STOPper NO! - Averting Disaster

Today I decided I'd do two brews at once.  My thinking is that one is a cider and simple enough as it's mostly just prep work and the other a lovely porter.  I figured it would be a simple thing to do and while it was easy, a slight mistake was made at the end I just barely averted a disaster :)

I started with the cider, as I said it was all just prep work; combining sugars and cider to sit in the fermenter for a day before pitching the yeast so as to allow the added sugars to dissolve naturally.  Then it was on to my beer...  It was all going smoothly, water heated, grains steeping, wort boiling and hops added per schedule.  I chilled it all down with my wort chiller and pitched my yeast.  It was at this next step that the disaster occurred….  It seems a simple thing to put in your stopper and air lock, but alas today it wasn't.

The stopper would not stay in place and kept popping out, so after applying a little pressure to force it in, POP!!!!  The stopper plunged down into my glass fermenter and I was left dumbstruck with an ashen look on my face….  What the HELL was I todo now?  I got this beautiful wort with pitched yeast and a rubber stopper stuck in it!!!  In times like these we don't panic, we put on our best home brewer face and think it through and I being no exception, stepped back and rationally thought it out.  Let's review the facts:

1. I have a stopper stuck in my glass fermenter
2. My closest brew store is 20min each way and closed!
3. It is fully sterilized so it won't contaminate the beer
4. I don't want to ferment with it in there or I'm hosed on off-taste (rubber in beer - yuck!)
5. My backup (bucket) fermenter is currently holding my cider
6. But wait, I have a bottling bucket…..
7. The cider doesn't have to be in a fermenter for at least 24 hours when I pitch the yeast.

With the facts laid out I was able to get to action.  The first thing was to get my bottling bucket cleaned and sanitized.  Next I transferred my beer to to the bottling bucket (i.e. about to become my beer fermenter).  I took the lid off my cider and swapped it with my bottling bucket lid (clean and sanitized).  Then I fully cleaned and sanitized the bottling bucket (new beer fermenter) lid, stopper and air lock - we don't want cider taste messing up my porter.  Finally I assembled it all and DISASTER AVERTED!

With my beer and cider settled it's time to put my attention to the stuck stopper.  How does one get a stopper out of a glass carboy without breaking it?  My wife told me I'm never getting it out because I wouldn't be able to assert the proper force, but alas, I knew if it could go in, it could come out.  I decided it was time to go fishing, literally, I took my fishing line and a hook then with the carboy upside down and the stopper near the opening I threaded my fishing line through the stopper and back.  Tied it off and yanked.  POP! my line snapped - damn!  Not one to give up, I found some old gardening twine and a finishing nail, using a wire I threaded the nail through the air lock hole of the stopper, just as I had done the fishing line.  Next, I used the wire to fish the end of the twine back about.  With the stopper properly "hooked" I pulled and VIOLA out came the stopper!!!!

Finally, I cleaned everything - my brewing equipment, the carboy, the air lock and stopper.  Then put it all away and called it a night.  Tomorrow I'll transfer the cider to the glass carboy fermenter and pitch the yeast - fingers crossed in 10 days I'll have a nice beer and cider for enjoyment.