Is my beer ruined?

[KevinDee]

hey guys. this is the 5th batch of beer I have brewed and I have always done all grain. I usually do 3-3.5 gallon batches and do my primary fermentation in a 5 gallon glass carboy topped with a 3 piece airlock. I brewed this batch monday evening and by very early tuesday morning it was bubbling away. I had to leave town suddenly tuesday afternoon and didn't arrive back home until now (thursday evening) and came home to the photo below. I know this is the sign of a very vigorous fermentation and I will probably use a blow off tube from now on even though this is the first time I have ever had this problem (3.5 gallons in this carboy. thought i had plenty of headspace). My main concern is that I filled the airlock with star san solution. Not distilled water. Is it likely that the sanitizer flowed into the beer? or is it more likely the kreusen absorbed it and forced it out the top of the airlock?

 

[Rockn_M]

Your probably ok. Clean the outside of the carboy and clean the airlock and re-sanitize everything.

 

[BigSumpin]

No...

The out ward pressure will keep out the bugs, use your starsan and clean everything right before you replace the airlock with a blow-off tube

 

[KarenHauck]

What caused this?

 

[KevinDee]

What caused this?

would like to know myself. the OG was nothing outrageous (1.065) and I used one smack pack of trappist yeast without a starter. I have used the same yeast in the same amount of wort before with no problems. The only difference this time is that I did use much more candy sugar in this particular recipe. could that have caused a more vigorous fermentation? could it have been a temperature thing?

 

[jrgtr42]

First, it's actually very hard to ruin beer.
This is a good thing (well, not GOOD, but not a bad thing.)
Trappist yeast, from what I understand, can take off and go like gangbusters, especially with straight sugars.
That's what happened here.
Anyways, put a blow-off hose in for a while, until the krausen dies down. Clean off the airlock and carboy, and you'll be fine.

 

[kewlceo]

My main concern is that I filled the airlock with star san solution.

No biggie in any case, as the yeast will turn diluted Star San solution into yeast nutrients.

Good luck,
Rick

 

[Hankins2010]

I was just about to comment on the positive pressure , Ya beat me to it. Had that one happen a couple times before I started doing a blow off hose for a few days on everything no matter what just to be safe.
Never start a fermentation without one if your going to be absent . Always . The blow off hose is your freind and is made just for this reason. An air lock is for the expected situation ,when everythings settled down . The blow off is for "Throw anything ya got at me "

 

[Rockn_M]

What caused this?

Some yeast have an explosive fermentation. Most of the time it's because the fermentation temps are to high.

 

[Brew_Murphy]

I've had this happen to me plenty of times. I wouldn't be concerned at all. I've been told that the yeast would consume the star san but like Bigsumpin said, the krausen would cause positive pressure pushing everything out. After that the CO2 produced by fermentation should protect it.

 

[KevinDee]

cool thanks everyone