Greetings. New brewer here working on my first batch. I’m using the “Homebrew Starter Kit - Block Party Amber” and it has been a very fun experience so far.
This past weekend was “Bottling Day” but I think I may have made a mistake in one step. Following the instructions, I had tubing attached to the fermentor’s spigot leading into the bottling buck below. As soon as I opened the spigot on the fermentor I noticed the airlock on top began to gurgle and some of the solution appeared to backfill into the fermenter bucket. At this point I’m thinking I should have removed the airlock before I opened the spigot.
My concern is that on “Brew Day” the instructions said to “fill the airlock with cleanser solution” that came from “Decontaminate” step earlier. It looks like the “No-Rinse Cleanser” that came with the kit is “sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate”. I’m worried that this solution getting into my fermentor may now have made the brew unsafe to drink. I don’t want to risk some sort of accidental poisoning would it be smart for me to dump this batch and try again?
For the future, I’m assuming I should probably remove the airlock before I transfer from the fermentor. Also, I have read in other places about people using Vodka in the airlock instead of the cleaning solution, is this a viable/safer alternative?
Thank you in advance for any feedback and insight!
Ouch… I’ll bet many have done that… I think the dellution will be plenty to render the one step harmless… IF it the one step, It says it’s safe to not even rinse…
Now, you know the next time to remove it… Right?
Sneezles61
I agree, it depends on if your cleaner was no-rinse. If so, I’d say definitely no problem. If it was not a no-rinse, you still could be fine. It sounds like you made at least 5 gallons? If so, there couldn’t possibly be enough ppm to hurt a human, probably wouldn’t even affect taste.
In the future, you can certainly use vodka if you want. Lots of home brewers use StarSan as a sanitizer, which is safe to get sucked in, even if undesirable. Also, yes you should remove the airlock. When I was bottling, I would have to transfer from my fermenter to a bottling bucket, so the entire lid would be removed. I was taking a risk, exposing the beer to lots of oxygen, but they normally turned out ok.
Thank you for the feedback. Yes, it was a 5 gallon of the Block Party Amber. It was a packet of the “No-Rinse Cleanser” that came with the Northern Brewer starter kit. Like you see in this picture.
If only there was an easy and painless way to remove bucket lids. Granted, them being hard to remove makes for a better fermenting seal… But man do my fingers get eaten up every time
I’d look for food service versions. They’re commonly used with pickle buckets, etc. in restaurants, and are probably more robust than the one our host offers.
Actually having a little bit “gurgle” in will help you homebrew, not hurt it. The no-rinse cleaner is essentially a food grade hydrogen peroxide, which will help in removing sulfites and wine tannins. It’s kinda like those drops you add to your wine, which is just diluted peroxide. So your mistake might actually be a good thing… but on the flip-side it might add some oxygen, which I turn might oxidize the wine. Only way to find out is to imbibe some… so okole maluna!!
