e lo
Well-Known Member
So, I'm finally going to post a "did I ruin my beer?" thread. Never thought I'd see the day. I brewed an ESB last weekend, and it turned out beautifully. My gravity sample was fantastic; probably the best beer I've made yet. I fermented in a dorm-style fridge for temp control purposes; it works well, but I have to use a blow-off tube, because a 6.5 gallon carbory + airlock is too tall. Fine, no problem. However -- I crash cooled it last night. Before I did, I replaced the Star San in my blow-off container (an old apple juice bottle from a batch of Apfelwein) with about 8 oz of fresh Star San.
I just checked it with the intention of racking it into a keg, and I discovered that, much to my chagrin, the star san had been sucked all the way up the blowoff tube and into my carboy! The beer had stratified, and there was a layer of milky-white liquid on the top, about 1/8" thick. It looked very much like cloudy Star San, and I'm sure that's what it was. I should have foreseen this, obviously, and feel like a *******. I racked it anyway, being careful to leave the milky layer behind, as it remained stratified as I siphoned.
I'm not worried about infection here; the beer was done fermenting, and what was drawn in was not only sanitized, but sanitizer. I'm worried about whether or not ~8oz of Star San in 5 gal of beer is enough to be concerned about. It can't have changed the pH much at all, and the phosphoric acid shouldn't be that much of a concern -- hell, I drink diet soda sometimes, and that'd got enough phosphoric acid to clean a penny, so...
Any thoughts?
I just checked it with the intention of racking it into a keg, and I discovered that, much to my chagrin, the star san had been sucked all the way up the blowoff tube and into my carboy! The beer had stratified, and there was a layer of milky-white liquid on the top, about 1/8" thick. It looked very much like cloudy Star San, and I'm sure that's what it was. I should have foreseen this, obviously, and feel like a *******. I racked it anyway, being careful to leave the milky layer behind, as it remained stratified as I siphoned.
I'm not worried about infection here; the beer was done fermenting, and what was drawn in was not only sanitized, but sanitizer. I'm worried about whether or not ~8oz of Star San in 5 gal of beer is enough to be concerned about. It can't have changed the pH much at all, and the phosphoric acid shouldn't be that much of a concern -- hell, I drink diet soda sometimes, and that'd got enough phosphoric acid to clean a penny, so...
Any thoughts?