Freaking OUT!! n00b homebrewer here!

[TheHamNerd]

Okay,

I am freaking out here!

I just brewed my first batch last Sunday. I had a blow out of my airlock after 10 hours, so I switched to a blow off tube setup with easy clean solution in a beer mug with a tube. Today I just witched it over back to the airlock with a bleach water solution. The thing I am freaking out about is that i spilled about 2 or 3 drops of bleach water through the tiny rubber bung grommet hole in the top of the bucket.

Will my brew still be okay?

It was just a drop or 3...its not like its a whole cup or anything. I have a bleach water solution in my airlock as of today. I have not really payed attention to the bubbles, but I have noticed it slowing down as of yesterday. I probably should take a gravity reading to see if it is finished, but I am really more concerned about the damn water bleach solution of 3 drops that could have made its way into my batch.

Please let me know if it is still okay

P.S. FREAKING OUT n00b!!! LOL

[spiderwrangler]

Swap out the bleach water in your airlock. You're probably still fine, but there is no need for it, and you're just setting yourself up for problems.

[TheHamNerd]

Thanks Spider!!!

I am also curious of I can bottle it...I am anxious, but it has only been 6 days. It has pretty much stopped bubbling from what i have noticed today. It has a slight bubble yesterday, but has pretty much stopped. It is my first brew, but I am really concerned about this mistake with about 3 drops of bleach water. I just didnt want to mix up a gallon of easyclean, or starsan just to put into the airlock. I also dont have any vodka around either, and I dont think it is a good idea for just plain water either. I guess my Hydrometer will tell me if it is ready to bottle, and any extra time there after is just for clarity.... What do you think?

[EagleDude]

No need to freak out ... the bleach solution won't make a difference in the 5 gallons of fermenting beer and the chlorine should blow off rather quickly ... 24 hours. With that said, probably not the best option for the airlock. You would be better off with starsan (in distilled water), vodka, any other distilled liquid, etc.) The choice is up to you but important because if the fermenter cools, it will suck up the solution in the airlock if it has too much liquid. You could keep it completely empty and would be fine also since "bugs" don't float up, but then you risk getting extra unwanted oxygen if you didn't bottle the beer quickly after fermentation stopped.

As for bottling, wait at least 2-3 days after the airlock stops bubbling to let the yeast clean up after the "party". Otherwise, it can be a real mess in the final beer. Bottle conditioning helps with that a lot, so 7 days in and then bottling should be fine with most moderate styles that have finished fermenting within 4-5 days of pitching. Be sure to check the gravity or make sure that the bubbler isn't still going or you could have exploding bottles.

Good luck.

[BDawg]

Some people like having bleach around their bung. Not me, though I hear Ozwald does. Just saying.

Seriously, ditch the bleach as a sanitizer. You need to rinse it off completely or it will impart chlorophenolic (medicinal/Band-Aid/plastic/surgical tape) off flavors to your beer.
With all the other better sanitizers out there, there's no reason to use bleach any more.

As far as this hurting your beer, you may get a little bit of the Band-Aid flavor in there, but it will certainly be drinkable. After all, most cities use chlorine in the drinking water for sanitization purposes.

HTH-

[Ozwald]

Agreed. Bleach can be perceptible in beer at extremely low concentrations. The number 3 ppm is coming to mind, but I'm not 100% positive on that... or where I even heard that. Bleach has no place in the brewery for any reason at all. Plain water is fine; even if you drip a little bit into fermenting beer, anything in that water will be taken over be the already established yeast. On the rare occasion when I use an airlock, I typically fill it up off from my spray bottle of StarSan (did you pick one up yet ).

As for bottling, be patient. I don't recall if you've mentioned in another post what you were brewing, but in any case, give it some time. In most cases it can only help. Personally I would give it a whole extra week in there. It's tough on the first batch, but it's (almost always) for the best. The yeast aren't finished with their job the moment you see airlock activity cease. Those last few, important gravity points still need to drop then it's going to clean up after itself, eliminating things such as diacetyl.

Be patient, give it some more time & relax. Everything's likely fine, but even if you did royally fuck things up there's no sense in worrying about it at this stage - you can't do anything about it. Chalk it up as a learning experience, take notes & use that knowledge on the next batch.

[spiderwrangler]

Bleach has no place in the brewery for any reason at all.

What do you use to clean up the blood after you rinse it down the floor drain?

[EagleDude]

Although 7 days would be fine with some brews... two weeks prior to bottling is a good time period for most batches.