milholen

Recipes 

So I brewed a batch of Jamil's Hazelnut Chocolate Porter on Saturday. I'm fermenting it in a 7 gallon plastic bucket. I've never needed a blow off tube before unless I was pitching on a yeast cake. I was suprised to go downstairs tonight to check on it and find that the lid had blown off the bucket and was sitting on my basement floor about 10 feet away. There was delicious chocolate porter all over my basement wall.

So I cleaned and sanitized the lid and installed a blow off tube. This was a 6 gallon batch so maybe there wasn't enough headspace?

Anyway, I think the wort was exposed to the air for somewhere in the range of 2-18 hours. When the lid was off, the top of the fermenting wort was gurgling and frothing like mad. My question is what can I expect at this point. Is the beer doomed due to the introduction of wild yeast and bacteria or does such a strong fermentation and the resulting CO2 pad on top offer protection from infection?

I really hope this isn't a lost cause here because this looked to be one awesome beer. Has anyone had a similar experience?? What can I expect?

Thanks for the help.

milholen

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anyone? I'm freaking out here.

earwig

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Chances are it will be fine. I'm not an expert but from my understanding the ale yeast will overpower any natural yeast that might find its way to your beer or they won't be able to survive anyway. The co2 blanket you mention will certainly protect the fermenting wort/beer. I wouldn't worry. I had the top blow off of a carboy and it could have been off for 24 hours; my beer came out great. I'll mention... at the time my basement was pretty scuzzy and I still didn't have a problem. Its harder to get an infection than you might think.

Gristulin

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i wouldnt fret too much. the krausen should protect it from the crap in the air. ive had a blow off tube get clogged and explode in the past, and my beer was fine.
zac

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Bigjuicy

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Yea your beer should be fine. Bet it was fun cleaning up the beer hahaha. Next time save your self the headache and use a blow of tube and/or fermcaps

milholen

Recipes 

thanks for the advice. I've read some other threads and the consensus is that the krausen will protect the beer. We'll see -- I 'll update this thread over the next 6 weeks and let everyone know how it turns out.

I'll definetly be using a blow off tube from now on!

El_Exorcisto

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For hundreds, maybe thousands of years beer was fermented open. Your beer will be just fine.

Blackhawkbrew

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Don't mean to reopen this thread, but found it funny because as I was searching for this exact same question I read that I am fermenting the SAME brew as the OP! Crazy

One other question though, I sanitized a new lid and airlock, should I go with a blow off tube instead? I brewed it two days ago and had airlock activity one day ago.

meat803

Recipes 

Just an idea I have from doing the same thing with a carboy. Dont jam the airlock down so tight. Make it the path of least resistance. The less pressure that finally pops the top, the less of a mess you will have.