Air lock filled with beer!!!!

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Fuggles

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I made the mistake of not starting out with a blowoff tube in a new carboy that is almost full. I woke up at about three a.m. last night to find the air lock full of beer and pouring a little over the side. I quickly cleaned the air lock and rubber stopper and put it back in - went back to bed. This morning it had happened again - whereupon I started using the blow off hose. My question is, do you think that this will affect the quality of my beer (a belgian wit) or potentially infect it?
 
i'll tell ya what though - if your first batch comes out a blue ribbon winner - you're going to have some hard steps to retrace to do it over again :D

personally i'd take the "wait and see" approach
 
Are you using the carboy as your primary fermentor? Or is all this blowoff from a secondary ferment? Let us know, then we can go from there.

dp
 
I wouldn't worry too much here, since when your beer is actively fermenting (as it must have been to fill your airlock twice) it is not nearly as susceptable to infection as it was before the yeast really kicked in. When the yeast are going gangbusters, they will outcompete most other undesirable bugs, and the co2 that they release displaces outside air quite rapidly. And as long as the stuff was blowing OUT of the airlock, and you didn't let any fall back into the batch, you should be cool :cool:
 
loopmd said:
Are you using the carboy as your primary fermentor? Or is all this blowoff from a secondary ferment? Let us know, then we can go from there.

dp
Click to expand...
It was in a glass carboy as a primary fermenter - I always use the glass carboys.
 
D-brewmeister said:
I wouldn't worry too much here, since when your beer is actively fermenting (as it must have been to fill your airlock twice) it is not nearly as susceptable to infection as it was before the yeast really kicked in. When the yeast are going gangbusters, they will outcompete most other undesirable bugs, and the co2 that they release displaces outside air quite rapidly. And as long as the stuff was blowing OUT of the airlock, and you didn't let any fall back into the batch, you should be cool :cool:
Click to expand...
Thanks - I am pretty certain that none fell back in given the activity level at the time. I have two glass carboys (one is 6 gallon and the other is 7 1/2). I am going to invest in another 7 1/2 gallon size to avoid this problem in the future. I have a hopped up English Pale Ale in the big one going at the same time with no problems.
 
I guess lesson learned. I have never heard of using a glass carboy as a primary and not using a blowoff tube. As for any problems, you are on the right track, don't worry, relax and have a homebrew. :D
 
loopmd said:
I guess lesson learned. I have never heard of using a glass carboy as a primary and not using a blowoff tube. As for any problems, you are on the right track, don't worry, relax and have a homebrew. :D
Click to expand...
Oh trust me, I'll have a homebrew. The reason this happened is due to the fact that I have always used the big glass carboy as a primary and the smaller one as a secondary and had no problems.
 
Me too. Five or so gallons in a 6 1/2G carboy has always been fine for me. I had my doubts when I racked onto the previous batch's slurry but still didn't blow up.
 
I've never used a blow off tube in 10+ years of brewing in glass. I've had 1/3 to 1/2 of my primaries fill the airlock like Fuggles has described. I've not had one go bad yet. Don't worry and have 3 homebrews.
g
 
I had a high gravity beer clog the airlock and blow the top off and it still turned out to be a great beer. Should be ok.
 

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