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Forgot to sanitize straining bag

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TDMooney

TDMooney

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 2, 2011
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Elkridge, Maryland
So on 12/31/10 I made a Melomel and decided to put the fruit in a food grade mesh bag for easier clean up but I got to excited and forgot to sanitize the bag. I sanitized everything except the bag. (I baught the bag from Northern Brewer).

Should I worry, could there be problems down the road? The air lock is bubbling vigorously and everything seems to be progressing nicely.

Thanks for your help and I apologize if there is already a thread on the subject.
 
Welcome to Gotmead? - and I wouldn't worry too much. What's done is done, can't be fixed now. Plus, it's fairly unlikely that anything too terrible was living on that bag, the yeast tend to kick the crap out of anything else living in there anyways. Sanitation is one of those things that's obviously important, but mistakes happen and rarely ever cause any serious problems.
 
Thanks for the welcome, and the advice. Being my first Melomel, and mead in general I wanted everything to go well and I am probally just over worried about it. But definetly will learn from the mistake and sanatize my next straining bag.

Thanks again for the fast reply.
 
No problem, is this the one you just started a brewlog for? Looks like you're using those Vintners Harvest fruit cans? I've been wanting to try some of those out for quite a while, they seem to get the costs of certain fruit under control.
 
AToE, yes this is the Black Chaspberry melomel that I have just started, and started a brew log for. I did use the Vinters Harvest fruit bases and they seemed to be a nice substitute for fresh fruit. Some cans contain more juice than fruit or more fruit than juice but all in all they seem to be a good choice if fresh fruit is unavailable.
 
I second AToE's "don't worry"... when you consider some of the things that must get into the must of a large wine operation (twigs, leaves, bugs, squirrels, small children, etc.), I find it hard to get too worked up about the sanitation of the fruit, so a new fruit bag should be OK especially if your fermentation kicked up fast, your commercially prepared fruit should all have been relatively sanitary.

I generally count on one possible source of contamination for each batch and do my best to keep it down to just that... whether it's unpasteurized honey, raw fruit, something on the cutting board, spices, the need to stick my hands into stuff... there's always something and very rarely have I had a problem... generally, only with overripe pears waiting for the pectinase to do its thing, which is why I now sulphite or blanch them... I read one post where his ferrets had a roll through his must and it still came out OK...:eek:
 
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