Ok,
so my second batch was a ingredient kit that I bought with a can of malt extract, dried malt extract, hops, and some seeping grains... Everything was going perfect. I cleaned and sanitized the fermenter bucket, the airlock, my spoon, and everything that was going to be needed to start. After sanitizing the fermeneter, I filled it up to the 3 gallon mark and put it in the refrigerator with the lid on, which got the water down to 60 degrees F by the time I poured the wort in. After following the instructions and steeping the grains, and adding the rest to continue boiling, I poured the wort in to the fermenter and topped it off to 5 gallons.
Then, I placed the fermenter in my bathtrub which I had already filled with ice water to cool it down. In about 30 minutes, the temperature was down to the mid 70s, so I sprinkled the dried yeast on top, as the instructions said. 10 minutes later, I stirred the yeast into the wort. All i had to do now was to put the lid on, put the airlock in the lid, and fill the airlock with water. Simple enough.. So, I put the lid on, and reached for the airlock. I wet the airlock so it would go into the rubber grommet easily, but of course (you know where this is going), I applied too much pressure and the rubber grommet popped out and into the wort it went.
At this point, I am on the verge on running late for a class where i have to turn a paper in, so Im freaking out. I use my spoon to start digging slowly for it, but no luck. I realize I would like to stick my arm down in to look for it, but I knew that would be bad for it. So the best I dea I could come up was this - I went to the kitchen, grabbed out a new garbage bag, mixed up another batch of sanitizing solution, and then soaked my arm inside the bag, inside the sanitizing solution for about 30 seconds, then shook off the excess solution, and reached down in the fermenter and found the grommet. I carefully put the airlock into the fermenter lid, the fermenter lid onto the fermenter, and water into the airlock... Hopefully it will be fine. This was all right at 7 pm last night, As of 8 AM this morning, I'm getting constant bubbles every 10 seconds from it, so it looks like fermentation has taken off... BTW, keeping the fermenter in the tub of water so its a consistent 70 degrees, or so the therm. reads..
so my second batch was a ingredient kit that I bought with a can of malt extract, dried malt extract, hops, and some seeping grains... Everything was going perfect. I cleaned and sanitized the fermenter bucket, the airlock, my spoon, and everything that was going to be needed to start. After sanitizing the fermeneter, I filled it up to the 3 gallon mark and put it in the refrigerator with the lid on, which got the water down to 60 degrees F by the time I poured the wort in. After following the instructions and steeping the grains, and adding the rest to continue boiling, I poured the wort in to the fermenter and topped it off to 5 gallons.
Then, I placed the fermenter in my bathtrub which I had already filled with ice water to cool it down. In about 30 minutes, the temperature was down to the mid 70s, so I sprinkled the dried yeast on top, as the instructions said. 10 minutes later, I stirred the yeast into the wort. All i had to do now was to put the lid on, put the airlock in the lid, and fill the airlock with water. Simple enough.. So, I put the lid on, and reached for the airlock. I wet the airlock so it would go into the rubber grommet easily, but of course (you know where this is going), I applied too much pressure and the rubber grommet popped out and into the wort it went.
At this point, I am on the verge on running late for a class where i have to turn a paper in, so Im freaking out. I use my spoon to start digging slowly for it, but no luck. I realize I would like to stick my arm down in to look for it, but I knew that would be bad for it. So the best I dea I could come up was this - I went to the kitchen, grabbed out a new garbage bag, mixed up another batch of sanitizing solution, and then soaked my arm inside the bag, inside the sanitizing solution for about 30 seconds, then shook off the excess solution, and reached down in the fermenter and found the grommet. I carefully put the airlock into the fermenter lid, the fermenter lid onto the fermenter, and water into the airlock... Hopefully it will be fine. This was all right at 7 pm last night, As of 8 AM this morning, I'm getting constant bubbles every 10 seconds from it, so it looks like fermentation has taken off... BTW, keeping the fermenter in the tub of water so its a consistent 70 degrees, or so the therm. reads..
