Rubber plug fell into the carboy

[bredstein]

Sorry if it had to be posted elsewhere, but since the brew under question is all grain, I decided to to try it here. The story is simple - when I was shaking the cooled wort in a carboy to give it its five minutes of aeration, I accidentally pushed the rubber plug too far, and it fell right into the wort.

It was a plain rubber plug, and the only sanitizing it received was hot tap water and soap. I had a spare clean carboy, and I could (and probably, should) transfer the wort into it, but I decided to experiment and kept it for the whole time of fermentation, which lasted for 12 days. When bottling, I noticed that the beer was cloudy. It tasted OK though. It was an AHS Ordinary bitter, a very simple daily beer, nothing fancy. Also, I have brewed it with exactly same everything for at least ten times, and it never came out cloudy. Today I tasted it after a week - it didn't clear a bit, but tasted quite good, just as it usually does.

If anybody had a similar story, please let me know how your beer turned out. And also, in general, do you guys think that this cloudiness is related to some bacteria?

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

Never happened to me and if it tastes good then no worries. I did see this on one of our vendors site if you have problems getting the stopper out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUSx0xN_R3o&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[GASoline71]

5 minutes?

Anyhoo... I have accidentally dropped stuff in my fermenter buckets before (sanitized and unsanitized). I have just sprayed my arm from the elbow down with StarSan and went in after it. I have yet, in 2.5 years of brewing, to brew an infected batch of beer.

Gary

 

[bredstein]

I have just sprayed my arm from the elbow down with StarSan and went in after it.
Gary

No buckets here, sorry! I wish I could stick my arm in the carboy, grab a stopper, and then pull it out

 

[GASoline71]

I switched from carboys to buckets a long time ago. Just easier for me to handle, and I also like being able to drop a sanitized hydrometer right into the brew instead of having to use a thief of some kind.

I do use carboys for any kind of secondary use.

Gary

 

[azazel1024]

Kitchen tongs. I have two pairs that'll fit down the mouth of my 3 and 5 gallon carboys to knab my hydrometer. Its a tight fit, but it'll fit in okay and allows the tongs to open enough to grab it. Granted, sometimes it takes a minute or two of tilting the carboy around to get the hydrometer right below the tongs to grab it since I can't move the tongs around much and still open them...but it works.

I like to watch my beer fermenting. That and my bucket doesn't seal well enough for an S/double bubble airlock to bubble. Also easier to clean by carboys by throwing water in there and shaking it like it owes me money.

 

[RyeGuy]

I once dropped the rusty bit of my screwdriver in my keggle while chilling. It was in there for about 45 minutes until I transferred to the carboy. It all worked out ok. The yeast will kill anything that gets in RDWHAHB

 

[jhalloran]

That happened to me once. I switched to a drilled bung instead of a rubber stopper. Like so:

You'd be hard pressed to push that into a carboy.

 

[BlackGoat]

I had this happen to a beer that was in secondary. I just left it in there and covered it with foil, everything worked out fine and I fished it out after the beer was finished and transferred on. You absolutely should be sanitizing your stoppers and airlocks though in the future, its just a quick step that could save a batch from the potential for infection.

 

[fmr_army]

I typically swear like an army-sailor (my dad was in the Navy, I was in the Army). i suggest that you cover it up somehow to keep infections out: tinfoil, another stopper with airlock, paper towel.

Most of my beer winds up cloudy - tastes just fine to me. Did I mention swearing at the beer?

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

I've had this happen before. Never had an ill effect. That being said my fermenter of choice these days has a 6 inch tri-clover so I definitely can remove stuff I've dropped inside

 

[BackAlley]

Just to add insult to injury....given that the stopper was used to shake the wort, it definitely should have been sanitized in the first place.

 

[bredstein]

Just to add insult to injury....given that the stopper was used to shake the wort, it definitely should have been sanitized in the first place.

"Sanitized" can be read in many ways. Washing with dish soap and rinsing with hot tap chlorine-filled water is enough for closing the carboy while shaking. When I need to sanitize the carboy, I do more - I fill it with cold tap water mixed with 7 tbs bleach and let it sit for about an hour, then rinse with tap water. Always worked fine for me...

 

[kh54s10]

I didn't see any opinions on the source of the cloudiness but I would say that it is not related to having the stopper dropped into the beer. Unless it is some sort of infection.

 

[bredstein]

Unless it is some sort of infection.

That's the question! Are there any known infections that contribute only to cloudiness, leaving the taste OK? Also, I forgot to mention in my first post that the fermentation didn't look any different - no strange looking foam, smell, or anything of this kind. Just as usual.