Blow Off and Tanted Beer

I haven't gone with a blow off setup yet, cause I've only experienced it once so far. Then when my most recent batch was fermenting I noticed the fermenter ballooning out. I released the pressure, cleaned the airlock and was on my way. When I went to switch to the secondary the airlock was gunked up with foam. When I opened the fermenter it smelled terrible. Kinda like puke. I figured the worst that would happen by trying it out would be to waste time so I put it in the secondary anyway. After it the beer was racked off the beer itself smelled ok, actually kinda good, so I thought maybe I was just smelling the yeast. But it's still in the back of my mind, maybe the beer is tanted. Just wondering what you think.

Thanks,
Mike

 

If you used sanitizer in your airlock, it is most likely fine. Even if you used regular water, it is probably ok too. Don't worry too much about a bubbled up airlock.

 

If it looks and smells like beer now....it's beer! If beer gets infected, it always tastes bad. Some of my batches of beer have gotten some stinky odors while they're fermenting, but they all turn out fine. It depends on the batch and the type yeast you're using that determines what kind of smelly gas gets expelled