air lock mishap, is this salvagable?

My boyfriend is brewing a pale ale right now. He was out of town for a few weeks and asked if I could sifen the beer into the secondary glass carboy. I did it and realized today, four days later, that I forgot to put water into the air lock. Can I still open up the air lock and add water? Have I totally ruined his beer?? Please help!

You should be okay.

You can add some sanitized water now, or if you have some cheap voda, that would work too.

Go ahead and put some water or vodka in the airlock right now. But you haven't ruined it, especially because the primary fermentation is probably finished and the beer has lots of alcohol (how long was it in the primary for, btw?). Any nasties that might have got in (and I doubt many did, if any at all) would have been purged by some very unfriendly alcohol fire.

Don't worry. When I brewed my first batch, I was a dummy and didn't put anything in the airlock for the entire fermentation process (3 weeks). Whoops. The beer was great!

Yea nothing to worry about put some water in the airlock - will be fine

Just remember that the bad stuff are not ninja acrobats....whether it is a 3 piece or an s type, they would have to get through the cap at the top, then either negotiate a series of twist and turns through an S shaped "track" OR have to dive down, then climb up the center post under the plastic bubbler, then lift said bubbler up enough to the make it into the center post and dive into your fermenter....and STILL have to negotiate the rising co2 current pushing out of the fermenter itself....Think about it...Even without water in their, do you think a piece of dust can make this journey?





Needless to say a piece of dust ain't gonna make it. And not much else either. Relax

Just remember that the bad stuff are not ninja acrobats

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Good one