So when I was putting the airlock on my 5 gallon carboy i pushed the rubber part too far in the mouth and then I couldn't get it out. I tried pulling gently but the plastic tip where the water goes came off leaving the rubber bit stuck in the top of the bottle. Nothing I did could get it out so I ended up pushing it into the beer to get it open. So basically there's now a rubber stopper sitting in my 5 gallons of beer. I planned on bottling this batch on this saturday, but I was wondering if leaving that rubber bit in the beer until then is going to impart some horrible off flavors in my beer? This is the first batch I've ever brewed so I don't want to mess this up anymore than I already have. Can I leave it in there for two more days or should i bottle it immediately? The reason I tried getting in there was to add hops for dry hopping if that makes any difference. Thanks for anyone's help/feedback, I feel like I can't be the only person that's ever done this
I mate the airlock (empty) to the lid before snapping the lid on the bucket to prevent the misfire you described. You can guess what happened to me previously that led to this method . . .
Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew... I've put non sanitized item into the wort by accident; magnets, whole digital thermometers, fly's flying into the wort before I closed the bucket lid. All beers turned out fine. I wouldn't worry about a sanitized piece of rubber.
Yeah I was going to put RDWAHACB, good catch lol So now that I'm feeling better about leaving the stopper in there, any tips on how I can get it out? It would be a shame to have to buy a whole new carboy cause that stupid thing is stuck in there!
I've done the exact same thing with an Oktoberfest that I brewed last year, and it turned out great. So, it won't impart any off flavors in your brew.
I brew with buckets and pushed the grommet into the wort just after brewday. I santitized my whole arm, reached into my wort and pulled the little guy out. It was dumb, but the beer was fine. I'd say grommet, or bung, if it's in the beer, let it ride and bottle soon.
That, too, has happened to me, and I had to do the exact same thing. Fishing around in the bottom of the bucket for that little black o-ring was nerve racking, and I thought my beer would be infected for sure. But, lo and behold, it turned out just fine. I've learned to not be as paranoid about infections ever since
Hah, I did something similar yesterday. The airlock was unusually tight and when I forced it through... plop, damn. I thought that rubber would float but I couldnt find it anywhere at the surface and blindly scooping for it turned up nothing. I was less concerned about the rubber stopper being in there than how I was going to plug the whole. I ended up covering it in duct tape and poking the airlock through. Seemed like an air tight fit, but 24 hours later I'm smelling hops and it hasn't started bubbling yet. Oh well, I'm not that worried. Wish I had read this thread before brewing Sunday, maybe I would've thought to push the airlock through before putting the top on the bucket.
