Contamination in the fermenter. Boil it again?

[ggtesta]

Hi folks!

I've made a Dark Strong Ale and when I was cooling it the hose of the chiller loose and some water (not sanitized) entered in the beer. I continued the process hoping that this accident didn't ruined my beer. But after 36 hours in the fermenter, nothing happened.

I was wondering: can I bring everything to boil again to 're-sanitize' the beer and start a new fermentation? Certainly this will drasticaly affect the final product, but I just doesn't want to lose everything.

Thank you for the help!

 

[cfonnes]

How much and how clean was the water that got into the beer?

I have had a chiller leak before and the beer was fine. When I used to brew with extract I have used tap water to top off the partial boil without a problem.

 

[j1n]

You aren't the first one for this to happen. it should be fine. i wouldn't boil it again. just leave it alone.

 

[danath34]

just let it go. if the rest of your sanitation was good, and assuming your chiller wasn't nasty, you probably have nothing to worry about.

also the lack of activity in the fermenter doesn't mean it's infected. quite the opposite actually. to my knowledge infection can cause it to REALLY take off more violently than yeast fermentation. just wait it out. most likely the yeast is still propagating and depleting dissolved oxygen before it starts any fermentation.

RDWHAHB

 

[fearwig]

I don't think the effect will be that drastic. Contact with unsanitized water most likely did not harm the beer (unless you see actual signs of contamination).

36 hours is a long time, but not impossibly so. Patience. Then take gravity.

 

[fearwig]

BTW, if you ever DO get an infection and you want to save your beer (assuming it still tastes OK), don't boil because that will isomerize your late hops and overbitter your beer. Bring it to 170F, then cool. Being in the 160-170 window long enough for you to hit 170 is way more than enough to safely pasteurize your beer.

 

[ggtesta]

Thank you guys!

cfonnes: it was tap water and I think that entered about 300ml (10 oz). The water here is generally good.

My main concern was because I've made a very good starter, so I assumed the activity would start sooner.

Update: I was curious so I opened the fermenter to see how it's looking. There's a huge krausen-like foam on the top, so some activity is going on. I will wait some more time to see how it goes. Maybe then I check the gravity.

 

[IslandLizard]

Thank you guys!

cfonnes: it was tap water and I think that entered about 300ml (10 oz). The water here is generally good.

My main concern was because I've made a very good starter, so I assumed the activity would start sooner.

Update: I was curious so I opened the fermenter to see how it's looking. There's a huge krausen-like foam on the top, so some activity is going on. I will wait some more time to see how it goes. Maybe then I check the gravity.

Ah, good sign. That is one problem with buckets, you can't easily see inside. I've been looking at modifying lids to put a stopper hole in it, so you can take a peek, put a bung in it, a thermowell, CO2 tube etc. A utility access.

 

[jalmeida]

You are not out much at this point by pitching and letting it go. And really, pitching yeast is really inoculating. This does not make it infection proof. Despite the surgical methodology as pertains to sanitation it isn't all that common to not have an infection from little things like this as long as all other precautions are followed.


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[Zepth]

I'm on the "tap water should be good enough" bandwagon here. My father used tap water for canned kits, I do it frequently (including an hour ago), neither one of us have had a problem. I now have full boil capabilities, just need to better judge my pre-boil volumes. Perhaps kettle markings would make that a little easier too.

 

[orangehero]

People tend to imagine contamination as all or nothing, but it is a gradual scale. Your beer is contaminated (everyone's is to some degree), but it will likely taste fine...it's pretty hard to completely ruin a beer. For example when you opened the bucket to check on the beer, you added contaminants to it.

You probably just won't be able to repitch the yeast slurry as many times. A pitch of healthy yeast will reduce lag times as well and reduce the impact of contaminating organisms.

 

[fearwig]

Whether a colony of contaminants thrives enough to come anywhere near human taste threshold is more all or nothing than you'd think--if the scattering of cells that get into your beer are unable to get a foothold, they simply don't break through, it's like the difference between a thousand cells and a billion, night and day. The idea that contamination may be barely noticeable is often used to justify extraordinary (and sometimes dumb) precautions against it.

You can also rejuvenate repitched yeast more or less indefinitely by using a starter when they're starting to get sluggish. Usually that's more about stress and cell age than contamination. Yeast can thrive in the presence of other bugs even though they're competing for resources, we just don't like the way the other bugs taste (except when we do).