First brew - MCT - dust strand/particle?

[thesaucygeneral]

Hey gents,

I am a first time brewer, but have stalked all 87 pages of the forum before starting. I want to thank all of you for your posts and questions on here over the years, as that is what made it possible for me to get into home brewing.

I ended up in ONE of my vials with a tiny, thin, little dust particle or strand. Like I have to hold it up to the light, and really search for it in there to find it. I know, likely all are gonna hop on and tell me the vial needs to be tossed. Should I re-filter, toss it out, or can I just suck it out with a needle?

I followed all sterile procedures, wiped the vial stoppers with 99% Alcohol swabs, used Whatman 0.2um syringe filter, bought pre-sterile (and sealed) vials. Could this particle have landed on the stopper, and then I pushed it into the vial with my 18g needle/filter before filling? Some say the BA will kill whatever, some will say throw the vial out.

Any and all answers are appreciated,
Thank you

PS.
I brewed:
1) 200ml of 100mg/ml of Test P
2) 150ml of 100mg/ml of Tren A
Both with 10%BB, 1.2%BA, and a 20/80 mix of GSO and Now Foods MCT oil respectively (I wanted some colour in there from GSO).
Used periodic 170F oven heat with lots of stirring and crystal-crushing (with a spoon) to get a homogenous solution.
60ml syringe and a chalking gun (MONEY! Whoever came up with this deserves an award).

Took a shot yesterday, 1ml of prop, smooth and barely noticeable pip (which is crazy for prop)!

 

[Jmhobbs]

Sounds like you did a great job brother. If its just one vial then you're right, sounds like you got a floater somehow. Im with you though, I hate tossing any compounds unless I have to. Have you tried to refilter it yet? With the amount you have and the cheap price of Test Prop it probably is best to toss, but understand completely not wanting to. Following to see an answer from an experienced brewer. Good job on the rest brotherman... especially first time!!!

 

[thesaucygeneral]

I appreciate the kind words. I have yet to do anything with the vial. It’s a vial of tren, so slightly more expensive :/ if I don’t get some more insight, I’ll just buy more vials and refilter!

Thanks for the reply, brother.

 

[TripleBSolutions]

Refilter it! Be cautious when selecting pre-sterilized vials, some are not always clean. Pictures would help but it could also be a filter fiber.

 

[Joe383]

I don't want to give bad advice so say re filter it. I do however have a vile this happened in. I can get the particle to stick to the side so I just make sure its stuck to the side of the jar before and after I draw. I think its part of the rubber stopper in mine so am using one that has a particle in it but will admit its a really stupid idea. Be safe brother. The tops cut off easy with scissors if you want to pop the top off.

 

[thesaucygeneral]

Refilter it! Be cautious when selecting pre-sterilized vials, some are not always clean. Pictures would help but it could also be a filter fiber.

Thanks for the reply man. Ya, I actually had 3 unused vials left, and last night I found in one of them that there’s a long dust strand inside of it. I guess the “per-sterile” vials weren’t so great.

 

[thesaucygeneral]

I don't want to give bad advice so say re filter it. I do however have a vile this happened in. I can get the particle to stick to the side so I just make sure its stuck to the side of the jar before and after I draw. I think its part of the rubber stopper in mine so am using one that has a particle in it but will admit its a really stupid idea. Be safe brother. The tops cut off easy with scissors if you want to pop the top off.

Thanks for the reply man. Would it not just be a better idea to try to suck the floater out thru a needle and get rid of it, instead of just leaving it in the vial trying to avoid it?

 

[FR0Z3N_B0MB3RRR]

Thanks for the reply man. Would it not just be a better idea to try to suck the floater out thru a needle and get rid of it, instead of just leaving it in the vial trying to avoid it?

cmon don’t be a lazy ass and refilter it man... warmi it up a little bit to speed the flow and you ll be done in no time..

next time buy unsterile vials with stopper and caps and manage to sterilize them by yourself... you ll save lot of money and troubles...

Buy a magnetic stirring hot plate and you ll be fuckin fine with the first part of brewing...

Put BA last since he could evaporate if beker its not properly covered

 

[Navysquid]

cmon don’t be a lazy ass and refilter it man... warmi it up a little bit to speed the flow and you ll be done in no time..

next time buy unsterile vials with stopper and caps and manage to sterilize them by yourself... you ll save lot of money and troubles...

Buy a magnetic stirring hot plate and you ll be fuckin fine with the first part of brewing...

Put BA last since he could evaporate if beker its not properly covered

Serious question. Can one use a instapot for steam, heat and pressure. I don’t know much about Auto claves.

 

[FR0Z3N_B0MB3RRR]

Serious question. Can one use a instapot for steam, heat and pressure. I don’t know much about Auto claves.

Do you mean to sterilize vials?
Im using the old fashioned pressure cooker… its the most similar tool to autoclave..

and then i rinse vials with alcohol and shake/tap them on aluminium foil, something like that

Maybe there are better ways, i m not just too much into ultra metodic sterilization… never had problems that fashion so i m keeping doing thst

 

[FR0Z3N_B0MB3RRR]

Serious question. Can one use a instapot for steam, heat and pressure. I don’t know much about Auto claves.

Dont know how instapot works , what temp and pressure it reaches… so if its like a pressure cooker it should be fine, in my honest opinion

 

[Navysquid]

Dont know how instapot works , what temp and pressure it reaches… so if its like a pressure cooker it should be fine, in my honest opinion

It’s a pressure cooker. My only draw back is it’s used for food a lot. May have to clean the shit out of it.

 

[Skarpyona]

Serious question. Can one use a instapot for steam, heat and pressure. I don’t know much about Auto claves.

I use an instapot to sterilize my vials. There was a study published by a State University, and only the instapot was able of deactivating all the sample bacteria. Good enough for me, and my wife thinks I did a romantic gesture for her too! I call that a win-win

 

[Navysquid]

I use an instapot to sterilize my vials. There was a study published by a State University, and only the instapot was able of deactivating all the sample bacteria. Good enough for me, and my wife thinks I did a romantic gesture for her too! I call that a win-win

I wanna read that. I have a huge insta pot pressure cooker. I can easily sterilize with that

 

[Skarpyona]

I wanna read that. I have a huge insta pot pressure cooker. I can easily sterilize with that

Here's the article brother. Enjoy! The only complaint I have about using an instant pot to sterilize vials is "fishing them out" at the end. They want to flip on their sides and the medical forceps I use to fish them out after makes it tricky to get a firm grip on.

It's a small complaint all things considered, especially with the price disparity between an instant pot and a half decent autoclave

Assessment and verification of commercially available pressure cookers for laboratory sterilization

Laboratory science requires careful maintenance of sterile reagents and tools as well as the sterilization of waste prior to disposal. However, steam autoclaves typically used for this purpose may not be readily accessible to everyone in the scientific community, such as K-12 teachers...

journals.plos.org

 

[thesaucygeneral]

Follow-up/result: I just sucked out the little dust strand and all was well. No infections.