Hi all,
This weekend I tried my first brew (a red ale extract kit). Everything seemed to go great and my fermentation started well, but quickly got out of hand. Within 48 hours, the pressure had built high enough to pop the airlock off my carboy and drench my closet (the best cool, dark place in my house) with beer! Not a fun mess to clean up.
Where did I go wrong? My initial guess is the fermentation temperature was probably too high. Do you agree? If so, I was planning on placing my carboy in a water bath to better control the temperature for round two. Is this a good practice?
Also, I figured since the airlock had popped off and the beer was exposed to air for about 12+ hours, the beer was spent and I poured it down the drain . Am I correct that there's no way to salvage a batch that's been exposed to air?
Thanks in advance for your input!
-Darren
This weekend I tried my first brew (a red ale extract kit). Everything seemed to go great and my fermentation started well, but quickly got out of hand. Within 48 hours, the pressure had built high enough to pop the airlock off my carboy and drench my closet (the best cool, dark place in my house) with beer! Not a fun mess to clean up.
Where did I go wrong? My initial guess is the fermentation temperature was probably too high. Do you agree? If so, I was planning on placing my carboy in a water bath to better control the temperature for round two. Is this a good practice?
Also, I figured since the airlock had popped off and the beer was exposed to air for about 12+ hours, the beer was spent and I poured it down the drain . Am I correct that there's no way to salvage a batch that's been exposed to air?
Thanks in advance for your input!
-Darren