Bad decision? Contamination risk

[StuAlban]

Hello folks, I put my third kit on to brew on Tuesday night (it's a Munton's Smugglers Ale) and the SG was approx 1052 which is a fair bit higher than the other 2 kits I've done. I pitched the yeast dry even though the instructions said to rehydrate it first.

All was well until I got home last night (about 24 hours into the fermentation) and found it bubbling out round the edge of the lid and through the airlock and grommet. Shouldn't have been a problem as I've read about fitting a 'blow-off tube' and thought that would solve it. Maybe I should have fitted one straight away with that level of SG?

Anyway, the mistake came when I tried to change the airlock for a piece of tube and proceeded to push the grommet through the lid and into the wort - damn! :cry:
I made the decision that a piece of rubber floating in the wort wasn't a good idea and tried to fish it out with a hastily sanitised spoon. This proved to be impossible because I couldn't see where it had gone. All I managed to do was to disturb the foam and the CO2 layer on the top.
So what I did was to rack it into another FV (minus the grommet of course) and put the tube on more carefully this time. Although I've lost a lot of yeast it has already started to foam quite a lot for a second time.

What are my chances that I've exposed it to oxygen and infected it? I'm starting to think that I should have left the grommet in there!

 

[calumscott]

So long as you were careful with everything you should be fine. So early into fermentation I don't think you would want to worry unduly about oxygen.

Your infection risks are:

1. there would likely have been potential infecting agents on the grommet
2. there may have been potential infecting agents on the spoon
3. there may have been potential infecting agents on the syphon tube
4. you may have introduced potential infecting agents when sucking the syphon
5. there may have been potential infecting agents on the second FV
6. there may have been airbourne potential infecting agents settling during the transfer

In mitigation:

1. It's no longer there, exposure was limited.
2. You sanitised it, you should be fine.
3. ??
4. ??
5. ??
6. ??
7. You already have a healthy population of yeast which should out-compete any infecting agents.
8. Alcohol concetrations should be rising rapidly which will help supress infecting agents.

My opinion - if all your kit was sanitised properly I think you'll be quite unfortunate if it goes off.

 

[StuAlban]

Thanks for the advice, I'm feeling a bit better about it now!
My risk is on the sanitisation of the kit as I hadn't planned for the event and didn't know what kit I was going to need. I therefore sanitised less thoroughly than I would normally do. I use VWP to sanitise and usually match or exceed the stated time - not sure I did this time round!

 

[calumscott]

VWP is seriously lethal stuff. It's what I use. You should be fine so long as it got more than a couple of minutes.

 

[StuAlban]

Yes it does seem to be very strong going by the smell of the stuff. What steps do you take for rinsing it off? I'm not only concerned about it killing the yeast but also about getting traces of it into the beer and ultimately into my body!

 

[calumscott]

My sterilising process for a brew is:

Mix up an FV full of VWP.
Chuck everything in.
Do other stuff for 10 mins or so
Take stuff out and rinse under cold tap
Rinse FV two or three times in with a few litres of cold water, making sure to wash down the sides with the same hand used to take the stuff out previously.

And so far, so good.

 

[StuAlban]

Looks like I needn't have worried so much about this brew. Took a gravity reading last night (day 13) and it was down to 1010. Had a quick taste and it seemed fine as well as being particularly clear in colour. There were a few little brown bits stuck to the wine thief I'd used but I'm hoping that's just undisolved extract or yeast remnants rather than anything bad. I'll take another reading tomorrow to check it has stopped but I doubt it will go below 1010? Probably won't have time to bottle it until Saturday (day 18) - do you think this is leaving it too long?
Cheers, Stu.

 

[jonnymorris]

I doubt it will go below 1010?

Unlikely. Have you checked over a couple or three days?

Probably won't have time to bottle it until Saturday (day 18) - do you think this is leaving it too long?

Not at all. I leave mine 2 weeks in primary plus a third week to clear.

 

[StuAlban]

Thanks, no I've only checked it once. If I check again on Saturday and its the same I suppose I can assume it has stayed at 1010 for the whole period. What I mean is that gravity can't go back up again? (unless you have inaccuracies in your measuring process).

 

[jonnymorris]

What I mean is that gravity can't go back up again?

I assume that's a rhetorical question? Check it on Sat and bottle. Job done.

 

[StuAlban]

Yes it was rhetorical - probably should have dropped the question mark!
Thanks again for the helpful advice. Nice to be part of great community on here.

 

[StuAlban]

Hello all,
Just thought I'd give a quick update on this batch. Well it tastes very good, slightly sweet and a bit spicy.
The only thing is that it's a bit under carbonated. I've followed my usual priming method (one Coopers drop per 500ml) and the conditioning temperature would have been similar. Is it possible that I lost some of the yeast 'power' when I racked in to a second FV on day 2? Don't really understand yeast yet so not sure if it would have 'recovered' from that event.

 

[BigYin]

you won't have lost any yeast that would have mattered. Yeast are single cell animals - there are BILLIONS of them in a healthy brew - the low carbonation may be the result of the amount of sugar available for the yeast or the temperature it was kept at during carbonation/conditioning..

Don't fret though - the beer has come out good despite the problems, so that's a win :drink: :drink: :drink:

Personally I don't like beer to be too carbonated anyway, so just enjoy it :mrgreen:

 

[StuAlban]

Thanks, I'll enjoy it :
Always good to try and learn something from successes and failures alike. :thumb: