worst noob screw up ever. my beer IS ruined

[jason81]

made a pale ale thursday for my first brew ever. I feel like a huge idiot right now. after i chilled my wort (under 20 min) and pooring into 5gal glas carboy and adding water to make 5gal of wort. Rather than pooring some out or syphoning a sample to take a gravity reading i held the plastic tube in place in the carboy and dropped the hydrometer in to get a reading well i dropped the tube in the carboy so now the tube and the hydrometer where stuck in the carboy with the wort. now that i think of it i should have poored it all back into my kettle to retrieve the hydrometer. But i didnt think of that at the time. didnt want to risk contamination by using something to try to get it out either, i under estimated the power of the fermentation and decited to just leave it and fugued it was fine. 3 hours later and im getting bubbles in my airlock. next morning(yesterday) primary is in full swing so i switched to a blowoff tube before i got a mess. last night it i was getting steady bubling from the blow off within a half hour i looked again and it had stopped completley and kraeusen had settled, so im thinking its either to cold (it was 67f) or i didnt areate enough before pitching the yeast (as per palmers instructions on rehydrating yeast. so i turned up the heat in the house a few degrees and went to bed.

heres the good/ bad part:
woke up not hearing any bubling (its in my bedroom)
quick look revealed fermentation was back! nice)
then i realized the sopper flew out and im missingabout 1/2 gallon of wort, dried up on the floor so i ran and got a new stopper and airlock alreaady sitting in starsan and i was concerned about how long it was exposed to oxygen for.

foung out the hydrometer broke and there was peices of it on the flook and the paper inside the hydromerter was stuck in the blowoff tube causing the stopper to blow.
what a stupid mistake!! what a waste of beer

 

[cclloyd]

Look at it this way - your next batch is bound to go better. No teacher like experience. Welcome to the obsession.

 

[devilishprune]

I'm confused. You put the hydrometer in the beer...and it fell to the bottom and broke? Or did fermentation break it?

Not the worst screw up I've heard.

Your beer doesn't need a krausen to indicate fermentation; for example, look at starters. Of all the starters I've made, 1 has had a krausen and yet all were fermented.

Oxygen exposure isn't as big of a problem as you would expect during active fermentation. CO2 is being pushed out and will displace any O2 pretty quickly.

Sounds like you need to relax, etc.

 

[hotrodtrash]

Use a sanitized turkey baster or wine thief next time. Sorry about the pale ale but that just means you have to start another batch! You should maybe consider picking up a bucket to ferment in too.

 

[frazier]

Good news comes in threes:

1) You will most likely still have beer (just avoid the glass, okay?).
2) You have a great story to tell about the "hydroplug".
3) You won't be making that mistake again!

No worries!

 

[chaydaw]

Your beer is not ruined. I would not dump this beer. Some measure might need to be taken that otherwise shouldnt, but I wouldnt give up on it. My only real concern from your post is the glass that could potentially be in the beer. Why not just strain it when transferring to bottling bucket/keg? I have a strainer that is fine enough that no glass would get through. Yes would would be introducing oxygen to the beer, but at least you would HAVE beer! Not a terrible mistake in my opinion. Drink it fast and I doubt you see any ill effects.

 

[Gridlocked]

Or, if you forget to pull a sample for a reading, shrug your shoulders and just add a week onto your fermentation. Truth be told I very rarely take readings. I just make sure it's done and then give it a week before packaging.

 

[petey_c]

Jason81, I'm a little confuzzled here. You filled a tube (I'm guessing the one the hydrometer came in) with wort, then held it and the hydro in the carboy, then accidentally dropped it into the carboy? The hydro is still in one piece? If that's the case and you had a minor exposure incident, I don't think you'll have a problem. Wait 3 weeks (+/-), bottle and taste.

 

[jason81]

devil and petey:
yes i tried totake a reading IN the carboy and theft it in, it broke or shatered during fermentation.

chaydaw- i was tinking that as well but i was also concerned about the paper and ink used on it it would probably disolve some in the beer before settling in the trub

 

[chaydaw]

That paper and ink will be inconsequential in 5 gallons of beer. Strain it out, let it ferment, give it a good crash cool (or not) and you will be fine in my opinion. Just my opinion, I am not responsible for any potential calls to poison control! But seriously, I would drink it.

 

[KingKegII]

There are glass shards in that beer. The beads used for weight in the hydrometer may also be made of lead. There's a lot of liability involved if you let anyone else drink that beer. I say dump it, chalk it up to experience, and move on to the next batch.

 

[jason81]

ya i think you are right maby i will do that strain when transfering to another carboy to mix with my priming sugar befor i bottle i think most of the glass would have settled and i can just keep my racking cane high enough and not wory about the last inch or so. have of the hydrometer ended up on my floor anyway. and i was gearing up for another brew day today. maby i still will in addition to this one

 

[jason81]

the weight part of the hydrometer was intact and on my floor, but thats a good point too

 

[chaydaw]

Glass shards can easily be strained out. And the beads in a hydrometer are packed down and sealed off, they are not loose. And from what I gather from the post the bulk of the hydrometer, and I am assuming the bottom half he was able to recover.

