CalmYourself
Well-Known Member
Are you sure that this is not just hop-debris and CO2 from the hops.
When I dry hop in the primary, I will get quite a bit of airlock activity afterwards..
Fairly certain. I'm not sure what the OG was since I was going to take a sample just before pitching. I'll check the SG in about a week to confirm. Should be easy enough to see if it's been fermening or not.
By the looks of it, it seems you have way too much headspace.
Also you are going into the cube right after the boil and sealing it?
Are you rotating the cube so that all surfaces are hit with the boiling hot wort?
With all that headspace, if you open it up after 90 minutes you are losing your sterile conditions by allowing contaminates into it, which can probably survive in the airspace and cooler condition.. probably where you getting your spontaneous fermentation.
Unless you are going to pitch you shouldn't be opening it after sealing it with hot wort.
I do have a lot of headspace, plan on getting a slightly smaller cube before the next batch.
Yes, I'm going straight into cube right after boil and sealing directly after.
No, I didn't rotate the cube. I'll stand it upside down for 20 mins next time after transferring.
I'm never going to open a cube again unless for pitching purposes.
Juvinious covered the bases pretty well.
To add, perhaps being redundant at times-
- no-chill in a container thats about the same size as your brew. Brewing a 19 liter batch- no-chill in a 20 liter cube. (Some brewers ferment in the same container as they no-chill, and therefore need about 4 liters more head-space but I would try to fix the sanitation problem first.)
-make sure the cube *and cap* are both absolutely clean before you begin.
-after filling the cube, push out any airspace before closing the cap.
-set the cube on its side part of the time when the wort is near boiling, to kill any bugs that may be in the nooks and crannies of the top and cap.
-dont open the cube until youre ready to pitch.
Oh, its odd that your brew went that far south in just a couple days. Its almost like the hops you added were coated in cow spit or something.
As to whether you should save it- ??? why not? It probably isn't going to kill you.
Cube size is changing ASAP!
Both cube and cap were THOROUGHLY cleaned and sanitized.
Will do!
I got the hops 3 days before and stuck them straight in the freezer. I can only assume they were coated in some yeast floating around the LHBS while they were re-packaging them.
And: I'm going to keep it, the worst batch I've ever made has suddenly started tasting good so I'm going to try the patience thing and see what happens.