WineXpert How bad did I screw up?

[navyterp]

Well I got home from work and decided to measure the SG on my primary batch, 1.003 so I was right in the ballpark to switch from primary fermentation to secondary, so I cleaned and sanitized my carboy and all my equipment, hooked up the hose to the spigot of my fermenting bucket and about halfway through I realized I forgot to sanitize the spigot (JV mistake), so any ideas if this batch is pretty much a loss due to any bacteria that the wine could have been exposed to? I am crossing my fingers, but I'm not feeling to confident about the results? Anyone ever have this happen or a similar situation with good results? I'm really upset over myself with this mistake!

 

[Mike777]

Might be just fine. If you capped the end while it was wet or something that could be bad. generaly I think most bugs dry out at 72 hrs. Spores can last years. Do you have a good feeling it was clean?

 

[david_québec]

dont worry!




there is a lot of alcool in there as we speak so... if there is some slight living organism in there it should be nuked right away.


it's always better to have everything fully sanitise but a little mistakes like that just show you "the hard way" to wash everything later on!


if it was at the beginning of the kit (while s.g. was 1.080 or more) i would have a bit more worried (but those yeast are good watch dog

and good soldiers)


hey dont worry most of the big winery are not that picky on the "cleaning"
when you see worms and things like that in a primary ferm tank imagine what you dont see

)


dont worry you wine will be fine and i suggest you to send me one bottle for testing to see if you did well

 

[Wade E]

I concur, there have been a few times when I was in a rush that I forgot to sanitize something. Everything will be fine!

 

[OldWino1]

hey if it is a kit the stuff will settle out and the ach will kill
about anything up front just make sure every clean from primary
fermenter on.

 

[smurfe]

Been there, done that as well. I have been lucky when it happened to me. I always run sanitizer through the spigot when I clean up so at least I know it is pretty clean. If the spout is pointing down it helps keep airborne stuff out as well.

 

[peterCooper]

There will be someone on this forum who has NEVER made a mistake in sanitizing equipment, but maybe only one person. We all make mistakes and most of us get away with them most of the time.

Don't worry, be happy (aarghh, I can't believe I just quoted that)

 

[PeterZ]

There will never be anyone who made a batch without making a mistake. In thinking back to the wine I made 20+ years ago, I'm surprised I ever got a drinkable batch.

 

[Waldo]

Well, I must confess, I have made "ONE" mistake........One time I thought I had made one

 

[grapeman]

I have not made one single mistake. I went way past that a long time ago. I have made several real bone-head mistakes!

 

[jobe05]

I made a mistake once,


but it was by accident so it didn't count.....

 

[navyterp]

Thanks everyone for the replies, I would say the spigot was fairly clean, before the incident, hopefully all will be well, but the secondary fermentation is underway.. sometimes I just get excited and kinda forget to sanitize here and there, but I took a sharpie and drew an arrow pointing at it with "Sanitize me" so hopefully next time it won't happen again!

 

[Jack on Rainy]

navy,

You probably will be fine if you have treated tap water. Some of us
don't. I have untreated lake water so use sanitizer on EVERYTHING! But
that still didn't help keeping me from this big one.



Last week, I racked my WE Stags Leap Merlot from primary into secondary
and put in the #2,3,&4 packs immediately instead of putting them
into the WE Aust Verdehlo in the carboy next to it.

So, I may have some sweet merlot if it really gets to wine stage. I can tell you for sure that one is going to be bulk aged!