airlock contamination question

[gtg431g]

Hi,

I'm on my first brew and I've found a lot of information on this question searching the forums but none quite exactly answered my situation.

I did my first brew and put it in primary fermentation with an airlock, put it in a shower stall in our basement, and then went out of town for about a week. It is a sealed and tiled shower stall that I never use, so I'm not worried about a hard-to-clean mess in the event of a blow out.

I went out of town for about a week and came back to find the airlock fluid cloudy and contaminated with what appeared to be a small amount of overflow (yeast or beer... not sure). I used a starsan water mix in my airlock. When I saw this I added a bit more starsan solution to the airlock because the airlock fluid level appeared a little low, but I did not take it off and re-sanitize the three pieces of the airlock because I am assuming the damage--if any--has already been done at this point. Since it was probably like this for several days, is this batch already ruined? Can I just leave it alone and take no further action until primary fermentation is complete in another week or so?

In the future I will use a blow off or replace the airlock immediately, but I am hoping for this first attempt I can be lazy and leave it alone for another week or so until primary finishes.

 

[watermelon83]

Hi,

I'm on my first brew and I've found a lot of information on this question searching the forums but none quite exactly answered my situation.

I did my first brew and put it in primary fermentation with an airlock, put it in a shower stall in our basement, and then went out of town for about a week. It is a sealed and tiled shower stall that I never use, so I'm not worried about a hard-to-clean mess in the event of a blow out.

I went out of town for about a week and came back to find the airlock fluid cloudy and contaminated with what appeared to be a small amount of overflow (yeast or beer... not sure). I used a starsan water mix in my airlock. When I saw this I added a bit more starsan solution to the airlock because the airlock fluid level appeared a little low, but I did not take it off and re-sanitize the three pieces of the airlock because I am assuming the damage--if any--has already been done at this point. Since it was probably like this for several days, is this batch already ruined? Can I just leave it alone and take no further action until primary fermentation is complete in another week or so?

In the future I will use a blow off or replace the airlock immediately, but I am hoping for this first attempt I can be lazy and leave it alone for another week or so until primary finishes.

You should be fine, yeast reaching the airlock and not clogging it is luck though. Defineitly use a blow off in the future.

The yeast reached your sanitizer in the airlock, where it and most other bugs died. their death makes for your happy beer. Well that and the ever increasing alchohol content..

 

[BigFloyd]

Doesn't sound like you have anything to worry about. Pull it, clean it well, refill with StarSan and replace.

 

[jump_xiii]

I have to agree, everything inside your fermenter should still be lovely and sanitized. RDWHAHB

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah, I'd say that the air exposure of the Starsan in the airlock got some wild thangs settled into it. That can make it cloudy. Or the mineral content of the water. I looked at our tap water under my microscope (before the boys broke it!), & found black specs of soil & a lot of Amoebas. Also, nasties in the air aren't ninja acrobats. they settle downward in the air, barring fans & other air movement.

 

[gtg431g]

Thanks guys! Just wasn't sure if the starsan got too diluted it would then become less effective. So, hopefully it will work out! Two more weeks! On a side note... I found the solution to newbie home brewer impatience: brew another batch! Cream Ale this weekend!

 

[adamdillabo]

Brewing another really can be a relief.
Just make sure you save up enough bottles.