Should i throw out this batch

brewsochist · 12-09-2011, 08:05 PM

I tried brewing an IPA a while ago and as far as I know the first few days the ferment never took. I left it in the bucket too irritated to even look at it. Its been in the bucket since the fifth of November. Today I went to pour it out and it doesn't look contaminated. Not sure if it's good to drink. We didn't take a gravity reading. We should've tho now that I reflect on it.

Regulation · 12-09-2011, 08:07 PM

Take a reading.. Look at the sides, seems there was some fermentation to me...

**Revvy** · 12-09-2011, 08:07 PM

Have you tasted it? Have you taken a gravity reading?

How do you know it didn't ferment? Looks like clear fermetned beer to me.

You have krasuen on the sides of the bucket, you had fermentation.

**JonM** · 12-09-2011, 08:13 PM

Looks fine to me. Taste it and check gravity.

If it tastes like rotten garbage water, it's bad. if it tastes beery, then it's fine - but keep in mind that it won't taste like the final product at this stage. It might taste cidery, or like green apples or who knows - if it tastes like that, then it's fine to bottle.

brewsochist · 12-09-2011, 08:16 PM

wasn't sure I was mistaking that for hop residue. I never saw the airlock fart but maybe that's cuz I stopped lookig at it...ill take a grav reading and taste it. It might've started anearobicaly fermenting ? I'm guessing tho. This is only my third brew. Thanks for the help guys! I think I'll move it to a carboy first and see how it goes from there. You helped save an expensive batch from being dumped into my garden!

**Polboy** · 12-09-2011, 08:19 PM

send it to me, i will take care of it and post pictures me drinking it in 3 weeks

**Revvy** · 12-09-2011, 08:19 PM

Whether or not an airlock bubbles means nothing. It's not a reliable indicator of what is or isn't happening. Only a hydrometer reading is.

PoppinCaps · 12-09-2011, 08:26 PM

Just to clarify brewsochist, Revvy means that the CO2 may have been getting out of the bucket through cracks or otherwise, maybe not the airlock. Since you brought it up, anaerobic fermentation is where CO2 is released and etOH generated (and the krausen that you see that left the hop particles on the rim of the surface), so you will see that happening through gravity readings, but maybe not the airlock.

PS: unless you're dry hopping or adding something else, I'd just bottle it, not transfer it.

brewsochist · 12-09-2011, 08:26 PM

Good to know. Thanks revvy and everyone else! Each brew brings forth new challenges; trying to learn something new each day.

**Butter** · 12-10-2011, 02:18 AM

Just to reiterate not relying on the airlock, my first few brewer barely showed any fermentation via bubbles. Turned out the top of the little floater thing had a crack that let the co2 escape without making it bounce up and down.