Don't be an idiot like me.....

[indianajns]

This is painful but wanted to share in case it keeps someone else from being stupid like yours truly....
Made my 8th iteration of a Belgian Wit. I've been honing this since the extract days and I expected this beer to be the best yet. Brew day was perfect, hit all my numbers. Fermentation also went perfect. Was on top of all of my temp ramping and had a vigorous fermentation with tons of blow off into a jug filled with about 3/4 of a gallon of star san water from the brew day. Normally, I replace the blow off tube once fermentation is complete and replace with a simple airlock. This time, I did not perform this step. I cranked my fridge down to 40F as I like to do before racking to the keg. Without getting into too much detail, dropping the temp was like siphoning from a gas tank and every drop of the 3/4 of a gallon of star san was sucked right back into the wit. I almost cried as I dumped it in the sink as it smelled amazing.... The only silver lining here is that I guarantee this will NEVER happen in my homebrewery again....

 

[user 144271]

That sucks


sorry I had to.

 

[Thedutchtouch]

I know this sucks but you do realize that yeast can metabolize starsan, right?

 

[sudbuster]

This is painful but wanted to share in case it keeps someone else from being stupid like yours truly....
Made my 8th iteration of a Belgian Wit. I've been honing this since the extract days and I expected this beer to be the best yet. Brew day was perfect, hit all my numbers. Fermentation also went perfect. Was on top of all of my temp ramping and had a vigorous fermentation with tons of blow off into a jug filled with about 3/4 of a gallon of star san water from the brew day. Normally, I replace the blow off tube once fermentation is complete and replace with a simple airlock. This time, I did not perform this step. I cranked my fridge down to 40F as I like to do before racking to the keg. Without getting into too much detail, dropping the temp was like siphoning from a gas tank and every drop of the 3/4 of a gallon of star san was sucked right back into the wit. I almost cried as I dumped it in the sink as it smelled amazing.... The only silver lining here is that I guarantee this will NEVER happen in my homebrewery again....

I suppose all of us have pulled that trick at one time or another. That's why I put the jars together, to prevent just such absent-minded nuisances. Then I discovered they are also top croppers.

 

[indianajns]

I know this sucks but you do realize that yeast can metabolize starsan, right?

I'm aware and thought of this but it was just too much too metabolize methinks.... Even if the yeasties eat all of it I can't imagine it not producing off flavors.. Plus there is the ick factor.

 

[kh54s10]

My question for all those that get suck back of a 1/2 gallon to 2 gallons of Starsan is why do you use so much? I use about 1/2 a cup. Just enough to keep the end of the blowoff tube submerged.

 

[Darwin18]

I'm aware and thought of this but it was just too much too metabolize methinks.... Even if the yeasties eat all of it I can't imagine it not producing off flavors.. Plus there is the ick factor.

This happened to me last summer with a Premium American Lager. The starsan solution and beer separated into two distinct layers in the carboy. I ended up siphoning below the starsan layer and salvaged the beer. I put the keg out for a BBQ and our friends kicked it and said that they enjoyed it, but still in the back of my mind I knew the truth.

 

[Calichusetts]

I had this happen about 3 years ago when I just started and did a lager. 1 gallon batch but I sucked in almost a pint of starsan...it does seperate and you can rake below it.