Was it Water or Water with Sodium Percarbonate?

[Bones99]

At the risk of public shaming and embarrassment, I need to ask......

I keep several cubes of water stored at all times in case of flooding, cyclones, zombie apocalypse and maybe to use for brewing sometimes, but I think I may have used the water out of one of the cubes (about 10L) that may have still had Sodium Perc in it yesterday in my haste.

If it was indeed a cube still full of water and sodium perc, my question is will it cause any harm if drunk (total brew volume into fermenter was 19L)?

My understanding is that once mixed with water, sodium perc rapidly dissolves in water into sodium, carbonate and hydrogen peroxide but I'm uncertain if it can cause harm once converted. Of course I wouldn't want to drink it straight and I hope this isn't the case, but thought I'd ask the wider AHB community as I certainly don't know myself.

Let the flaming begin.

Cheers
Bones

 

[manticle]

Taste it.
Shouldn't kill you but if it's discernible, I'd cut my losses.

Then get a big ******* texta.

 

[warra48]

You'll survive, but I'm with manticle. Texta for sure.

Mind you, if you drink it you'll probably grow excessive nosehair from now on, but hey, you can't have it all.

 

[Grott]

Drink it when your three quarters pissed and you won't know a thing.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Surely it would taste like soap and raise the pH way up out of wack? I assume it was an extract brew..

 

[Lionman]

Put some water in the container again and give it a shake. Does it foam at all?

 

[SBOB]

If you can't tell the difference then it might indicate you need to work on making better tasting beer

But I'm with above, taste it (won't kill you) but I'd be pretty confident it's drain bound...

 

[Bones99]

Great idea Lionman but I wish I hadn't checked the remaining water left in the cube now, as it's certainly water + Sodium perc.

Now I know for certain that it is, 2 questions remain:

1) Will it harm if drunk?
2) It's a mate's ginger beer so should I just let him drink it anyway ?

 

[Zorco]

As the concentration is unknown so grows the risk.

The msds I read shows a few percent is sodium carbonate (8.7%) and sodium chloride (2.2%).

Add that to your scales of decision making

 

[Bones99]

I've fed him dog biscuits made out of spent grains before so I guess this couldn't hurt our friendship if that didn't..... Hahaha if I need new friends I could easily find some on Fakebook

 

[manticle]

You now know (rather than think maybe) there's 10 L of SP solution in there?

I wouldn't.
Won't kill you but I wouldn't.

 

[ekul]

test the ph if you dont want to taste it. I wonder if theres enough hydrogen peroxide in there to use the blood test? Put a drop of blood in there and if it fizzes its full of hydrogen peroxide (maybe)

 

[Jack of all biers]

The hydrogen peroxide is all gone by now, as what was left of it in the water reacted with the wort and yeast prior to or during fermentation. So it has either, provided some oxygen to the yeast (likely some, but not much), or it oxidised your beer (again the effect would not likely show up for a long time). Your main worry is the Sodium Carbonate which is not likely going to kill you, but I wouldn't drink much of it.

Hazard code for Sodium Carbonate is GHS07 which means;

Acute toxicity (oral, dermal, inhalation), category 4
Skin irritation, category 2
Eye irritation, category 2
Skin sensitisation, category 1
Specific Target Organ Toxicity – Single exposure, category 3

Not trying to cause alarm, but just saying, don't drink too much of it, right. Taster is fine, but don't drink 10 litres of the stuff unless it was at such a diluted rate that it is insignificant.

 

[Black n Tan]

if we are just talking about sodium percarbonate and not PBW, then I would have thought toxicity is extremely unlikely. Plenty of water around the world contains carbonate and people drink it like (erm) water. Taste on the other hand may be affected as the Na may contribute a salty taste and the carbonate might make it a bit rough. However I suspect your brew will taste just fine. Assuming the perc was made up some time before brewing then the peroxide is long gone, so oxidation is unlikely. Let your taste buds guide you.

 

[Lionman]

http://www.inchem.org/documents/sids/sids/15630894.pdf

I wouldn't drink it.

Some of the details in this document highlight some real risks of consuming by products of sodium percarbonate. No thanks.

 

[nosco]

You'll survive, but I'm with manticle. Texta for sure.

Mind you, if you drink it you'll probably grow excessive nosehair from now on, but hey, you can't have it all.

It might get you access to some exclusive beers!

 

[Rocker1986]

I took a small sip from one of my hydrometer testing jars that had been filled with hot water and had a teaspoon of percarbonate added to it, after it had soaked overnight. It tasted like salty water but not the kind you'd get from the ocean. Hard to describe it really but it was pretty horrible.

Personally I'd tip the batch out and start again. Aside from potential health risks, it'd probably taint the flavor anyway. Salted ginger beer anyone?

 

[Zorco]

From our supplier redox

I wonder what makes up the missing amount?

[emoji317][emoji88][emoji89][emoji316][emoji84][emoji83][emoji49][emoji48][emoji90][emoji90][emoji90][emoji90][emoji90]

 

[Zorco]

Anyway, we haven't discussed the possible harmful products from the reactants. What might have been created that is harmful?

Toss it Bones.

 

[Bones99]

Already did guys.
Even though we've only been mates for 15+ years, I couldn't let him drink it Haha.

Put down a new batch last night after I proved it was water + perc.

Thanks for everyone's input though, it certainly helped clear things up.

What a great community (most of the time).