Question about airlock...

I have just finished brewing my first batch, and inevitably made a noob mistake...I think I left the "dixie cup looking" piece of my 3 piece airlock in my fermenter and pour my wort and yeast on top of it....So, I have the airlock affixed to the bucket right now, but is it even doing what it needs to do with that piece missing? Is there any way to rectify this issue? I know this probably just compounded my mistake, but I sanitized my arm and reached into the fermenter but couldn't feel anything, so I quickly pulled my arm back out.....

HELP!

I hope I didn't ruin my first batch...I will be very disappointed if I did!

get a tube with an inner diameter that will fit over the post in the three piece airlock and run that over to a container of water and you will have an impromtu blow off tube and you will be fine.

If you removed the inner piece of the 3-piece airlock, then no, it isn't working exactly as designed but it also isn't the end of the world. As long as you keep the cover over the top and you have fermentation going on the CO2 created is still going to create enough pressure to expel the gas out and likely prevent anything from getting down inside there. When you think about it, it's a very small opening as it is so you will probably be fine. You can also attach a hose to the outlet and into some sanitized water as a blowoff to be extra safe.

Sticking your arm in there, even if sanitized, is more dangerous than a less than 100% functioning airlock. I'd just leave it be at this point. Chances are the beer is still fine, but you won't really know until it's done fermenting and you taste it. But I wouldn't worry too much. Most of us have made even bigger mistakes and still managed to make good beer

kuelhof said:

I know this probably just compounded my mistake, but I sanitized my arm and reached into the fermenter but couldn't feel anything, so I quickly pulled my arm back out.

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prime example of why you should never do anything in panic mode. all you can really do now is cross your fingers and hope you didn't infect your brew.

go get a rubber hose from your LHBS and connect it to the tube in your airlock then run that down into a bucket of sanitizer. this is called a blow off and is essentially a huge airlock. while your at your LHBS get another airlock and use that one's "dixi cup" in your airlock.

would I be able to use a plastic medicine cup for that piece?

kuelhof said:

would I be able to use a plastic medicine cup for that piece?

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depends how big the cap is. if its big enough to go below the fill line on the airlock and still float at the top of the airlock then yea it should work.

How did you sanitize your arm? full bath of starsan or just a rubbin? who knows what crevices you missed and let contaminate your beer. Let it continue, the only thing you waste is time now. If it gets infected consider it a lesson. If it doesn't, consider yourself lucky. Either way a positive outcome will occur.

Waste Time, Not Beer.

Ok, ran up to the LHBS and got a second airlock, so that is rectified....

As for the arm....I knew as soon as I did it that it was a mistake...now I will just hope that it comes out drinkable!

Either way lesson learned!

Thanks for the advice guys!

MachineShopBrewing said:

get a tube with an inner diameter that will fit over the post in the three piece airlock and run that over to a container of water and you will have an impromtu blow off tube and you will be fine.

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This how I made my blow off tube, so if you never find the other piece of the airlock you can still make a blow off tube out of it. Also I now people who just use tinfoil over the hole in the bucket or mouth of the carboy, they never use an airlock.