Blow Off- Airlock not properly sanitized?

Hi, I just brewed my first batch. I began with making a starter yeast (as suggested by a brewmaster relative) Sunday morning and put it to work last night. Everything went well, but, when I checked on it the this morning, the airlock had blown off and made quite a mess on the floor. The question I have is a contamination one. I put the airlock right back in before thinking while I cleaned up. Two kids in two getting ready for day care. I got smart a little late and sanitized the air lock a few minutes later, but I'm wondering if I've already blown the batch by putting that airlock back in after picking it up off the floor?

With such a vigorous fermentation going, i'm sure you're probably fine.

You are probably fine, time will tell.

RDWHAHB

Thanks for the feedback. Based on old posts I read, I was hoping that I might here that, but I figured there might be varying levels of contamination to be concerned with. Also, the brew kit instruction I had said nothing about filling the air lock. It seems to be doing that fine on its own.

As long as it was producing co2 then it will be forcing gas out of the vessel and badness can not creep in....it is going to be fine! RDWHAHB!!


Edit: If it is filling up your airlock, then I would suggest rigging up a blow-off tube until it settles down.

Just, if you plan to put the air lock back on, sanitize it first. Though it sounds like you would find more use in a blow off tube.

Impressive response on this forum. Thanks everybody. Hopefully I can join in to help soon.

So the same thing just happened to me. Brewed last night and this morning woke up to a mess. It snapped the top of the airlock off and blew the rest across the room. Did your beer still turn out ok?

The truth is almost every new brewer has that prob, u will be fine

So how long can I keep the blow off tube on? I have it in a pot with sanitized water and covered with foil. It looks like I am in the clear, but my S-Airlock top snapped off and am waiting for a new airlock to come in. Would I be ok just leaving the blow off tube on?

There will be many times your airlocks sit in the storage bin. With beer I never use them, and some cider and hard lemonades kill them quick also.