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Floating thermometer problem
Hey guys. My floating thermometer broke and a few (maybe 10 or so) of the tiny black balls got into my peach puree. I didn't notice until after I had poured it into my carboy (fermentation started yesterday). I am guessing they are some kind of metal. Does anyone know what kind, and if so will it ruin the batch? Thanks.
I'm no expert, but there is a good possibility it was mercury, a poisonous metal. I'm not sure if it could mix with your beer, but you should seek further advise in this matter before consuming that beer.
Dump it. I'm pretty sure that is the mercury....either way, why risk getting really sick or death even...that really sucks man...
It's probably not mercury. You're talking about the weight at the bottom of thermometer right? I'm not sure what it is, if I had to take a guess I would say that it's lead. So, it's still probably a dumper.
You could try checking with the manufacturer of the thermometer to see if they can clue you in on what they use to weigh it with.
They don't use mercury in most publicly available thermometers anymore.
Mercury is silver in color, most thermometers are red or blue. Its a colored alcohol solution.
And he's talking about the little metal weights in the base of the thermo to keep it upright when it floats.
I think they may be lead, so you may want to dump it out. I had this happen to me once and the balls seemed like lead to me. The worse part wasn't the balls but the waxy stuff they were embedded in. That stuff sank to the base of the brew pot and stuck there when the kettle was empties and cooled. I had to boil water and scrap it out with a long spoon to get the last bits off the kettle bottom.
Its a personal call. I really didn't think there was that much possible lead exposure for it to be a problem.
Some would say I am fine today...others not so much.
+1 for it not being Mercury. Is it a True Brew thermometer? I had this same problem a few months back and did a lot of researching. I found out that they don't use Mercury and they use steel shot not lead. My thermometer tip broke while I was chilling my wort. I whirpooled the crap out of it, let it sit for a half hour and racked leaving a little more than usual in the kettle. Then once the beer fermented I let it sit in the carboy for a few extra weeks to let everything settle to the bottom and form a nice compact yeast cake in hopes of not sucking up anything foreign that may have made it to the fermenter when racking.
Yeah, I was talking about the little pellets that are in the bottom that probably help in heat transfer to the tip. I'm thinkinking that only a few got in there. I had my thermometer in my peach puree and when I took it out to rinse it off I noticed it had cracked. I thought it was from rinsing with too cold water, but when I went to pour in the peaches I saw a few at the bottom of the container I had them in.
If you still have the little balls, try picking them up with a magnet.
Good call Brewski. I never thought of that. They stuck to the magnet. That's a relief, no lead poisoning from this batch. Thanks guys.
Great. What kind of base beer are you doing with the peach puree?
Pretty simple, American style hefeweizen. I was trying this one out for the first time. I'm going to rack it sometime this week.
Yeah, light fruit beers are good for summer. I'm doing a wild raspberry Am. Pale Ale w/ some wheat tomorrow.
This all makes sense:
I just noticed that that the tip of my thermometer broke. The red bulb was not broken. This explains all the small pellets (balls) that I saw in the wort. I just discovered the broken thermomenter today. After reading this post, I took the broken thermometer and used a magnet on some the "balls". Definitely not lead.
Thanks Dudes!!
Maybe you could name that one "Steel Balls ........................" 
Same thing just happened to me, got to love the internet, I almost dumped.
oh, "steel ball" belgian dubbel has a nice ring too it.
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