Blow Off Container Suck Back

[MrBlackjaw]

What is the likelihood of nasties from the blow off container growing in a beer with a final gravity of 1.002? Rookie mistake made by me when I took my 85°F fermenting sour and placed it in my 64°F basement. Entire contents of blow off container ended up in my beer because I forgot to remove the tube. I don't want to bother inoculating the beer with cultured bugs if bad bacteria has a good chance of still growing.

Thanks.

 

[Gear101]

How did the blow-off get back into the fermenter? It went back from the container to the frem?

 

[MrBlackjaw]

Aye, the temperature change from 85° to 64° caused a vacuum to happen in inside the carboy. I didn't really think that the change in temperature would cause suck back. When I cold crash I always use an s-type airlock to prevent this from happening. I kind of just assumed that the temperature change would not be quick enough to create a vacuum. I was wrong.

 

[Gear101]

WOW that is a first for me too. What did you have in the container? Water, some type of alcohol, sanitized solution.

All I can say is just keep en eye on it and see if anything grows.

 

[CA_Mouse]

If your blow off container has a sanitizer solution (StarSan is the most common) or an alcohol solution (water and vodka) then you should be fine. Unless it was more than a quart, there shouldn't be anything that the alcohol in the beer wouldn't have killed.

 

[MrBlackjaw]

Just plain water. I only use sanitizer in airlocks.

I figure there is a good chance that something wild (brett) was in that container, what I am worried about is mold/bacteria being able to create off flavors in the beer. I was hoping that the alocohol would prohibit this from happening? Kind of like how alcohol stops enterobacter growth.

I am going to rack to a secondary carboy with my sour equipment in hopes that it will still turn out okay.

 

[Calder]

The alcohol should protect you from most spoiling bacteria, however, I'd be most concerned about acetobacter and vinegar. The water would have O2 in it, and you probably sucked back air thru the tube, so you have O2 in the fermenter.

You can scrub the fermenter by adding some sugar and let the yeast create CO2 with it.