So I bottled a Falconer’s Flight 7 C’s SMaSH recipe the other day. Before I bottled it, I noticed a couple small hairs at the end of the auto-siphon where the filter is at. I tried and tried to remove it with no avail, so I said screw it and threw it in star-san for 45 minutes or so. Then I proceeded on with the usual bottling methods. My LHBS is like an hour away, and I did not feel like driving all the way out there for one thing.
I was wondering if hair from pets or people can be sanitized? If not, I wonder what other risks of off flavors it can cause? I guess I will find out in a couple weeks when it is carbed.
The things that mostly make hair dirty are mites, bacteria, oils, dead skin cells, and hair products. The one-step + water will kill the mites/bacteria and thin the oil but, and this is true of everything one-step sanitizes, it’s all still there (unless you are able to rinse it away). You can kill and clean “germs” all day but they’re still going into your beer or the beer is passing over it.
The hair will continue to be a place for bacteria to grow. This batch of beer is probably fine but the $8-$12 to get a new siphon is worth it to keep from possibly contaminating your beer.
If you used Falconer’s, it’s not a SMaSH in the true sense of the term - you’re using a blend of hops.
might be a stupid question, but do you take the “filter” cap off and run water through that way?
seems like it should get anything out, unless you’ve left a crud spot.
I had a hairball stuck to the plastic cross at the end of the auto siphon. I had to use tiny manicure scissors to cut it lose. I would not siphon through hair…sorry.
@shadetree: Haha I know, it’s a blend of several hops into pellet form. It’s a pseudo SMaSH 
@darthmogarth: I tried that. The hair was trapped in between the black plastic and clear plastic at the base where the two are sealed together.
@mvsawyer: Yeah I figured probably wasn’t the best idea, but at the same time I have read about a guy who stuck his entire sanitized arm in his primary fermenter to retrieve something (just before bottling). He said the beer still came out great.
Your beer will most likely be fine. Cleaning and sanitation are good practices, as they greatly reduce the chance of something infecting your beer, but odds are if you totally forgot to sanitize everything in your process your beer would be fine anyway. Infections are not that common in a clean enviroment; sanitation just pushes the odds from uncommon to very rare.
I’d singe it off with a lighter. I think it would burn faster than the plastic would melt. You sure its a hair? Maybe its a “hair” from the glue used to seal the two parts.
I have seen that before & was my first thought.
