Airlock fell off of Fermentor

[Asylum88]

Hello,

I woke up this morning and noticed the airlock and bung on my fermentor fell off overnight.

I am assuming my cat possibly brushed up against it and it fell off on the floor. I have never had this happen.

All of the StarSan liquid came out and already dried. I am assuming it had been off most of the night.

I am supposed to bottle this beer today since it’s been 2 weeks in the fermentor. The OG was 1.045. I haven’t done a final gravity sample just yet.

Is this batch screwed now because the bung and airlock have been off for a few hours? I’m hoping that since alcohol is present and most of the sugar has been converted that I will be ok?

Thank you ahead of time for your responses

 

[ProblemChild]

put it back in. nothing you can do if it is bad - may work out just fine. sure O2 got in, but how much is the question.

Unfortunately, there is only one way to know - bottle it.

I would probably not enter it in competition, but no harm in playing it out.

 

[sicktght311]

What kind of beer is it? If its a super hoppy style IPA, you might run into some oxidation issues that are super noticeable. If its a dark beer such as a stout, or porter, you can probably get away with it

 

[VirginiaHops1]

Nothing you can do now. Drink it and see how it turns out. May have some oxidation. And get rid of the cat before the next batch

 

[Kickass]

I would be about 3% concerned. Sure there’s a little more O2 exposure and there’s a chance that an undesirable wild yeast/bacteria got in but I think you’ll have an unaffected finished product.

Hell, if it tastes good, drink it, share it, submit it to comps and enjoy all the aspects of homebrewing.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

I'd be more concerned about what the cat added to the fermenter. I'd imagine airlock was bubbling, cat swatted the airlock and airlock fell off. OK, then what, from the cat, fell into the fermenter? Hair, dirt? Unknown?

 

[BrewInspector]

Don't over react. It will be fine. Doubt you could notice any difference in the final product if there was a duplicate beer brewing next to it with an intact airlock.

You are going to have far more of an impact from air during the bottling process than could have possibly occurred with a missing airlock.

Remember, open fermentation is still a thing. No airlocks, no problem.

 

[Asylum88]

Thank you everyone for the replies! I’m just going to relax and hope for the best. It’s a Mocktoberfest I created using US-05 ale yeast. I just finished bottling it. ABV came out to 4.8%. Tastes pretty good but I’m sure if it got infected then it will take longer to see the off tastes. This is the first time for me making an Oktoberfest style beer. I can’t lager at the moment because of no room for refrigeration. I’m pretty excited and hoping for the best!

 

[Terpene]

If it comes out drinkable (which it likely will), consume it as fast as possible. The beer likely became saturated with O2 while the airlock was off. This will greatly reduce shelf life of the beer, with some styles being quicker to spoil than others (looking at you, NEIPA). Store it ice cold goes without saying.

As an idea, you could have tried adding a few points of corn sugar to the fermenter and purged the headspace with CO2. At least some of the O2 would get consumed in the resulting secondary fermentation. Yeast metabolism can clean up the dissolved O2 and potentially some unwanted oxidation products. Your ABV would go up a bit, obviously.

 

[smata67]

Everything is going to be all right.