Insects in Primary Spigot

[derekp83]

Today I was racking from my primary fermenter to the bottling bucket, and it took a while for the beer to come out the spigot on my primary. Once it finally did, I noticed a disgusting hairy looking insect, looked sort of like a sponge, and it was in the middle of my racking hose. I stopped it from going in my bottling bucket, poured it down the drain, dumped the little bit of beer that had gone into the bucket and resanitized it. I then went on with my bottling process. When I cleaned up, I noticed some black gunk in my spigot. I took a q-tip and cleaned it, then out came this disgusting, inky, leech-look alike.

Has anyone ever experienced this? Also, does anyone know where I can get caps for my spigots to prevent this in the future, or have other suggestions? I wonder if my beer/ABV is acidic enough that it doesn't matter that 4 gallons of beer passed through the disgusting creature.

 

[jschein]

Never experienced that. Wrap some sanitized foil over the spigot next time. Should have included a picture to gross us all out

 

[derekp83]

Never experienced that. Wrap some sanitized foil over the spigot next time. Should have included a picture to gross us all out

Ya, too rushed to take a pic, but I wish I did. Foils a good idea.

 

[derekp83]

Now that I think of it, it probably was a caterpillar that ended up showing itself in my racking tube. I'm 99% sure it was clogging my spigot and never got into the primary itself. That said, I still don't know what the disgusting slug-like character was, and I'm wondering if the beer's ph/acidity/ABV is enough that it doesn't really matter it all passed through the disgusting thing on its way to the bottling bucket lol.

 

[Yooper]

I don't use spigots for that reason, and rack the beer to the new vessel.
If you want to do a direct transfer without racking, maybe take a clean ziplock bag and twistie tie it around the spigot once you sanitized it? And it goes without saying, but clean and sanitize the spigot on the day you transfer of course.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Today I was racking from my primary fermenter to the bottling bucket, and it took a while for the beer to come out the spigot on my primary. Once it finally did, I noticed a disgusting hairy looking insect, looked sort of like a sponge, and it was in the middle of my racking hose. I stopped it from going in my bottling bucket, poured it down the drain, dumped the little bit of beer that had gone into the bucket and resanitized it. I then went on with my bottling process. When I cleaned up, I noticed some black gunk in my spigot. I took a q-tip and cleaned it, then out came this disgusting, inky, leech-look alike.

Has anyone ever experienced this? Also, does anyone know where I can get caps for my spigots to prevent this in the future, or have other suggestions? I wonder if my beer/ABV is acidic enough that it doesn't matter that 4 gallons of beer passed through the disgusting creature.

No picture needed your description was enough.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

Could it have been a maggot?

 

[danimal92sport]

Oh my... rethinking adding a spigot to my secondary for tasting and gravity checks...

 

[day_trippr]

Ugh. That's a rude surprise right there

 

[derekp83]

Could it have been a maggot?

It certainly didn't look like one.

 

[derekp83]

I don't use spigots for that reason, and rack the beer to the new vessel.
If you want to do a direct transfer without racking, maybe take a clean ziplock bag and twistie tie it around the spigot once you sanitized it? And it goes without saying, but clean and sanitize the spigot on the day you transfer of course.

I definitely sanitize the spigot every time (it's been sitting there for 2 weeks, so it makes sense to). The ziplock bag and twistie is a good idea.

 

[seatazzz]

Also rethinking my setup. I've got a ferment fridge, most insects I get are super adventurous fruit flies that can apparently survive with minimal oxygen. Never had something like OP described. Eeeeew.

 

[S-Met]

Has anyone ever experienced this? Also, does anyone know where I can get caps for my spigots to prevent this in the future, or have other suggestions?

Haven't experienced it, but I've always been concerned. I wrap a 2-3 inch piece of press-in-seal around the spigot. Saran/plastic wrap if I don't have press/seal.

I've tried to make some caps from transfer hose ends but I've been concerned with sanitation. I've tried twist ties on a small sandwich bag or foil, but have always been concerned with the fruit flies or other little critters. But keep going back to press-and-seal.

 

[monkeymath]

It's probably best to just leave everything behind, move to another country and start anew under a different name.

 

[Deadalus]

Depends on the outer diameter of the spigot, but you could try black beer tap caps or the caps off of orange carboy caps (2 sizes).

Or these small end caps https://www.lowes.com/pd/Rubbermaid-100-Piece-Universal-End-Caps/4772377.

 

[DolemiteGK]

It's probably best to just leave everything behind, move to another country and start anew under a different name.

This is really the only solution.