Stupid is as Stupid does…. again
Here I go again! This time I left the blowoff tube in the jug of sanitizer when I turned down the temperature in my fermentation fridge. I wouldn’t have really expected what happened to have happened, but it did and I now I feel like a moron. Some how with the change in temperature, the carboy actually siphoned all the starsan back into the carboy. 
As you can see from this picture, there was about an inch of old Star-san on top of the beer. Since Star-san is not supposed to affect the flavor of the beer, I decided to siphon the beer from under the Star-san. I’m hopeful that the Belgian Pale Ale is not destroyed, I tried some and it seemed ok. Thankfully it wasn’t a dump case… yet!
It would have been fine to have left it.
It’s great to have another homebrewer say so. I just couldn’t let it be, it was at least 10 days old and had been “blowing bubbles” for many of those days, so I don’t know sanitized it still was. Figure it is best not to take any chances. Thankfully the beer will not be around long enough to really develop a secondary infection. It will all be consumed the first weekend in October.
That hurts, but if it tastes ok then I can’t imagine diluted Star-San would be harmful even in that quantity. I’d check the PH before I drank a pint of it, though.
It looks like you got it separated pretty well. Good thing the star-san sits on top like that – I didn’t know it would do that. You’ll be fine though. I’ve heard from a variety of sources that star-san is actually a yeast nutrient. Shi*t happens when you homebrew!
The head Chemist was on the BN a few years ago, you could have it at 40% of volume and still be consumable, taste would be impacted of course, so RDWHAHB.
@Joe, you’ll have to come over and be my taster! 🙂 Check the PH? What do you think the Star-san will do to the PH? My pH usually runs a bit low 5.1 or so.
@Billy, your so right, shit happens. While I initially freaked out for about 15 seconds. it was actually quite fun trying to save it. I almost felt like an ER surgeon, reacting trying to save my patient! (not that I would/could actually compare myself to a surgeon) Which reminds me I need to soak my vanilla bean for my smoked stout. I’m gonna try tequila, cuz that is how I roll. Sorry for the odd transition, while I was saving my Belgian Pale Ale, I racked my smoked stout to the secondary as well. So playing along with Iron Brewer round 3, I’m soaking my vanilla in tequila. Why? I’ve never done it. Via La Homebrew!
@thomas, wow! that is a great fact! thanks! gives me a lot of hope.
Dude! You gotta hate a stupid mistake…sorry about your possible loss.