Airlock dried up at 1.5yrs in

[Zippox]

I made AmandaK's lambic recipe a long time back and I forgot about the airlock and it was dry for probably 4 weeks at the 1.5 year mark. It has a strong pellicle and I have never opened the carboy. Think I will still have oxidized beer or do you think the pellicle and co2 bed will make it turn out just fine?

 

[kingmatt]

CO2 is heavier than oxygen so I don't think you have to worry about it escaping up out of your carboy through your airlock. I would say you should be fine.

 

[youreanimpulse]

It's possible that it got oxygen, as in an open system air will exchange regardless of specific gravity, but you may still be just fine, as it wasn't all that long and some of those (subtle) oxidative flavors are stylistic in lambic. I would purge with CO2 if you haven't already.

 

[davejanssen]

I would be worried more about acetic acid than oxidized flavors. Although CO2 is heavier than air, O2 will diffuse in until the CO2 (edit, meant O2 here but the same is true for CO2) concentrations inside the carboy is the same as outside. Give it a taste to see if it has a strong vinegar character.

 

[TheZymurgist]

We can speculate all day about what the results could be and what their likelihood is, but there's only one way to know for sure...

 

[dantheman13]

I had the same thing happen to three different 1 gallon jugs. Two of the beers that did not have a pellicle suffered from oxygen exposure. One of them turned purple and tasted like cardboard (this only had dregs of Cascade Brewing, who supposedly does not have Brettanomyces in their beers), the other had a strong nail polish aroma and other off flavors for some time. I was able to save the nail polish beer, and I believe I have been able to save the cardboard beer as well!

The third beer that had a pellicle survived the unknown amount of time with a dry airlock. In fact, it turned out wonderful.

I would be worried more about acetic acid than oxidized flavors. Although CO2 is heavier than air, O2 will diffuse in until the CO2 concentration inside the carboy is the same as outside. Give it a taste to see if it has a strong vinegar character.

^ this. The gases actually mix rather rapidly. http://beerandwinejournal.com/can-co2-form-a-blanket/#more-225

 

[kingmatt]

I would be worried more about acetic acid than oxidized flavors. Although CO2 is heavier than air, O2 will diffuse in until the CO2 (edit, meant O2 here but the same is true for CO2) concentrations inside the carboy is the same as outside. Give it a taste to see if it has a strong vinegar character.

This is true but it depends on how much oxygen is getting into the vessel and how quickly. If the OP has a 3 peice airlock that simply dryed up then we would be talking about how much oxygen could enter via the drilled stopper hole through the top fo the airlock and under the floating cap...I would think it would take quite a while for that little amount of oxygen (not being forced in via a breeze or fan or something) to diffuse the CO2 enough to cause the beer to oxidize.

Just my 2 cents though, I am not a scientist and I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

 

[edmanster]

The pellicle is there to protect your beer. You would not have a pellicle anyways if any oxygen wasn't present!

 

[allouez86]

I had a "lambic like" beer sit unnoticed with a dry airlock for probably almost 2 months (it was tucked in a corner behind 8 other sour fermenting beers) and it turned out pretty nice still. It had a nice thick pellicle on it which probably helped. Obviously I don't know if would have turned out better if it was full for those 2 months, but it was good enough to where I'm not really complaining.

 

[davejanssen]

This is true but it depends on how much oxygen is getting into the vessel and how quickly. If the OP has a 3 peice airlock that simply dryed up then we would be talking about how much oxygen could enter via the drilled stopper hole through the top fo the airlock and under the floating cap...I would think it would take quite a while for that little amount of oxygen (not being forced in via a breeze or fan or something) to diffuse the CO2 enough to cause the beer to oxidize.

Just my 2 cents though, I am not a scientist and I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Diffusion can actually happen pretty quickly. This is a study from the folks at better bottle about how much O2 can be transferred through different types of closures. They are all solid closures so the O2 they measure is simply from O2 permeability of the solid materials and incomplete seals due to fine-scale roughness in the plastics. That would probably increase in the case of something like an airlock going dry. Anyway, here's what they found.

http://www.mocon.com/pdf/optech/Closures - Oxygen Passage Study.pdf

Again, I wouldn't be worried about oxidation flavors so much as acetic acid flavors. But the beer could be completely fine as well. OP, give it a taste and report back. Hopefully the pellicle protected it and this batch is still good.

 

[tugbucket]

Five sours in. All 1.5+ years old before bottling. None ever used an airlock after primary fermentation. Used the toasted wooded dowel in a bung method. All are fine.

We can speculate all day about what the results could be and what their likelihood is, but there's only one way to know for sure...

Exactly. Just drink it.