Air Lock question

[mwmoose152]

I was fermenting a belgian ale recently, and after a few weeks of the beer sitting in the secondary, i noticed that the vodka that i placed in the air lock had evaporated down to a level below where the air slots are in the dome piece.

I'm assuming that my brew is DOA, but wanted your takes on this first before I destroyed my hard work.

Thanks, all!

 

[hopsalot]

it will be fine, happens all the time, just top it off. Your fermentor is loaded with CO2 that keep the air out.
RDWHAHB!

 

[Namocsid]

I'd bottle it and see what happens, it's probably fine. There's a layer of CO2 on top of the beer as it's sitting in the fermenter, so unless you're seeing something that's obviously wrong, bottle it and see.

 

[VillageBrew]

Don't assume anything. If it has been in the secondary for several weeks, I can only think that it is ready to be bottled / kegged. I would go ahead with the process. The worst you would loose would be the time of bottleing, priming sugar and the caps themselves.

What does the beer look like? Any foreign floating matter? Off smelling vapors etc? Taste the sampIe from your final gravity reading. Tastes? I wouldn't dump it unless there is something strange going on. There might have been enough of a barrier to prevent infection.

 

[ACbrewer]

+1 to all the save and taste it all. I doubt is is a dumper.

 

[solbes]

Should be good to go.

 

[mwmoose152]

you guys rock !
:rockin::rockin::rockin::rockin::rockin::rockin:

 

[TopherM]

I'm assuming that my brew is DOA

LOL...there's 1/4 ounce of sanitary vodka in your 5 gallons of beer. It's ruined!

Lots of Aussie brewers don't even use airlocks or even bucket tops with gaskets. They don't even snap down their bucket tops, they just lightly place them on top and ferment like that. They might have 2% more infections than everyone else, but it rarely ruins their beer, even with that process.

Moral of the story, it is pretty difficult to ruin a batch of beer. Alcohol is antiseptic and disinfectant, after all.