Oh, ****...

I brewed an AHBS Rogue Dead Guy Ale kit last night. I pitched last night at about 9:00. Well, I got home at about 5:00 today, and everything looked fine. Well, I just checked now (7:30) and the lid off the plastic bucket was on the floor. In a panic, I put the lid back on the bucket. Am I screwed here?

What are my best options? Should I take the lid off, sanitize it, and put it back on? I think I may have already introduced enough of the beer to the outside elements where it wouldn't even be worth the bother, however. I set up a blow off tube for this batch because it was the first time I made a yeast starter, and it was the biggest beer I've brewed to this point. Obviously, it wasn't enough. I'm kind of thinking the lid's going to get blown off again, regardless of what I do.

I'm really bummed about this one...

First of all: chug a beer or maybe a couple shots of tequila, then take a few deep breaths and count to ten.

Now...remove the lid, re-sanitize it, and replace it. If your fermentation was active enough to blow it there's no way anything untoward made it to your beer.

Take the Baron's advice.

Then learn from your mistake and don't let it happen again.

RDWHAHB!!!

Yuri_Rage said:

Take the Baron's advice.

Then learn from your mistake and don't let it happen again.

RDWHAHB!!!

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Yep, I resanitized the lid, took out the blowoff tube, and put an airlock on it. The airlock was going crazy at six or more bubbles a second. I checked about ten minutes later, and kraeusin was already creeping into the airlock! I swapped airlocks immediately, and as of this post the bubbles have decreased slightly...but the airlock activity is still more than I've seen in any previous brew.

And I thought my starter wasn't going to be big enough...:cross:

I like when the airlocks make those little machine gun fart noises. My last batch had the blow off tube doing that!

Yuri_Rage said:

I like when the airlocks make those little machine gun fart noises. My last batch had the blow off tube doing that!

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My blowoff tube was obviously too small in diameter (1/2" I think). I have a 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy already to go for my next brew, and I'm getting some 1" OD tubing for that thing, without a doubt. I was going to use the carboy for this brew, but I didn't have a handle that would fit on it, and I didn't want to try transporting the carboy down in the basement without any kind of device to reduce the risk of dropping it.

Good thing I went with the plastic bucket one last time. I have a feeling if I used that blowoff tube with a glass carboy, I may have had a much more serious problem than a lid blown across the room! That would be a nightmare walking into a shattered carboy...

From the sounds of it, the Pac Man strain is rivaling Hefe yeast for blowoff qualities

I made a Dead Guy Ale clone, and the krausen started slow.... then started creeping up the sides of the carboy... then up into the airlock to make a beautiful mini geyser out of the pinholes of the top. Ugh. At least I got to it before it made a real mess.

I've had lids blow off before without the ale being damaged. What I do is clean and sanitize the lid. Then slice the krausen off even with the bucket top using my big spoon and snap the lid back on. I think I might get a bigger bucket for the next barley wine. Maybe go up to a 12 gallon, so I can make a 6 gallon batch & allow for high trub losses.

I have not followed a recipe yet and I have a batch brewing now I experimented with, a light DME and LME, yeast starter sat for almost a week, I was worried it wouldn’t catch, but after 24 hours I went back down to see and the top blew off my air lock and it was full of stuff. First batch I have had that exploded, kind of a funny sweet smell but I wouldn’t call it foul. Excited to try it!!!!

Well it has a funny taste to it cant descried it almost unpleasant. I have never had a batch I had to dump but I am afraid this may be the first. has sat in the keg for almost a month and still has funny taste.

If you're going to brew a big beer w/ appropriate volume of yeast just set the sanitized lid on top of the bucket (do not seal). You should seal after a few days and violence in your ferment ceases.

you are fine tho...

Cheers.

If you're going to brew a big beer w/ appropriate volume of yeast just set the sanitized lid on top of the bucket (do not seal). You should seal after a few days and violence in your ferment ceases.

you are fine tho...

Cheers.

It will be fine. 95% of beer nasties happen before the yeast kicks in. The other 5% after yeast has dropped. If a nasty did get in which I doubt because of all the co2 blow off the yeast will eat it or the alchol will kill it. I had many top and airlocks fly off not one batch lost.

LarMoeCur said:

I had many top and airlocks fly off not one batch lost.

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Sound like you needsta start using blowoff tubes if you've got so many lock rockets.