First batch of homebrew

I just finished brewing my first batch of homebrew and when I went to place the airlock, inside the given hole on top of the bucket, the black ring pushed through and fell inside the bucket.

Will this cause a problem over the course of the brews fermentation? I sanatized the lid of the bucket but I am more concerned with air getting in. It feels as though it is pretty darn snug but I was just curious if it will still work and if anyone else has had this happen to them.

Thanks.

It's happened to alot of us- I bought an extra rubber grommet after that just in case it happened again. But, from then on, I put the airlock on the lid and then put the lid on the bucket. Make sure it fits snugly to protect your beer from the air. Otherwise, don't worry about it!

When it happened to me I taped around the airlock. This won't get it as tight as it would be with the gromit there, but it worked well enough. Also you won't notice as much bubling b/c it isn't airtight like it should be. So you'll have to use your hydrometer to know when the beer is finished fermenting.

On my first brew, I pushed the rubber stopper into my carboy after racking to secondary. Put a piece of aluminum foil over the top. My beer was swill, but I'm pretty sure it had to do with fermenting a lager yeast at 70+ and not because of the rubber stopper, or lack of airlock. It had a very fruity and fusel alcohol taste but nothing rubbery.

I just checked on it after I taped it up and its already going pretty steady in the air lock. So, thanks for the advice everyone. Hopefully this doesn't happen the on the next batch.

You'll be surprised how resilient fermeting beer is. There is enough CO2 coming out of that brew to choke a horse.

Now... when you watch a horse fly do a dive bomb into your fermenter while you're taking a hydro reading...call us.

I just checked my first batch ever that is in my basement, I pushed the grommet in too. I was wondering why i went from vigorous bubbling at hour 6 to nothing when I woke up this morning(sunday). Seems like there is positive pressure from the bucket still, put my nose down to it(Smelled like beer!). I guess I'll take it up a bit when I wake up in a few hours.

Suprisingly enough I had the same thing happen to my brew as well. The first 24hrs it was going crazy and now not a thing is happening. Mine also smells like beer when you get down close to the air lock. Strange. But I am waiting it out and testing the gravity on friday and then transfering if its a go.

Yeah I got overly worried and very carefully took a gravity measurement. It is fermenting just fine, i'm gonna leave it alone until a week is gone by give it a measurement again and move it to a secondary if all looks well.

I opened up the primary to see what was giong on inside and to take a gravity reading before transfering to the secondary and there was a big crust floating mass at the surface. So, my question is should I just scoop all of that out before transfering or just stick they siphon tube under it and go to town?

BoilerBrent said:

I opened up the primary to see what was giong on inside and to take a gravity reading before transfering to the secondary and there was a big crust floating mass at the surface. So, my question is should I just scoop all of that out before transfering or just stick they siphon tube under it and go to town?

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Go under. Your siphon tube should go to about 1 - 1 1/2 inches above the bottom to avoid the sediment down there.

Lay a 2x4 or something under the front of your bucket to tilt and push the volume back of liquid where the racking tube is to make sure you get all the beer.

Don't worry about the foam. Once those bubbles hit the racking cane, you'll lose siphon and they won't make it into your secondary (or whatever you're racking to).