 

[mikelikesit2000]

That paper and ink will be inconsequential in 5 gallons of beer. Strain it out, let it ferment, give it a good crash cool (or not) and you will be fine in my opinion. Just my opinion, I am not responsible for any potential calls to poison control! But seriously, I would drink it.

I totally agree. I would get one of those super fine mesh hop bags and tie that on to the end of my siphon hose and rack it to a bucket to filter out the foriegn material.

If you dont drink it I will.

 

[joetothemo]

This is one occasion where I would suggest a secondary.

Here's why:

Strain the beer in a few weeks when you rack to secondary...and again a few weeks later when you rack it to your bottle bucket.

You can get yourself some paint strainer bags from Home Depot or Lowe's. OR use a muslin hopsock/grain bag at the end of your autosiphon.


I did this 2 batches ago with a broken thermometer and the beer is ok now. Although I did see all manner of glass, etc in the trub.

I'd just suggest you leave about 1-2" of beer above the trub (both times) to be sure you don't risk sucking up any shards small enough to pass through the mesh bag.

You'll waste a few pints, but not the batch.

 

[Yooper]

Glass shards can easily be strained out. And the beads in a hydrometer are packed down and sealed off, they are not loose. And from what I gather from the post the bulk of the hydrometer, and I am assuming the bottom half he was able to recover.

WHAT?@? Strain out glass shards? That's silly in my opinion.

I'm not one for dumping out beer, but risking a friend getting a tiny glass shard in their throat is crazy! Even if you used a fine mesh strainer and strained the beer (oxidizing it like heck and hence ruining it), do you really think it's a good idea to take the chance?

I'd consider it a lesson well learned, and toss the batch. It'd be worth the $30 for the ingredients just to not have to worry about glass shards in every bottle!

 

[brewit2it]

WHAT?@? Strain out glass shards? That's silly in my opinion.

I'm not one for dumping out beer, but risking a friend getting a tiny glass shard in their throat is crazy! Even if you used a fine mesh strainer and strained the beer (oxidizing it like heck and hence ruining it), do you really think it's a good idea to take the chance?

I'd consider it a lesson well learned, and toss the batch. It'd be worth the $30 for the ingredients just to not have to worry about glass shards in every bottle!

Folks have an irrational fear over broken glass. If strained through fine mesh, there is no risk from drinking it.

 

[Yooper]

Folks have an irrational fear over broken glass. If strained through fine mesh, there is no risk from drinking it.

I'll have to trust you on that! But straining a beer through fine mesh would cause oxidation and ruin the beer anyway in my opinion.

Obviously we can disagree, no worries!

 

[rycov]

Folks have an irrational fear over broken glass. If strained through fine mesh, there is no risk from drinking it.

fear of your own shadow: irrational.
fear of drinking glass: not so much

 

[rycov]

(not dissagreeing about the mesh thing, i dont know. just about the fear part )

 

[vicegrip]

Don't dump it.....its beer....ya don't just dump beer... well for this reason any way. rack it and strain it a couple times and you'll be fine.

 

[Ravenshead]

Actually, you don't really even need the mesh since you have gravity on your side. Glass doesn't float. As long as you don't go after the last little bit at the bottom you should be fine.

I'm used to dealing with 0-G stuff at work where I would be very concerned about glass. However, we haven't tried home-brew on ISS yet.

BTW: From what I hear, carbonation is really hard on the stomach on-orbit.

 

[Bithead]

glass shard ale...none for me thanks.

 

[jason81]

haha glass ale, well its still fermenting i think i will rack to secondary and strain it and leave a few inches at the bottom that way il still get some beer and get to see how it turns out, im not scared, i think il be drinking this by myself though. picked up some ingredients today and a new hydrometer and will be brewing an oatmeal stout tomorrow, and maby do a cider this week too, im thinking somthin similar to the graff recipe maby

 

[Shooter]

But straining a beer through fine mesh would cause oxidation and ruin the beer anyway in my opinion.

Not saying the mesh strainer is a great idea for getting out the glass, but, wouldn't putting the mesh over the end of the cane that goes into the wort avoid oxidation?!?!? If not, it's possible, I have completely misunderstood oxidation to this point!

 

[TheSeether]

The piece of paper that came with my hydrometer specifically states the ballast weight is made from stainless steel and should pose no risk if it were to come in contact with my serving liquids.

 

[jason81]

thats good, il check the label on mine i just picked up another one today

 

[bovineblitz]

Your beer is not ruined. I would not dump this beer. Some measure might need to be taken that otherwise shouldnt, but I wouldnt give up on it. My only real concern from your post is the glass that could potentially be in the beer. Why not just strain it when transferring to bottling bucket/keg? I have a strainer that is fine enough that no glass would get through. Yes would would be introducing oxygen to the beer, but at least you would HAVE beer! Not a terrible mistake in my opinion. Drink it fast and I doubt you see any ill effects.

Dude, there are shards of glass in that beer. There is no way in hell I would risk drinking glass shards for anything.

Small/very sharp shards can go through strainers and even get stirred up and float around with just a little agitation.

Not worth it IMO.

 

[TheSeether]

Just put a label on each bottle that says, "Drink at your own risk". Maybe call it Red Flag and put pictures of red flags with glass shards diagrammed on the flags. Sounds like an instant hit with the lifeguards.