Please help with Russian Imperial Stout

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.

IDbrew

Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2006
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
I have had a RIS sitting in secondary for 4 months now with plans to bottle around October to drink at Christmas time. Tonight I was checking on the airlock and noticed it was very low. I added some unsanitized tap water to the airlock but the cap piece that floats off of the stem was stuck to the bottom of the airlock water tube. When I tried to use my finger to dislodge the cap I heard the distinct sound of water (unsanitized, and some of it sitting for 4 months gathering dust and nasties) draining into my beer. If this was an ordinary batch I would just bottle and not worry about it, but I have a lot of time and high hopes invested in this batch. I have some campden tablets sitting around and I am considering adding 5 crushed tablets to the 5 gallon batch, then letting it continue to age until October, add some champagne yeast 2 days before bottling, and procede with the bottling. First, I would like to know if this should keep the batch from getting infected, and secondly would it effect the taste of the finished product to use campden tablets in beer? If anyone has experience with this please let me know what is best to do. Thanks.
 
I don't know what the campden would do to the finished product.
RIS is what, 8-12%? Your dust and crumbs probably won't do much. (I couldn't swim long in RIS).
Bottle it.
 
Thanks for the reply. ABV should be about 8.5% so hopefully it is strong enough to fight off anything that may have leaked in. I have learned my lesson regarding airlocks though, and from here on out I will only add cheap 70 proof vodka to the airlock instead of water. If that leaks in it will only boost the ABV a tad instead of causing me to worry.
 
Update on the RIS. It has been in bottles since October of 06 and we have just started drinking it (Jan 07). The taste is great and there are ZERO concerns about infection. It could have been the ABV, it could have been the hops, or maybe we should all just RDWAHAHB. In any event the tap water did not appear to hurt it at all and the beer is excellent. Thanks for the advice.
 
Back
Top