Rubber grommet in wort ... whoops?

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leevalentine001

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Pretty much as simple as that. I put together a stout in a 20L clear chemical drum (used to have non scented cleaning chems), one of the square-ish ones. The hole I'd drilled was about 0.5mm too open making the grommet just a little bit loose, but not enough for air contamination to be an issue. But having only a small lid (ie. not enough room to shove a spoon in to mix) my mixing option was to pick up the fermenter and slosh it around like crazy. Which I do all the time and is fine. But in this case I pushed a bit hard on the grommet with my thumb and it went straight into the fermenter / wort.

So my question/s is/are:

Is it toxic / a throw out?
Or are they made to be food grade (which would make sense, it's a brigalows grommet)?

Any support would be appreciated,

Lee
 
If it is a Brigalow grommet it will be completely devoid of flavour and aroma, so you should be fine. I once made a magnificent suicidal moth brew, and it was a big bugger.

You should be fine, but taste before bottling or kegging ;)
 
Been a few threads on this previously. Likely completely harmless. If it's floating on top fish it out with a sanitised spoon/implement. If you can't find it, let it be...there's no mistaking an infection in the miniscule chance that happens.
 
Wow, thanks for the replies I feel heaps better now. It was just a cheap and nasty kit and kilo batch so I wasn't super worried, but it's nice to know you don't have to throw it all out for more or less nothing.

Everything was super sanitized (soaked in iodophor solution for about a week) so hopefully that helps.

I was more worried about chems from the rubber coming out because of the ethanol, but if you guys reckon it should be fine, I'll let it do it's thing.

Pretty sure the grommet sank, but it's so thick black (stout wort) that I couldn't see it even if it was at the top. :p
 
I found the corner of a wyeast packet in the yeast bed after I kegged a brew. Tasted fine!
 
There's few of us here who have not done a brew without Grommet in there at least once. Don't worry all will be fine.

Just don't do it again OK !

imagesCAU1SBLB.jpg
 
I always put a post it note on the fermenter to remind me to fish something out when cleaning it ;)

Stir bars, grommets, etc ;)
 
What Stux said, so easy to forget a stir bar in the fermenter and throw it out. I always put a long strip of masking tape over it with 'stir bar inside' or whatever written on it. I don't trust post it notes in a fridge...
 
What were these non scented cleaning products that used to be on your container?
I would be more concerned about that than the grommet.
 
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