Airlock knocked off for a full day

StophJS · 01-04-2012, 09:57 PM

I ferment my beer at my parents house because its the only place I have access to stable temperatures, and their genius foreign exchange student dragged a sleeping bag across my bucket fermenter and knocked the airlock off in the process. The beer is a robust porter and has been in there for three weeks. The airlock was off for a day before my Dad saw it and put it back on. Has this kind of thing happened to anyone else? Is infection my only concern or also oxidation? Thanks.

Edit: Sorry, probably not the best choice of forum section.

**Boleslaus** · 01-04-2012, 10:18 PM

My guess is that it will be totally fine. I'm sure there is a chance of infection, but it is very small. The pressure inside the fermenter from the CO2 will keep any oxygen from coming inside. So unless a bee flew in through the hole and dropped off some wild yeast everything will be perfectly fine.

**Butter** · 01-04-2012, 10:29 PM

It'll be fine. We left our cooled wort outside on the porch overnight and didn't have a problem. Homebrew us tougher than people think.

StophJS · 01-05-2012, 12:53 AM

Yeah I figure it shouldn't be too big a deal. I bottled it today actually; I should probably be more concerned that it doesn't taste anything like a porter.

**bkorver** · 01-05-2012, 02:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boleslaus

My guess is that it will be totally fine. I'm sure there is a chance of infection, but it is very small. The pressure inside the fermenter from the CO2 will keep any oxygen from coming inside. So unless a bee flew in through the hole and dropped off some wild yeast everything will be perfectly fine.

Definitely. The CO2 is much heavier than the air outside the bucket, so it is doubtful anything nasty got in. It is really hard to totally screw up a batch of home brew short of having a dirty fermentation vessel or dirty bottling bucket/siphon/bottles.

StophJS · 01-05-2012, 02:37 AM

Just perpetually paranoid since my infected batch I guess.