Cold + blow off tube + star-san *second use =?

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bornandraisedlv

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So I failed to change my blow off tube to an airlock once fermentation had calmed down on my last batch. Well today I pull into the garage and see my heater is on in my fermentation chamber. I decide to take a look to make sure everything is A-ok and my beer is sitting at 34° (heater failed me) ...... open the door and see that an 3/4 a growler of some murky, second use, star-san has sucked back into my beer..... It’s currently heating back up to 65° as I was planing on dry hopping tonight.

Stick with it or is it done? I am hesitant to toss as it’s a Pliny clone and not keen on tossing it so quickly.
 
Should be fine. How much would you estimate was sucked back in? It was a closed system, so no nasties got sucked back in, so you’re fine there. Worst case is you have some star San mixed in, with what a 5 gallon batch? And some being not much.
 
My boil off rate was a little more than estimated on a 90 min boil so I only have about 4.25 gallons in my fermenter. Growler was 3/4 full and just a small amount left in there so I would have to say a good 40oz made it back into the fermenter . It was white murky San too. Was on its second use with heavy blow off from both batches.
 
Oh 40oz? Hmmm, that’s a lot. I have OCD, so at that amount, I would chalk it up to lesson learned and dump it. You know the old sayin, when it doubt, throw it out. Saves the dry hop too.

If you’re going to keep it and try it, I might advise not giving it to other people.
 
It’ll be fine, keep on rolling. I sucked almost a half gallon into a Saison and it was just fine.

Or it might not be. I’d still keep on rolling though. Never dump a beer until you know it’s bad, always assume the best.
 
Second, third, etc use of StarSan is not a problem provided it is still acidic. Merky is OK too if it is due to mineral in the water.

But, you say the first use had a blow-off and therefore diluted the StarSan. If it was more than a little, then you would have diluted the StarSan and raised the PH such that it is no longer a sanitizer. If that is the case, then it should never have been used a second time.

Is the beer OK? Maybe/probably. You sucked back a water based liquid with some yeast contamination (its beer so what), and slightly acidic. It was probably still acidic enough to prevent something from quickly taking hold and contaminating it (you need to convince yourself of that - but a short time is in your favor). 40 ozs in 40 pints, that's about 7%, that should not be a problem, since it is basically water. Based on what you have provided, I don't think you have an issue except you diluted the beer a little. Remember too, that the beer has alcohol that should protect it from most contamination.

In the future, just use enough liquid to cover the end of the blow-off tube, and not 3 pints in a growler.
 
Thanks for all of the feedback. I’m going to keep it going. I’m hoping it will be ok. My process moving forward it blow off until fermentation calms down and then move to airlock.

Will report back here on how it turned out.
 
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