Sanitizer added to fermenter...lots of it!

[samiamsl]

I've only brewed a couple times before and it's been over a year since my last batch. I made the mistake of brewing late at night and it all went well until I started adding cold water to my fermenter to fill it up to five gallons.

Being tired, I noticed the water seemed a bit warm but didn't care. Of course, after I got it all in and mixed with the wort I realized to my horror I just added my one step sanitizer solution, and about 2 gallons at that! Oops...

It's a lager (it was a Christmas present or I would've gone for something easier) and after eight hours, it's got some krausen on the top and lets off a bubble through the blow off hose every 2-3 seconds. Will it live?? Or will it kill everyone who drinks it now?

 

[BrewCrewKevin]

Ooooh.... ouch. whoops.

I don't know... try it! For science!

My instinct is that it won't work. Most of the other threads on the topic I found were worried about a tablespoon or so sucked into the airlock. That much is definitely fine, but 2 gallons is a LOT of sanitizer.

Might as well try though. If it doesn't ferment or tastes terrible, you'll at least know what causes it. But my rule is don't dump until your SURE it's bad. What I would do is proceed as normal. Let us know how (if) it turns out!

 

[Hello]

Umm, I'd wait it out. 2 gallons is quite a bit though. Are we talking an extract batch?

Side note, not caring about "too warm" of water in a lager seems like you have an uphill battle anyway. Lagers need much lower fermentation temps than ales.

Regardless, I know I added about 8 oz of diluted star san to a 1 gallon batch. In terms of ratios, I think you're okay. The porter I made is hot, like jet fuel hot, and still remains untouched while it conditions. The effects of star san went unnoticed as far as I can tell.

 

[samiamsl]

Umm, I'd wait it out. 2 gallons is quite a bit though. Are we talking an extract batch?

Side note, not caring about "too warm" of water in a lager seems like you have an uphill battle anyway. Lagers need much lower fermentation temps than ales.

Yup, it's an extract batch.
And I used saflager s-23 yeast, from what I can tell it's a lager yeast that prefers warmer temperatures as far as lagers are concerned (ideally 53-59 F but can be 48-72F). Hence, why I wasn't as concerned about the warm water...and I was too tired to care at that moment.

So far, it seems to be acting normally. The yeast is pretty active at least.

 

[WileECoyote]

Hello, You should really go to the one step sanitizer solution web page and read how toxic that sanitizer is to drink and at what quantities.

Even if it ferments out and doesn't taste real bad, dose not mean its safe to drink.

And I definitely would not give it out as a present.

Cheers

 

[insanim8er]

That sucks... My last brew (about two weeks ago) was ameature hour for sure. I ferment in kegs, and was sanitizing them. I grabbed one and started filling it with cooled wort. Then realized I forgot to empty it. So I lost a gallon of beer. Thank god it wasn't more.

I brewed a Graff several months ago. About half a gallon of starsan solution got sucked back in when I cold crashed it with the blow off tube still in tact.

 

[Desvio]

It's stories like this that make me glad I use a 3% citric acid solution for sanitizing everything, nontoxic, and if it ever gets in my beer it will just make it a tad sour.

 

[BrewCrewKevin]

Just to add to the Lager Yeast situation: Lager yeasts are actually very active at higher temps. It's actually pretty hard to kill a lager yeast with heat, so I wouldn't worry about that. The problem is that they will be full of fusel and ester flavors at higher temps. But as long as it came down from those temps by the time it got to fermenting, it should work just fine.

 

[boydster]

I would not drink a beer that was 40% One Step solution. I don't know the toxicity nor do I care (haven't used it since my one-and-only Mr. Beer batch), I just think it sounds gross. Did you taste the wort?

 

[kh54s10]

Definitely sounds like a dumper to me with 2/5ths one step which is more of a cleaner than a sanitizer in the first place. I would be worried about what cleaning chemicals are in there.

 

[peterj]

http://www.ecologiccleansers.com/OneStepMSDS.pdf

Looks like it's basically oxyclean with table salt and citric acid. I would go ahead and dump it now because it's going to taste terrible (probably chalky, sour, and salty) and it could possibly irritate your GI tract. At least it was a gift and you didn't pay for it.

 

[samiamsl]

http://www.ecologiccleansers.com/OneStepMSDS.pdf

Looks like it's basically oxyclean with table salt and citric acid. I would go ahead and dump it now because it's going to taste terrible (probably chalky, sour, and salty) and it could possibly irritate your GI tract. At least it was a gift and you didn't pay for it.

Thanks for that link! ...hmmm, maybe I can give it to someone I don't like. They can belch the rest of the night away (don't worry, I would never really do that! Probably.)

Well, I'm still interested in seeing how it does so I think I'll at least keep it through to the secondary fermentation and maybe bottle one or two beers. Chuck the rest so there's no accidental ingestion of it.

Just checked on it, seems like it's finished with primary already (only a bubble every 9s) or it's stalled out. It's only been 4.5 days since brewing which I think is a bit soon for a lager to finish primary? Maybe the one step has taken a toll on the yeast.