This is a first for me...

[skibb]

Well I brewed a hefeweizen and when I went to pitch my yeast (a 3 liter starter for a 6 gallon batch) my thermowell fell into the wort right after I dumped the yeast in. Now I'm kinda freaking about an infection since I did not sanitize the top or inside the thermowell.
Now I'm thinking: well I will just let fermenation take its course- it shouldn't be more than 5 days with a starter that size and I'm not sure if the infection will really start up by then SO I was thinking of using Campden tablets as soon as fermentation is complete to try and stop the infection before it starts... Is this the best I can do? I've never used them before so I'm not sure how many it will take and do you all think this may help save my batch?

 

[KillerKellers]

Its a hefe with a huge starter.. you are probably fine, especially if you plan to drink it young and fast.

 

[SC_Ryan]

^this

 

[onemanlan]

I rarely sanitize much when transferring from one container to another. As long as you know your yeast culture is pure and nothing is in your wort then you can pretty much be sure that nothing will contaminate in between that time. Not to mention if bacteria do come into the wort they will be trying to establish a foothold in numbers while the yeast has a huge head start in cell count. The yeast will easily out populate small numbers of bacteria that could be present from airborne sources. That being said many bacteria are poorly tolerant of ethanol so that will maintain some measure of sanitation over time. I think your worries are moot though. Happy brewing!