Airlock Failure

[Jakeedaman21]

I went down to check on my batch of ale last night and found that my airlock wasn't sealed properly... and regardless of what I did, it refused to form a good seal. Being the ever impatient amateur that I am, I decided to immediately clean then rack to the secondary where I knew the seal would hold properly. This is only 5 days into primary though... and though its a bad habit, I don't think I did to much damage. Was I right to transfer containers if I knew the airlock failed? Or did I jump the gun? Maybe I should RDWHAHB... but I digress. On the bright side, the gravity is at 1.010 which puts it currently at 4.06 abv. I figure another 2 weeks minimum in the secondary will cure my woes. Input please?

 

[DrawTap88]

I think you're safe.

 

[SoonerDoc]

Probably could have just taped around the airlock where it was leaking.

 

[Revvy]

You probably should have just left it alone. Your airlock is a vent to bleed excess co2, nothing more. And if it is not sealing around the edges, then the excess co2 will get out there. As long as co2 is coming out, then NOTHING can get in.

Racking over after 5 days is Really overkill. You took the beer off the yeast that it needs to ferment, which could lead to stuck fermentation, or it taking a long time to finish, and if you think you're impatient now.

If you had a 72 hour lag time, which is quite common for yeast, then you really only got 2 days of good fermentation going.

Plus you run the risk of oxydation or infection.

Lots of folks don't even use an airlock, some even just cover their fermenters with tin foil or plexiglass. Half my fermentations have no airlock activity whatsoever, regardless of buckets or carboys....

Your airlock seal is pretty inconsequential considering the need for plenty of yeast to finish the job and/or the risk of oxydation of infection.

Next time just leave it alone.

 

[Jakeedaman21]

Thx Revvy.. Will do next time. For now Im going to blame squirrelly ignorance.

 

[lumpher]

would have been ok to leave it, and still ok. carb as normal, drink as normal

Kegged/Bottled: : oatmeal stout/dunkelweizen/oktoberfest/st arnolds # 7/blueberry hefeweizen/belgian doppelbock/edworts appelwein/hard lemonade/wee porter/vanilla porter/oktoberfest maerzen

 

[Jakeedaman21]

I think I stuck the fermentation, because the gravity hasn't changed at all since I made my mistake of moving it to the secondary.

Also, the gravity wasn't actually 1.01, but 1.025. I forgot to take temp into account when I originally posted. I feel a little stupid. That puts the current concoction at only about 2-3 % abv. Blarg.

Thanks for the help to guys, without this place I would be brewing in the dark.