My Primary Exploded

I brewed a BIG partial-mash imperial IPA 3 days ago. I racked into a food safe bucket as a primary. Apparently the fermentation was too much for the airlock and it became clogged and the lid was popped off. My brew was out in the open for a couple hours until I found it, resealed the lid, installed a blow off tube and cleaned up the mess. Anyone ever had this happen to them or have any idea if my beer will be drinkable?

Only time will tell. But since you had some good krausen going, there's a good chance it will be fine.. I'd give it a chance in secondary...

bung hole said:

I brewed a BIG partial-mash imperial IPA 3 days ago. I racked into a food safe bucket as a primary. Apparently the fermentation was too much for the airlock and it became clogged and the lid was popped off. My brew was out in the open for a couple hours until I found it, resealed the lid, installed a blow off tube and cleaned up the mess. Anyone ever had this happen to them or have any idea if my beer will be drinkable?

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Yeah, I had it happen to me. Unlike you, I lost my mind at the sight of my brew exposed to the elements. Like an idiot, I took the lid that was laying on the floor and put it directly back onto the bucket. I obviously should have washed and sanitized the lid first. And, after coming here for advice, I got some good ideas, like sanitizing a large spoon and scraping some of the krauesin layer off the top, in theory removing the foam exposed to the elements before it dropped back into the beer after primary subsided.

After all the mistakes I made, I'm still glad to say the beer turned out very good. It went faster than any batch I made up to that point. So, I'd bet you'll be alright, but all you can really do is wait and see. Good luck!

You should be fine. It's happenned to all of us at one point.

I've had a few blowups, never a bad batch. What I do now is set the bucket in the sink and




[frequent re-post]

that picture just looks wrong....

yeah it does... my freind just had one blow up last night, an Irish stout. We transferred it into 2 bukets to make it so that LOTS of krausen would have to build up for this to happen again.

Wine used to be fermented (and probably still is) in open-top vats, if that makes you feel better. Honestly, brewers seem to over-worry about sanitation issues (it's a good trait, but remember that when things go wrong).

UTDoug said:

Wine used to be fermented (and probably still is) in open-top vats, if that makes you feel better. Honestly, brewers seem to over-worry about sanitation issues (it's a good trait, but remember that when things go wrong).

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And beer too, in many breweries.
I was just watching Beer Nuts the other night and they were touring the fermenting room at I believe Anchor Brewing, which contained large open vats of fermenting beer. The room was clean but no special precautions appeared to be taken by the visitors or workers.
I haven't experienced an infection and don't have much experience brewing but reading about others experiences and the history of brewing, I'm beginning to think that paranoia of some of our sanitation is mostly unnecessary. I think if you clean throughly after using something in brewing you probably don't need to be much cleaner than you would be with cooking.
However the thought of ruining 5 gals of wonderful beer will keep me from being too lax in my sanitation.

Craig

I just bottled the batch that was in the exploding primary - tasted great. Does anybody know if the term worry-wort is brewing related?

bung hole said:

Does anybody know if the term worry-wort is brewing related?

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It is as long as you pronounce it worry-wert!

I woke up to beer on my ceiling once.

Just once.

CBBaron said:

And beer too, in many breweries.
they were touring the fermenting room at I believe Anchor Brewing, which contained large open vats of fermenting beer. The room was clean but no special precautions appeared to be taken by the visitors or workers.
Craig

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I toured a Scotch distillary in Scotland and saw the same thing. Got to peer down into a 3 story tall vat of fermenting barley. I stood on a metal catwalk and was invited to lean over and sniff the vat. It's a tour guide's way of letting you experience the "smell" of CO2. Talk about feel the burn!

Looking down through the grate at the fermentation room was a wall full of resperators for ground level emergencies. You'll die if you fall off the catwalk and not from impact he said. A little over dramatic but true

I'm sure that the Kräusen provides an insulating layer that is equal to or better than the CO2 layer over a vat of an open fermentation.

I remind myself all the time that they brewed beer in the Middle Ages, when urine was the preferred sanitizer. (Just ask anyone with the surname 'Fuller'.)

If i'm not mistaken, cheesefoods 2nd version of his caramel cream ale got the name "boom boom vanilla ale" for just this reason. I think the lid blew off multiple times. I believe his beer came out on top after all of it, so i wouldn't worry. I use glass carboys and a blow-off tube for what i know to be the more violent fermentations.