Airlock blew off

[dcblanton77]

I'm brewing my first batch of beer. During fermentation, I was out of town for a couple of days. When I came back, the airlock had blown off. I immediately sanitized the airlock and put it back in. It is now fermenting again, but I'm worried that the batch maybe ruined because it was exposed for a couple of days. Is it worth continuing this batch of beer, or is there no hope for it?

 

[user 108580]

Never dump until your 100% sure its ruined. Taste and smell are important here. During primary fermentation the yeast are so active and abundant they can usually beat off any foreign intruder that gets in there so wait it out. It could turn out to be the best beer you've ever had!

 

[unionrdr]

Same here,taste & smell it. Is there any moldy looking stuff growing on top of the beer? If not,it should be ok. But rigg a blow off to start the ferment next time you know you're going to be away. Lil piece of mind.

 

[woodstone]

Do as the others say.
You'll most likely be fine.
It never stopped fermenting.
Positive pressure in the vessel probably kept most everything out until you tossed the air lock back on.

 

[jgerard]

Had an airlock blow out right before I left for spring break last year, I put it back in and when I came back it was blown out again, so it sat for a good week open. It was also a good beer! Leave it alone

 

[aiptasia]

I'm sure it's fine. Next time, rig up a blowoff tube or get some fermcap-s to limit the size of the krausen.

 

[dcblanton77]

Thanks for the quick replies. I think I may be infected though. I took a sample using a wine thief, and came up with these white chunks on the outside of the tube (see pic). Does this mean I'm infected?

 

[kevinb]

It is hard to tell in the picture, but that looks like yeast/trub to me. Let is be. From other posts I have seen, you will know if it is infected. It will stink and you will see obvious "mold" floating.

 

[dcblanton77]

Does this picture tell you more? There is definitely some sort of whitish brown material floating on the surface, and the inner lining of the top of the carboy is coated in it.....

 

[Cyclman]

From that pic, you look fine. That's yeast / dried hops / trub, most likely.

Infection from blowoff is very rare, unless the airlock was off for a rather extended time. The co2 protects the beer.

 

[ghosthef]

I've had that on my beers...it looks fine. It's beer...be happy, crack a cold one and relax.

 

[TroyMorgan]

You're fine. All looks normal in both pictures actually. If you're infected it will smell pretty ripe. The taste will be rough as well.

 

[Cincyfan78]

You'll be fine. If you noticed that air bubbles were still appearing when you placed the airlock back on after the blow off, that should tell you that you had a pretty nice layer of CO2 covering your beer and forcing gasses off pushing the 02 away from the beer. No worries there.

As for the "stuff" you are seeing, it looks like normal trub. It shouldn't be a surprised that you have that gunk dried at the top of your carboy as you had a blow off.

If you are really worried about it, try to siphon some of it from below the dried stuff and any krausen, and taste it and smell it, but I honestly think that your beer will be just fine.