Thermometer broke in brew.

murphyebass

Thermometer broke in my brew.

Is the batch bollixed?

It’s mercury in the thermometer I assume which I googled and it says it’s poisonous so that would seem to call this one ****ed to me.

That said very little of the mercury went into the batch. Looks like 99% of it is still in there if you looked at the pictures attached.

Any help here greatly appreciated.

Thanks

spurious

You don't want to be drinking mercury, no matter how small an amount.

That's a pity.

murphyebass

murphyebass wrote: »

Thermometer broke in my brew.

Is the batch bollixed?

It’s mercury in the thermometer I assume which I googled and it says it’s poisonous so that would seem to call this one ****ed to me.

That said very little of the mercury went into the batch. Looks like 99% of it is still in there if you looked at the pictures attached.

Any help here greatly appreciated.

Thanks

From my days in school I remover the science teacher telling me a few grams of mercury is not dangerous. According to here https://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/854.aspx?CategoryID=87 its unlikely to be dangerous to your health. I wouldn't share this batch though

murphyebass

I take it that it’s definately mercury then yeah ?

I’m dumping the batch if it is.

****ing gutted I am. A lot of hops went into that batch!

Was making an extra hoppy double ipa.

Time to buy a better quality thermometer me thinks.

I never thought about it breaking in the brew though if I’m honest. I expected to drop it or something absolutely but not crack into the wort.

Lesson learnt I suppose.

RasTa

Be grand, drink away.

murphyebass

RasTa wrote: »

Be grand, drink away.

Lol. Like your optimism.

I’ve emailed the brewing company to ask is it a mercury thermometer or what is it?

If it’s mercury it’s going down the drain unfortunately.

RasTa

Lads were drinking mercury long before you were around

But while mercury is generally considered highly poisonous, doctors in the late 19th century gave patients significant amounts of the element to treat intestinal obstructions.

"Drinking mercury has a laxative effect," explains the toxicologist Gebel. "Its density cleans the intestine wonderfully."

how many litres are in the batch? its a gram or 2 of mercury. id say you would inhale more toxins walking down the street.

murphyebass

Got an email back from Shane in the homebrewireland.ie

Turns out it was a colored alcohol thermometer.

Thank **** I didn’t flush the batch.

Hopefully I got it below 20degrees before I pitched the yeast last night. It was dark and I was pissed off with the whole thing.

I’m goin to do an imperial stout next. Anyone with an extract imperial stout recipe I’d be happy to try it!!

murphyebass

Seen as this one has taken a turn for the better here’s a picture of it before I put it in the fermenting bucket.

I’ll put up more picks pre bottling and post bottling now as kind of a diary of all of this.

I didn’t take the gravity reading either as I was so pissed off. Lol

Should be between 8 and 10%.

granturismo

murphyebass wrote: »

Got an email back from Shane in the homebrewireland.ie

Turns out it was a colored alcohol thermometer.

...

Good news. Mercury thermometers have a silver liquid and alcohol thermometers tend to be any other colour, normally primary colours like red and green.

murphyebass

granturismo wrote: »

Good news. Mercury thermometers have a silver liquid and alcohol thermometers tend to be any other colour, normally primary colours like red and green.

Learning experience for me. This one had a dark green it seems. Nearly as green as the brew itself. Lovely hoppy hops.

rubadub

I haven't seen a mercury thermometer for sale for many years.

Are you sure there are no shards of glass in the brew? you should be able to tell by matching the 2 broken ends.

murphyebass

rubadub wrote: »

I haven't seen a mercury thermometer for sale for many years.

Are you sure there are no shards of glass in the brew? you should be able to tell by matching the 2 broken ends.

Funnily enough this was my very first thought, not the mercury thought.

Thankfully I was able to fish out the end piece with the plastic paddle I was using to stir it and yes they fit together perfectly so I’d be 99% that there’s no other pieces in the brew.

I might strain it through to the bottling bucket though to be 100% sure.

murphyebass

It’s aliiiive!!

Was hoping to put a video here but alas it’s too big even though it’s only a few seconds long.

Nothing crazy anyway just a vigorous bit of action in the airlock.

murphyebass

Ok so that is a seriously vicious bubbling going on in the airlock. So much so that it’s slightly bubbling through the white part it’s locked into.
Hopefully it’ll settle.
I pushed it back in a bit. Air is trying to push it out!