Cold Crash Mistake

[PackerfaninSanDiego]

Was planning on bottling tomorrow. so I turned up the temp from 35F to 68F. I opened up my fermenter chamber to help get the temp up faster. I looked at my blow off tube set I had going and low and behold I found that it was empty. Sometime during the cold crashing cycle, all the star-san solution with "blow-off" matter got sucked back into the fermenter. I'm purdy damn sure the batch is ruined. No need to bottle this weekend, will probably brew up some Stout........

 

[funnelweb]

Was planning on bottling tomorrow. so I turned up the temp from 35F to 68F. I opened up my fermenter chamber to help get the temp up faster. I looked at my blow off tube set I had going and low and behold I found that it was empty. Sometime during the cold crashing cycle, all the star-san solution with "blow-off" matter got sucked back into the fermenter. I'm purdy damn sure the batch is ruined. No need to bottle this weekend, will probably brew up some Stout........

Why rising temps. before packaging? I always bottle at CC-temp. - ie. 3°C - and had never had any issues priming and carbonating. Well, I wouldn't drop it. How much StarSan did go back? The blow-off should be sterile, so I would give it a really gentle stir and go for a taste.

 

[Sammy86]

Was planning on bottling tomorrow. so I turned up the temp from 35F to 68F. I opened up my fermenter chamber to help get the temp up faster. I looked at my blow off tube set I had going and low and behold I found that it was empty. Sometime during the cold crashing cycle, all the star-san solution with "blow-off" matter got sucked back into the fermenter. I'm purdy damn sure the batch is ruined. No need to bottle this weekend, will probably brew up some Stout........

Have you tasted it yet? I wouldn't be so quick to call the batch ruined because of some star San suck up. If it were me, I would throw a airlock on it...let it crash for a few and then bottle it up!

You never know until you taste it!

 

[PackerfaninSanDiego]

Have you tasted it yet? I wouldn't be so quick to call the batch ruined because of some star San suck up. If it were me, I would throw a airlock on it...let it crash for a few and then bottle it up!

You never know until you taste it!

unless someone(with a Masters in Biochemistry) can guarantee me that it will be fine, I'm dumping it. It sucked up almost a half gallon of star-san/ fermentation "stuff"

 

[arnobg]

Is the solution not setting on top as a separate layer? This seems to usually be the case in this happening with other people, then they just rack it off and rack the good beer from under it.

 

[Sammy86]

unless someone(with a Masters in Biochemistry) can guarantee me that it will be fine, I'm dumping it. It sucked up almost a half gallon of star-san/ fermentation "stuff"

Is star san not a no rinse sanitizer? Also, doesn't trub fall to the bottom of the beer and not put into you keg in bottles? Like said, if it were me I'd give It a taste and go from there...if you didn't want options and opinions then don't post them on a public forum and please don't question my intelligence either I already have a masters degree and working on a second so please spare me the childish b.s.

 

[lumpher]

i'd taste it and see, also. if it tastes bad i'd dump it. another thing to watch out for also is once it sucks all the blowoff stuff back in, it starts sucking air in, including wild yeast. i did that once, and it got really contaminated and infected

 

[bigedsbrew]

I have a friend the same thing happened to him. He bottled it and won a Blue Ribbon with.

 

[bigedsbrew]

A friend of mine had that happen and he bottled sent it in to a comp and won a blue ribbon no ****!! We still laugh about that!!

 

[DurtyChemist]

It's not a masters but I have a BS in biochem and one in biology and I would keg it before dumping it. The only thing I'd see happening is the pH of the brew might have dropped a couple tenth of a point but soda is about a pH of 2 if I remember and sours are a pH of 3.4ish so no harm there. It may make you poop more.

A half gallon is a lot of starsan to use for a blowoff but I'm going to assume you have 1" tubing going into it.

 

[atreid]

Next time don't CC using a blowoff. Instead, use a 3-piece airlock. Fill it a bit below the recommended line with vodka. The vodka will be siphoned slightly but at some point only air (something has to go in).

You can test it by plugging a tube at the bottom of the airlock, fill it at the line with water and siphon the tube with your mouth. At some point you'll see that liquid no longer goes in while the airlock still maintains the seal from outside. I really had to try it to believe it.

 

[bierhund]

I have a B.S. in biotechnology if you care and I pretty much made this same mistake on my last batch. Starsan is basically phosphoric acid and detergent. Technically if diluted properly, you could drink it. Wouldn't taste great but it wouldn't kill you. You should notice that it formed a layer on top of your beer. Stick your siphon below this layer and stop when you get close to almost sucking up the Starsan. You'll lose some beer but shouldn't hurt your beer assuming you siphon early enough. This happened on my kolsch and the beer ended up being amazing!

 

[kh54s10]

There is nothing in the Starsan that would be of a big concern. And I don't thing anything in the catch jug would survive the alcohol in the beer. But then I am not a chemist or biologist. Taste it before dumping it.
First you should use an s style airlock when cold crashing. And second use only enough Starsan to keep the end of your blow off tube submerged. I use a margarine cup in a pot in case the cup fills. Maybe 1/4 - 1/2 cup of Starsan.