Airlock may have been clogged at first, what will that mean for my brew?

[National Sound]

Hey all, I'm brand new here and have a question I couldn't find the answer to via a search.

I'm brewing 5 gallons of sugar wine/kilju using sugar, water, and Fermfast 48-hour turbo yeast, following the instructions for making a 5-7 day 20% ABV batch. I have experience making cider and have made a gallon of this stuff before using non-turbo yeast (Lawler EC-1118) but I ran into a problem I've never had before.

I came home expecting my airlock to be busy bubbling up (~14 hours after adding the Fermfast, I know it normally takes 24 hours to see activity but figured since this stuff is supposed to be able to produce a 14.5% ABV brew in only 48 hours it should start sooner) but found no activity in the airlock. I am fermenting my 5 gallons in a 6-gallon bucket to leave a good amount of headroom.

I noticed that the airlock (2-piece "S" type) had too much water in it and once I fixed that it started bubbling away happily. I'm worried that the yeast was working in the meantime, just unable to release any of the co2 for a bit because of the airlock issue. What will a possible length of time without the co2 being able to escape do to my brew?

Many thanks to anyone who can give me any insight!

 

[bucketnative]

No problems. There's no way that water clogged your airlock to the point that significant pressure would build up. It may have been at a tipping point where the pressure of CO2 generated was just about to displacing the water in the airlock, and the water you removed pushed it over the top.

What is more likely, is that you had a leak in your fermenter and the CO2 was getting out. Then when you adjusted the airlock, that leak was somehow sealed back up and the path of least resistance for the escaping gas became through the airlock.

People ferment under pressure all the time, to a certain degree. The biggest danger of a completely clogged airlock is catastrophic failure of the fermenter. Either an exploding vessel, or an airlock that gets blown out and hits the ceiling. Either way, it's a big mess.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

I guess the real question is why did you brew it? "Sugar wine" sounds like something even lower on the scale than prison pruno.

But I guess it is to each his own.

 

[kh54s10]

Also wonder at the "sugar wine"?? But if there was sufficient co2 build up one of two things would have happened. 1) the airlock would have shot to the ceiling. 2) the entire lid of the bucket would had done the same.

Nothing to worry about other than making..... Ok, I'll be nice by not saying anything nasty.