Has anyone accidentally pushed a bung into a recently pitched carboy? I just bought a 6.5 G carboy to get away from my ratty primary bucket and realized that I only had bungs for my 5 G carboy and for my growler (for starters), which forced me to utilize what I had. I accidentally pushed the smaller of the two into the carboy when I was putting the airlock in. What are the odds of the beer being destroyed? My hands touched the top of the bung quite a bit and I am sure they weren’t sterile of course. Also, how do I get that thing back out once I rack over to the secondary?
The bad news is that the beer is definitely contaminated. The good news is that it, and every other beer you’ve brewed, was contaminated anyway. With what, and how much, will determine whether or not you’ll be able to taste it. If you have a sizable pitch of healthy yeast in there, they’ll probably out-compete anything else.
Just to be safe, I’d leave it in the fermenter for a while (maybe 3-4 weeks). That way, if some off-flavors are going to develop, you’ll know about it before packaging, and can decide what to do then.
Agreed. The beer is probably fine. Once you rack it, you can get the stopper out with a plastic shopping bag.
Hindsight is 20/20, but this is exactly why I constantly spray everything with sanitizer, hands included, during the racking process. I probably spray as much on the outside of buckets, cornys, and their lids as I do inside, even if it’s mostly just for peace of mind.
I’ve heard of people putting part of a cloth in the container(the carboy in this case) and flipping it upside down so that the object(airlock stopper) is sitting on the rag, then just pulling the rag out and out comes the stopper…might take a few tries, Ive never done it.
Hope it helps.
