oops.. lost my airlock

[BigKoiv]

First time home brewer here.

I started with a dried malt extract with specialty grains... Liquid yeast (white labs California ale)... Three part hops bill...

I picked up a deluxe starter kit at my local homebrew shop which included a 6 gal glass carboy. I may have overfilled the carboy after transferring from the brew pot to the carboy... I did not pre measure levels in the carboy so instead I topped off the wort to the top ridge on the carboy... I thought the brewmaster said the top ridge was the 5 gallons mark.

But after measuring an original gravity of 1.0041 I was worried that I screwed something up because the recipe called for an OG of 1.0050. In hindsight, I wish I had spun the hydrometer to ensure no bubbles affected the reading... The only significant tweak to the recipe was exchanging a late addition of liquid malt extract with an initial addition of dried malt extract... Not sure how this might impact OG.

Initially, all this gunk settled to the bottom (I assume this is trub)... But by the next morning, the trub had risen to the top. Throughout the next day, the airlock was bubbling constantly and all seemed well.

On the evening of the third day everything was progressing smoothly until my fiance noticed that the trub had turned into foam... I remembered reading about a 'foam tube' in my book (The Complete Joy of Homebrewing)... I started looking for specific directions in the book when I heard a 'POP' from the brew closet...

No big deal... The airlock got clogged and the stopper popped out but there was not much of a mess... Until the foam started escaping the top of the carboy... I quickly sanitized some tube and the ejected plug to create a foam tube... I plugged the carboy and put the other end of it in a 1 gal water bottle containing the sanitizer.

After I mistakenly stuffed the plug too far into the carboy (with tube still attached) , it slid into the carboy entirely. Fortunately, my sexy, engineer fiance was quick to act... After allowing the building gas pressure to force the plug back into the hole... She was was able to extract the plug with an altered shish-ka-Bob skewer... God bless her.

The carboy is now cleanly exporting gas and the following pics were taken after all the issues I described...

My question:
Should I throw away my beer?

 

[bigbeergeek]

This is a rough first post, all around.

 

[BigKoiv]

Agreed...

Here are the pics I forgot to attach.

 

[masterfool101]

RDWHAHB . Just about everything you described is normal. Rig up a blowoff tube, submerse the end in some sanitizer, and get ready to enjoy your beer.


On a side note, cover your carboy. You don't want light to skunk your beer!

 

[tg123]

Looks like mine. I'm not tossing mine away.

 

[jungatheart]

Great storytelling. I've made everyone of those mistakes. Just not all at once.

 

[Channel66]

It's ruined. Don't just throw it away though. Hefty fines. I have a earth friendly way of disposing of beer. Package it up and send it my way I will take care of it.

 

[jerrodm]

Please don't throw away your beer. It's going to be fine. Just keep the temp down (for WLP001 I like to ferment at around 66F ambient air temp) and let it sit for at least a couple of weeks. In six weeks or so you'll be drinking your own tasty homebrew. Welcome to the addiction--brewing that is, not drinking. I just assume you're already addicted to that.

 

[F250]

What temp did you pitch at, what temp is your closet?

Rick

 

[twistr25]

You are just fine. You appear to have a good fermentation going. The foam that develops on top is krausen, perfectly normal. The thing about clear carboys is they allow you to see what's going on, and if you're new and don't know what to expect it can freak you out that something is wrong. There are threads on here devoted to things dropped into the primary, and much worse than a plug. Also, since you have gotten fermentation started the alcohol that is being produced has a nice little way of killing nasties that may pop up in the beer, so you shouldn't have to worry about infection.

Adding too much water will cause your OG to drop, so that's likely why it is a little under the stated OG. One quick note, most OGs are in the hundredths place 1.041, 1.050, etc., while most FGs will finish 1.01-1.02.

As jerrodm said, temp is very important, so keep it steady as possible usually upper 60s is sufficient and welcome!

 

[NivekD]

That's a fine lookin' first brew...

 

[kh54s10]

Other than the obvious mistake of pushing the stopper into the carboy, everything else is going normally.

When you exchanged the LME for DME how did you determine the amount to use. That could easily be the source of your gravity discrepancy. Which IMO is not off far enough to get too concerned about. Also with extract brews it is very easy to get a bad reading by not having the top up water mixed well enough.

Your blow off tube is perfect. You can use that as your airlock until the fermentation is finished.

Read up. There is a lot on information available right here on this site. Learn about what happens during the process then you will not get concerned about process that are totally normal. Like trub and krausen, which are, by the way, different things.

 

[BigKoiv]

I appreciate everyone's feedback. I've been lurking in the shadows for the past week and it's good to be a part of the conversation.

On a side note, cover your carboy. You don't want light to skunk your beer!

Thanks for the tips masterfool101. I generally keep the closet closed and open the door when I want to examine the progress... And I use a flashlight if needed. Hopefully the beer isn't sensitive enough to be affected.

What temp did you pitch at, what temp is your closet?

Rick

My pitching temperature was too high at 80 degrees Fahrenheit... The ambient temp in the closet ranges from 68 degrees to 71 degrees. I'll get the pitching temp correct next time but I don't know the best way to reduce fermentation temperature by a couple of degrees.

Adding too much water will cause your OG to drop, so that's likely why it is a little under the stated OG. One quick note, most OGs are in the hundredths place 1.041, 1.050, etc., while most FGs will finish 1.01-1.02.

You're absolutely right... I added an extra zero in there. Thanks twistr25.

When you exchanged the LME for DME how did you determine the amount to use. That could easily be the source of your gravity discrepancy. Which IMO is not off far enough to get too concerned about. Also with extract brews it is very easy to get a bad reading by not having the top up water mixed well enough.

I exchanged the LME with DME with the help of the brewmaster at my LHBS. The recipe is a Mirror Pond Pale Ale clone and originally called for 2.5 lbs of light DME and 3.3 lbs of Coopers LME as a late addition. I used 5 lbs of Briess Golden Light DME and added it all at the beginning.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

[Channel66]

The best cheap way to reduce the fermentation temp Is to fill a plastic tub with water (the kind with the rope handles work great and can be had at wal mart for like 3 bucks). Fill some 2 liter soda bottles with water and freeze them. Put the fermenter in the tub and wrap it in a towel. Add the frozen bottles to reach your desired temp. The towel will act as a wick and help keep the whole fermenter temperature constant. This is called a swamp cooler (of sorts)

 

[twistr25]

80's not too bad for pitching temp, colder is better, but I've pitched at that before and never had a problem.