You may say, "what tin-foil." Yes, but let me explain. When I sanitize my equipment I cover everything with sanitized tin-foil. I know that this may be going overboard, but hey it works for me! The problem is that somehow, maybe it is because I was being rushed, a piece of tin-foil somehow got into the fermenter. Now I am at the point of either getting it out or leaving it in. I have come to the conclusion that if it dose not interfer with my blowoff tube or my airlock I might be better leaving it. My beer is an ordinary bitter and will not be lagered, so we are talking about a week to two weeks in contact with the tin-foil. I do not know when exactly the foil got in there, but I can almost be sure that the foil was at one time sanitized. Any suggestions?

You'd likely increase risk of infection trying to fish it out. I'd leave it.

I assume you mean aluminum foil. If the foil is still there when you bottle then don't worry about it. If it dissolves into the beer because of the acidity, then I personally wouldn't drink the beer.

Put a piece in a glass of beer for a few days to see what happens.

BTW, sanitizing your foil first is definitely overkill. I personally consider it sanitary right off the roll. Same with saran wrap.

Same with paper towels, too.

"Put a piece in a glass of beer for a few days to see what happens."

Rather than try this experiment, could you just enlighten me, what happens?

I don't know what happens, which is why I said try the experiment.

If you're racking this beer to secondary put a sanitized piece of hose or a part of a Chore Boy on one end or another of your siphon to keep the AL foil out of the secondary. Should be fine anyhow.

Well I am trying the experiment. A smart idea actually, instead of guessing, now I will know, thanks Alan. Do you know if it matters if it is a diffrent type of beer, all I had left was Coors. Would there be a difference in acidity between Coors light and the ordinary bitter I am brewing, and would it make much of a diffrence in the experiment. I put a 2x2 square of foil in the beer, I measured it as to know if any decomposition happens.

Let's start a poll. My guess - no effect. Foil will be intact.

I say intact. I will let you know the results.

what are those can things made of that some beer and soda companys put their beer or soda into....um aluminum!
the beer will will not be affected.

Aren't AL cans lined with something, though?

I know that the 5L minikegs are lined with something. Not sure about regular Al beer cans.

I know to smoke from aluminum things can supposedly cause alzheimers or cancer or something! Wow, I really sounded sure about that!

I think you're thinking of Keystone ... "Keystone, Bottled beer taste in a can because of a special lining." If by bottled beer taste they mean "odd mixture of beer-like water and raw sewage" then yeah.

lol

If you cut open any aluminum beverage can you can easily see a thin plastic lining, at least all the ones I've ever hacked open.

The science is still out on the Alzheimer’s and aluminum relationship and is far from proven.

All they know is that Alzheimer’s patients have an elevated aluminum level in their brain they don't know if it is cause or a result of the disease.

Aluminum is a naturally occurring mineral and is in the soil and our food supply the average adult consumes 10 mg of aluminum daily. And the average antacid has 50 mg of aluminum in it any way. Studies show that cooking in aluminum pots or pans only results in a .5 mg increase of aluminum. .



I wouldn't worry about it unless your beer has the pH of battery acid then something might happen to the aluminum.

So far no change that I can see. How long of a time period would you say this experiment should take?

How long is your carboy going to have the beer in it?

That long. Although I don't think it will change either.

Bottled my Ordinary Bitter yesterday. The foil was still in the carboy, so it did not dissolve in the beer. Tasted some of the uncarbonated beer, and it was not bad. It does not seem that there was any adverse effects at all. Thanks for all the help and suggestions.