Bad Blowout - Should I reboil?

larabair · Sep 23, 2011

Hi folks -

So I've been lurking and searching and finally decided it's best to just ask... I'm pretty sure the answer is RDWHAB, and hopefully someday HAHB.

I'm on my second kit from the Brooklyn Brew Shop - Peanut Butter Porter, 1 gallon kit (grain, hops, yeast). Boiled it up last night, added 0.5c PB2 and 0.5c cocoa powder - smelled amazing. I then put the 1 gallon carboy, blowout tube, and sm bottle of sanitizer for the other end of the blowout tube in a big plastic bag, set that in a cardboard box, and went to bed. This morning the yeast sounded nice and active, but I noticed a little liquid in the bag.

I came home this evening to find over half the liquid had blown out into the plastic bag! I poured it back into the carboy, installed the airlock, cleaned up the mess, and started searching the forum. So here come the questions you all know are coming..

* Did I ruin my beer?
* Should I go buy some hops and reboil?
* Or should I let it go and hope for the best?

(I'm worried if I go buy some more hops, I'll end up buying a 5 gallon kit. So... If I do go buy a 5 gallon kit... does anyone know any nice light beers that will be ready in 4 weeks?

)

Thanks everyone - the forum has been incredibly helpful and informative so far!

Clann · Sep 23, 2011

Does that mean you poured the sanatizer in the carboy as well?
How did the liquid(Beer?) get into the bag? Did it overflow the blowoff?

subliminalurge · Sep 23, 2011

I'm far from an expert brewer, but just how clean was that plastic bag? I'd be very tempted to just ride it out and see what happens.

If you do decide to reboil it's going to throw your hops off, but not much you can do about that. Even if you add more, it still won't be the original hop schedule. And don't go through the whole boil. You would just want to get it up to temp to re-sterilize the wort.

Also, you would kill your yeast, so if you do go that route, buy more yeast as well.

And, also.... Since you had a big blow-off, clearly there's already been a lot of fermenting going on. Some of your fermentables have already been converted to co2 and alcohol, both of which will get boiled off.

I just can't think of any way to reboil at this stage and end up with anything close to the intended recipe.

My advice would be to let it ride and see what happens. At least it's only a 1 gallon batch and not 10....

And next time remember that you need some headspace in your fermenter. A 1 gallon batch in a 1 gallon fermenter will pretty much guarantee this happens every time. (I ferment 5 gallon batches, most often actually short of 5 gallons, in a 6.5 gallon carboy and depending on the beer that quite often leaves very little room to spare.)

Just1pepsi · Sep 23, 2011

its already been done so might as well wait it out. Yeast are relatively tough, so-- you're probably fine.

larabair · Sep 23, 2011

Clann - the bottle of sanitizer was a small bottle sitting next to the carboy in the plastic bag; it overflowed in the massive blowout. The liquid went through the blowout tube, overflowed the bottle, and filled up the bag. This yeast was ACTIVE.

Subliminal and Just1Pepsi - yeah that was my thought. I have half the pack of yeast in the freezer (kit only called for half) so I wasn't worried about it, but I was worried about hops and flavor.

I thought I had enough headspace (the wort level was where the bottle begins to curve in). I was definitely wrong.

Live and learn! Here's to hoping the yeast will outcompete whatever else is floating in my kitchen. Worst case, I just finished up a 1gallon growler, so I can use that as a new carboy and make a second batch.

Thanks everyone!

subliminalurge · Sep 23, 2011

Yeah, I really think riding it out is your only option. Well, I guess you could dump it and start over, but why? Even if it turns out bad you're not out anything at this point.

I could see a *very* quick reboil working if something happened before fermentation had kicked off, but once you hit the point where you're having a blowoff, doing that would seriously alter the finished product, and probably not in a good way.

This forum is full of stories where people screwed their beer up so bad it was beyond hope, and half the time the story ends with the words "and it was my best batch ever".

Hell, I have a few stories like that myself.