Broken hydrometer

[ericinthewoods]

My hydrometer broke in my fermenter. Is there any safe way to salvage the beer? I have not pitched my yeast yet, and have it all sealed up. This was an expensive batch of RIS that I would really prefer to not discard.

 

[Descender]

Pitch your yeast. Put a piece of pantyhose on your racking cane when siphoning

rhino farts and rocket fuel!

 

[Spookgolds]

I smashed a glass carboy next to my cooling brew kettle which was sitting on the ground. I found lots of shards of glass in it. I'm sure it could have been filtered some way, but I would feel like **** if someone cut their throat when I could have just avoided it altogether.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

In this case, the old saying "when in doubt, toss it out" applies, at least for me.

 

[Yooper]

How in the world did the hydrometer get into the fermenter? Weird.

Anyway, I'm not a fan of a chance of glass in my beer, so I"d probably be inclined to toss it.

If you really, really, really can't bear to, I'd grab something like a pillowcase and sanitize it very well, and pour my wort through it to catch any miniscule glass pieces. I'd be very concerned about glass shards, and wouldn't wait to strain it as it won't harm the beer at all to strain it well at this point.

And next time, use a sanitized turkey baster to take the sample OUT of the fermenter and into a hydrometer test jar so nothing like that can ever happen.

 

[sumbrewindude]

Was going to ask the same thing as Yooper - how'd that get into the fermenter?

If I was inclined to keep it (and it's a big if when itty bitty pieces of glass are concerned), I'd cold crash it, put a nylon over the end of the autosiphon, and only pull the top half - maybe 2/3's if I was feeling confident - of the beer leaving the bottom half alone for clean up.

That's hoping that the cold crash would get all suspended yeast/glass/whatever to the bottom and keep it there while I pulled from above it.

 

[Descender]

Relax guys! The glass will settle. Just put a nylon on your racking hose. I'd be more worried about the led shot in the hydrometer leeching into the brew...

rhino farts and rocket fuel!

 

[ericinthewoods]

There's no lead in it, just the end with the paper. You're probably right about the glass, Descender, but I decided to toss it anyway.

I wasn't brewing at home yesterday, so I had to transport it back to my house. The only fermenter I have open is a strange size and I only have one lid for it- a lid that has a grommet already installed. The airlock that I had intended to use to plug the hole broke when the bag it was in got knocked off of a ledge by the wind. The only other tool that was the right size to prevent infection was the hydrometer. So I plugged the hole with my glass hydrometer, buckled my fermenter into place in my front seat and drove home. On the way, I got cut off, hit the brakes, the fermenter slipped out of the shoulder harness, tipped into my dashboard and the hydrometer snapped off and was pushed into the beer. Lesson learned.

I'm redoing the batch on Thursday and I"m just decanting and refreshing my yeast starter. I'll probably have an appropriate cell count this time because of all this. We'll see how that changes the beer.

Thanks for your help, folks.

 

[wtfDean]

The airlock that I had intended to use to plug the hole broke when the bag it was in got knocked off of a ledge by the wind. The only other tool that was the right size to prevent infection was the hydrometer. So I plugged the hole with my glass hydrometer, buckled my fermenter into place in my front seat and drove home. On the way, I got cut off, hit the brakes, the fermenter slipped out of the shoulder harness, tipped into my dashboard and the hydrometer snapped off and was pushed into the beer.

that is truly a series of unfortunate events

 

[ericinthewoods]

Yep. It was heartbreaking.

 

[kh54s10]

As far as I know there is no lead in a hydrometer. I think it is steel shot.

Next time use a piece of Saran Wrap, or aluminum foil, taped over the hole.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Relax guys! The glass will settle. Just put a nylon on your racking hose. I'd be more worried about the led shot in the hydrometer leeching into the brew...

rhino farts and rocket fuel!

The large chunks might, but the small micro shards of glass could in theory still float around if agitated even a bit.

Is your beer potentially sending someone to the hospital with torn up stomach lining really worth a $40 batch of RIS? Especially in the older folks and those with stomach problems already you'd be making their life miserable while their body dealt with it even if it wasn't life threatening.

Not worth it.