Cube swollen

[r055c0]

People talk about "the risk" a lot but my understanding is if the wort has fermented there is no risk.

From the article linked above:

As it turns out, homebrewed beer probably wouldn’t hurt you, because the simple fermentation produces only ethanol, not its toxic cousin methanol, said Gary Glass, president of the American Homebrewer’s Association. Even contaminated homebrewed beer can’t make you sick, he said.
“There are no known pathogens that can survive in beer because of the alcohol and low pH,” Glass said. “So you can’t really get photogenically sick from drinking bad homebrew. It could taste bad, but it’s not going to hurt you.”

So if it ferments out (check with a hydrometer) and the ph is in the range we would expect (check with a ph strip), we could assume that it is beer and it is safe to drink. How it tastes is another matter entirely.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

People talk about "the risk" a lot but my understanding is if the wort has fermented there is no risk.

From the article linked above:

As it turns out, homebrewed beer probably wouldn’t hurt you, because the simple fermentation produces only ethanol, not its toxic cousin methanol, said Gary Glass, president of the American Homebrewer’s Association. Even contaminated homebrewed beer can’t make you sick, he said.
“There are no known pathogens that can survive in beer because of the alcohol and low pH,” Glass said. “So you can’t really get photogenically sick from drinking bad homebrew. It could taste bad, but it’s not going to hurt you.”

So if it ferments out (check with a hydrometer) and the ph is in the range we would expect (check with a ph strip), we could assume that it is beer and it is safe to drink. How it tastes is another matter entirely.

I don't want to start another botulism fear mongering thread (as I don't believe it is a likely outcome for most if not all of us homebrewers)... but, it must be said that if there are botulism spores that carry through your wort and are not pasteurized during the no chill process, the toxins that they produce which is what is harmful will still be present if you later on ferment the wort into beer. The botuli cannot survive during fermentation or in beer and won't produce the harmful toxins then, but IF they did before you fermented, this could be harmful. If fermentation did clean up these toxins and the botuli, then there would be no argument re: swollen cubes, but this is not the case.

That said I am a happy No-Chiller and have not experienced a swollen cube. I did for the first time on the weekend leave 3 cubes I had put into fermentors for 24 hours outside (caps on) and dirty, had a sniff before cleaning them and I wouldn't want to leave them any longer they already stank to high heavens, underlining the important of sanitation of cubes and ensuring you transfer the wort in at 60C or higher (80C or higher preferable).

 

[r055c0]

[SIZE=medium]We seem to bring botulism into the swollen cube argument a lot but all the information I've read / heard doesn't seem to mesh with the arguments against fermenting out swollen cubes. I'm not an expert in the field by any means (or any field for that matter) but what I understand about botulism can be summarized below.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Botulism is a risk whether the cube has swollen or not, and pasteurization temperatures don’t kill botulism spores. The growth of botulism doesn't always produce gas either so a swollen cube is not a true sign of botulism infection. Botulism is destroyed by fermenting wort although the toxins produced by botulism are not, so the only way to effectively guard against the possibility of a botulism problem is to cool your wort in the cube as rapidly as possible and begin fermenting as soon as possible (disregarding any non no-chill methods for the purpose of this point)[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]So given that we No-Chillers already effectively accept the risk (very small) of botulism infection I don't really understand why we keep bringing it up in swollen cube / spontaneous fermentation discussions.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]This is easy to say from on top of my soap box as I've not yet had a swollen cube so haven't been faced with the prospect of tasting probably infected wort...[/SIZE]


[SIZE=medium]Edit: sooo many spielling mistakes...[/SIZE]