Everything's ruined

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
B

badnaam

Active Member
Joined
May 4, 2007
Messages
41
Reaction score
0
Well after 36 hrs of silence I had vigorous fermentation and so vigorous that it blew the lid and the airlock off of the plastic bucket. I think I heard it last night, though did not quite realize what it might have been. Today morning I discovered the damage. I forgot to drain out the hops and they clogged the airlock. I guess from now I would use blow off tubes for big beer and drain the hops. Lesson learned.

I am guessing this batch is surely ruined, after being exposed for hours. I cleaned/sanitized the lid and the airlock and put it back on and the bubbles are back. Shall I risk it or is it gone for sure?

BTW it was a Rochefort 10 clone, expense too. :cry:
 
Just let it sit and wait it out. It may still be okay since the beer was still outgassing CO2 at a pretty fast rate at that point.
 
badnaam said:
Well after 36 hrs of silence I had vigorous fermentation and so vigorous that it blew the lid and the airlock off of the plastic bucket. I think I heard it last night, though did not quite realize what it might have been. Today morning I discovered the damage. I forgot to drain out the hops and they clogged the airlock. I guess from now I would use blow off tubes for big beer and drain the hops. Lesson learned.

I am guessing this batch is surely ruined, after being exposed for hours. I cleaned/sanitized the lid and the airlock and put it back on and the bubbles are back. Shall I risk it or is it gone for sure?

BTW it was a Rochefort 10 clone, expense too. :cry:
Click to expand...

Bummer man. I highly recommend getting a stainless strainer to pour your wort into your fermenter. It strains your hops and areates your wort at the same time. You can get this one at Target.

4569-Strainer.jpg
 
I highly doubt it's infected. Not only is the hole in the bucket typically pretty small, but you've also got positive pressure pushing out of the bucket from the fermentation, so it's not like there's much of a chance of any nasties making their way into the bucket.

Hell, I've had stupid bungs pop out of the carboy of an aging beer in the middle of the night. Since it had finished fermenting a few months ago, there was no positive pressure like you had, and it's still just A-OK, no infection.

In other words, don't worry.
 
I agree with everyone. i brew primarily hefeweizens and for my first couple of batches i only used an airlock, and both times the airlock blew off and painted my ceiling. anyways, i did'nt have any problems with infection or anyhting like that so i wouldn't worry about it. from now on though i would recommend useing a blowoff tube for everything. good luck.
 
I've blown bucket lids four or five time without an problem. One batch probably sat for 48 ours with the lid off.
 
Apparently, many large brewers ferment in large open tanks. The CO2 from the ferment covering the surface of the wort and the abundance of active yeast prevent any nasties from getting a foothold.
 
One thing I have learnt from this forum is to never dump a beer. Always keep goin with it, and after a bit of time, it might end up being one of your best brews...
 
Chrus said:
One thing I have learnt from this forum is to never dump a beer. Always keep goin with it, and after a bit of time, it might end up being one of your best brews...
Click to expand...

Yeah, always have faith in the beer. It'll almost always come through for you.
 
It's perfectly ok to ferment in an open vessel, especially once the yeast head has formed to protect it. I often do this and skim off the trub and hop debris that the yeast head throws up (and any airborne debris that may land on it). IMO skimming helps produce a better tasting beer anyway.
 
Yeah, don't toss that batch just yet.

I've had both violent blow off and hops in former beers that turned out fine. I'll bet you are fine and nothing got infected. As far as your hops let those settle and possibly do a secondary to clear it out further.

Give it a chance.
 
Torchiest said:
Yeah, always have faith in the beer. It'll almost always come through for you.
Click to expand...


I know I am always surprised how the beer turns out in spite of my best efforts to monkey with it and otherwise ruin it :)
 
When in doubt, don't dump it out.

I've had three batches that got a good dose of air, and not one of them went off. Really, beer is in far more danger from what is ALREADY present in the batch than from the air.

I learned the hard way how to make malt vinegar. That batch had a perfect air lock. :cross:
 
exact same thing happened to my last batch TWICE because i was too slow on the uptake to realize it would keep doing it unless i switched to a blowoff until fermentation leveled off. It turned out to be my best batch yet! you're almost surely fine. let it roll!
 
brewt00l said:
I know I am always surprised how the beer turns out in spite of my best efforts to monkey with it and otherwise ruin it :)
Click to expand...

Haha, so true. And I have tried really hard to screw up my beer a few times. :D
 
brewt00l said:
I know I am always surprised how the beer turns out in spite of my best efforts to monkey with it and otherwise ruin it :)
Click to expand...


.....That just sounds WRONG!! lol :confused:
 
Infections are one of those things that you really won't know until it's too late. So to worry is %100 useless.
 
zoebisch01 said:
Infections are one of those things that you really won't know until it's too late. So to worry is %100 useless.
Click to expand...

Good point. The only infection I've had showed up in the beer after it had been in bottles for almost a month. Nothing for it at that point.
 

Similar threads

MaxStout
Preventing O2 ingress when cold-crashing for lagering - ideas?
2 3
Replies
81
Views
3K
jerrylotto
jerrylotto
G
Steam collection question
Replies
9
Views
616
Broken Crow
Broken Crow
Langerz
New Conical - Check my plan
Replies
15
Views
1K
Langerz
Langerz
Zenmeister
I give up! I need to get trace amounts of O2 out of my beer
Replies
17
Views
1K
wepeeler
wepeeler
R
Question regarding temperature
Replies
4
Views
565
redrocker652002
R
Yakima 300

Latest posts

Back
Top