO2 it's probably ok. (I guess )

 

[BarryNL]

I'm just going on that wich I've heard, but a living beer should be able to survive with a small amount of bleach. However, I'm not sure how much. If it's still producing CO2 it's probably ok. (I guess )

I think enough yeast will probably survive - the main problem is likely to be a nasty medicinal taste in the beer. I've certainly heard of people rinsing with campden after sanitising with bleach to prevent this, hence the campden suggestion. Obviously the camden will probably kill the yeast hence the need to repitch. I certainly can't see this doing any harm - after all, winemakers chuck campden in their brew all the time.

 

[SilverAnalyst]

Hmmm, I'm learning things every new day.

 

[JimC]

into a 50/50 bleach water solution in a small gatorade bottle.

First off that is WAY to much bleach. For a gatoraid bottle you'd need like 1/2 tsp of bleach. If you had used this concentration you would have no concerns about a bit getting into your beer, heck you could dump the whole bottle in and suffer no side effects with a proper strength solution.

They bleach terror pandered about is much overblown mostly because people use way to much. With the amount you used I wouldn't be surprised if you get nice medicine tastes unfortunately, since you used way, way to much.

Used properly (1tbsp/gallon) bleach makes an effective, cheap no-rinse sanitizer - it even does a decent job in the cleaning dep at the same time.