Airlock Problems, Ruined?

[kathomas]

I came home this afternoon to find that the middle piece of the airlock had been blown off (not damaged just resting on the fermenter lid). I had forgotten to put the cap on the top of the airlock when I sealed it up last night (first time brewing...whoops). I put the lid on the fermenter at 8 last night, and its about 4:30pm now. I re-sanitized the airlock (covering the hole with saran wrap as its drying) because there was lots of gunk of it.
Will the beer still be ok? What will a bad airlock do to beer?

 

[homebeerbrewer]

If it's fermenting, the CO2 will prevent anything that will ruin your beer from doing so. So RDWHAHB.

 

[wfowlks]

It sounds like your problem is you need a blowoff valve instead of the air lock. If there was a lot of gunk in it, I would strongly suggest getting a blowoff. If you have a bucket, which it sounds like you do, that middle piece you can take that out, and find a tube/hose that hooks up to that center part and then put the other end of the hose into a jar filled with starsan.

I have a carboy, and I just have the 1 inch tube which fits perfectly in the mouth of the carboy and the other end goes into a cut off milk jug filled with starsan solution.

 

[Passload]

No worries it's fermenting. RDWHAHB

 

[kathomas]

It's just a bit disconcerting because it's not bubbling anymore. Maybe I just need to wait a little longer.

 

[duboman]

Generally speaking very active fermentation occurs within a few days and then settle down, no bubbling does NOT mean done fermenting.

As mentioned above you need to take a hydrometer reading at least three days in a row and if the gravity doesn't change it's done but most everyone inHBT leaves the beer in the primary for at least 3 weeks so the yeast can continue working to clean things up.

If you want to secondary then be sure the gravity doesn't change and rack it, otherwise give it another week and bottle

 

[kathomas]

Well its only been in the fermenter a day, but it hasnt bubbled at all since I cleaned the airlock (that I know of anyway) and it's been 8 hours now. Might I need to clean out some of the krausen? About a fifth of the height of the fermenter is filled with krausen at the moment (up to the lid).

 

[idahobrew]

Don't clean the krausen, just have patience at least 48 hours more to see what happens and do install a blow off tube as suggested. What temp is your fermentation?

 

[kathomas]

It's room temp and the apartment's been varying between 65 and 75. It's in a small closed closet so my guess is it doesn't actually get past 70 in there. I guess I'll clean the syphoning tube I have and lead it to my other 5 gallon bucket tomorrow and see what happens. I'm not as worried anymore, but I'm just curious as to why the bubbling stopped as it was bubbling fine this morning.

 

[idahobrew]

It's room temp and the apartment's been varying between 65 and 75. It's in a small closed closet so my guess is it doesn't actually get past 70 in there. I guess I'll clean the syphoning tube I have and lead it to my other 5 gallon bucket tomorrow and see what happens. I'm not as worried anymore, but I'm just curious as to why the bubbling stopped as it was bubbling fine this morning.

OK, that sounds alright, you have some good krausen also good. You need to know what temp you are fermenting at. Also what temp did you pitch your yeast?

 

[duboman]

Also keep in mind that while fermenting the actual wort produces some heat so the actual wort may be 5 degrees warmer than what the temp strip shows. If you don't have a temp strip on your vessel, get one, 65F is a good temp, 70 is at the high end for most yeast and 75 is definitely pushing the limit with the chance of producing off flavors

 

[kathomas]

OK, that sounds alright, you have some good krausen also good. You need to know what temp you are fermenting at. Also what temp did you pitch your yeast?

Pitched the yeast at about 70 as well.

 

[duboman]

At 70 you're a little warm, I would try to drop that by at least 5 degrees because the wort is actually warmer than that.

Find a colder location or set up a swamp bucket, a larger bucket you can place the primary in, fill with water and use frozen water bottles to cool.

For the warmer weather I just set mine up and everything is right at 60F now, happy days!

 

[kathomas]

Out of curiosity, what happens if it doesn't start to bubble again? Could the yeast have died somehow?

 

[duboman]

No, there is a period of very active fermentation that produces the bubbles but then things settle down pretty quick but it doesn't mean it's done fermenting so don't panic. Leave it alone for about 3 weeks and then take 3 days of gravity readings, if there is no change then bottle/keg