Paranoid About Broken Glass

[MyCarHasAbs]

Saturday I broke my hydrometer in one of my buckets that I use for sanitizing items at the last minute. To the best of my knowledge it only broke in two pieces but I could feel a very small piece buried at the very bottom in a crevice of my bucket. Since moving to AG and making greater volumes I've gotten smart by using a 4 cup pitcher to transfer wort to the carboy. I went to use the pitcher and then thought...there may still be a piece of broken glass somewhere in the water. I rinsed it out...swirled the water around and dumped it again. I went on to using the pitcher again and filling the carboy as usual.

< ----- to be clear, I use two buckets. I have a large mesh filter that I use to dump in one bucket with to eliminate the hop blanket and use the second bucket for sanitizing items including a pitcher for collecting and pouring --- >

I'm probably just being overly paranoid but in the event a teeny tiny morsel or broken glass (somewhere between the size of a grain of sand or the tip of a ball point pen) made it's way in miraculously from the bottom of the bucket does anyone think it's any reason to worry? I'd hate to dump the beer and replace not only the carboy but both pale buckets..

I'll repeat, I DID end up dumping the sanitizer bucket the hydrometer broke in and rinsed it out with water/swirling it around before dumping. I remember taking my fingers and running them around the bottom and in the crevices and couldn't feel anything. I'll also add that I help it underneath a light, moved it around, and couldn't see anything.

 

[kh54s10]

You transferred to the carboy with a pitcher, so you did not dump the last little bit from the bottom of your pot? If so any glass would be left behind. If you transfer to your bottling bucket or keg, again any glass would be left in the trub.

I don't see anything to worry about.

 

[Hello]

I suppose you'll be okay as long as that piece of glass did actually sink. But it may settle in the trub if it didn't sink already. I'd be worried too though. I think it may be okay in the end.

Your transfer technique though sounds confusing though. Why not make gravity your friend and use a hose to transfer?

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

You transferred to the carboy with a pitcher, so you did not dump the last little bit from the bottom of your pot? If so any glass would be left behind. If you transfer to your bottling bucket or keg, again any glass would be left in the trub.

I don't see anything to worry about.

I also figured in the unlikely event it did make it's way in the carboy it would settle quite heavily in the sediment during cold crashing.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

I suppose you'll be okay as long as that piece of glass did actually sink. But it may settle in the trub if it didn't sink already. I'd be worried too though. I think it may be okay in the end.

Your transfer technique though sounds confusing though. Why not make gravity your friend and use a hose to transfer?

Yea sorry, I'll try to explain again.

Two buckets, one carboy, one big kettle.
5 gallons of wort in a large kettle is a bit heavy to lift and pour.

My Steps:
1) take pitcher and transfer wort from kettle to bucket with mesh strainer on top to filter out hops.
2) meanwhile, other bucket filled with sanitizer houses pitcher and a few other things..including the hydrometer that broke.
3) take bucket with now hop filtered wort and slowly pour into carboy with large funnel.

I could do a gravity feed system but that would take longer.

So really the only way any microscopic slivers of broken glass could make it's way into the carboy is if it happened to be floating near the top of the water I was using to wash the pitcher with. But I'm hoping the quick rinse of the bucket eliminated any chances of that happening.

 

[Hello]

Oh well, okay. So if your pitcher was used like that then I get it. I'd be shocked if there were glass in your wort. You put the pitcher in the star san, you dump the star san in that bucket then take that sanitized pitcher and use it to move liquid.

Gravity, BTW, is quick. No lie. But you do what works for you, I was just thinking that's just a big ole pain in the ass. Bigger picture here, I doubt there's glass in your carboy. I think there is probably glass wherever you dumped that star san and it's so little, if it was down the drain, it won't hurt anything.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

You put the pitcher in the star san, you dump the star san in that bucket then take that sanitized pitcher and use it to move liquid.

Close enough haha.
I had to illustrate the process to a co worker earlier using salt and pepper shakers.

 

[Gavin C]

You can avoid this problem in the future by not sanitizing the hydrometer. There is no need as it doesn't touch cooled wort in the FV.

After the boil take a sample from the pot and let it cool to the calibration temperature of the hydrometer.

While the sample is cooling in the fridge/ice bucket/cold water, transfer the wort, tidy up, pitch yeast etc.

Take hydrometer out of its protective case

Measure gravity at the correct temperature (Usually 68F or 60F depending on the instrument)

Rinse hydrometer and put it back in its protective case