Kill a spontaneous ferment

[Windchime]

I started a RyePA recipe yesterday. I waited until this evening for the wort to cool down. I noticed my air lock bubbling once every 20 seconds or so. So instead of pitching yeast, I put my whole sealed fermenter into my brew kettle. I set it up like a double boiler with some wooden spoons between my fermenter and the base of my kettle. I'm getting it up to a boil. I'm hoping that will kill whatever was eating my wort, and if I keep it sealed the whole time nothing will get in.

How do you think this will affect the flavor/IBUs? I used pellet hops and did not filter them out after the boil.

 

[Pommy]

ibus will increase and aroma will drop if not disappear.

 

[BrewerBear]

Just because it was bubbling does not mean it was spontaneously fermenting, it just means you had bubbles. Bubbling can be caused from temperature change or any number of other things.

 

[BradleyBrew]

yeah i've noticed my airlock bubbles at all different "weird" times. 20 mintues after I pitch my yeast sometimes the airlock shows activity. I know yeast don't work that fast. Next time look for actual "signs" of fermentation such as gravity, krausen, if in glass or plastic is the wort activily churning or are there co2 bubbles streaming to the surface of the wort, etc.

 

[beergolf]

Just because it was bubbling does not mean it was spontaneously fermenting, it just means you had bubbles. Bubbling can be caused from temperature change or any number of other things.

^^^^^ This. There is a great video of an airlock on an empty carboy that is bubbling away.

Bubbles are not a sign of fermentation.

 

[bottlebomber]

It was bubbling because it was cooling down. There was no spontaneous fermentation. That would take days to happen.

 

[Windchime]

Well darn. I got swindled by a piece of plastic and some bubbles. Oh well.
It took almost an hour to get the whole kit n kaboodle up to temp.
Thanks Pommy, that makes sense. I'm ok with that though, I like a lot of bitter bite. There will be a 2 oz. dry hop when it goes into secondary, so there's still going to be some balance. Just not nearly as much aroma as I had planned on from the end of boil 1.75 oz Colombus addition.
Lesson learned.
I'll post here later once this RyePA is conditioned and named.

I've got a recipe puzzler to submit next. My local home brew shop had slim pickings siince it's August, so I substituted almost every ingredient.