contamination concern

[chrishart7]

I brewed a beer the other day and began fermenting in a 6.5 gallon plastic bucket with a 3 piece airlock. After three days, I noticed that the airlock had been clogged and the beer blew off the top to the bucket exposing the batch to air!!!!! I've never had that problem in the past. I cleaned the airlock and resealed the container, but what else should I do? What are my chances of contamination? Should I rack to another vessel? Cross my fingers? I believe the fermenter could have been open for as long as 48 hours, but I don't know for sure.

 

[FlyinBrewer]

how "open" was it? if it was just a lil open you should be okay. The positive pressure of the CO2 escaping the bukkit should keep nasties and O2 from getting in.

 

[buffalobrewer]

do a search for blow off tube for your next batch. Your beer is probably fine, the yeast had a huge head start on any nasty creatures.

 

[TipsyDragon]

your beer is more than likely ok. RDWHAHB. just leave it alone and let it finish. like FlyinBrewer said with all the CO2 being produced by the yeast nothing got in and the beer was protected.

 

[hudsonj6]

exposing the batch to air!!!!!

Every fermentation is a different beast so you likely had a very vigorous one and the krausen was too much for the airlock to handle, hence the blowoff (which in the future can be prevented with a blowoff tube). My primary is more geared towards wine making and is approximately 10-11 ish gallons and doesn't even have an airlock (I do 6 gallon batches) and I just did a winterfest ale where the krausen/ foam was getting up to about the 9.5 gallon mark (about 7 inches above the fermenting beer). I've also had some batches that have only produced about an inch of krausen. As for being exposed to the air,

The positive pressure of the CO2 escaping the bukkit should keep nasties and O2 from getting in.

and CO2 is heavier than air so even if fermentation is complete it helps form sort of a protective layer over the beer.

To sum up:
Q: what else should I do?
A: nothing

Q: What are my chances of contamination?
A: pretty low

Q: Should I rack to another vessel?
A: Nope.

Q:Cross my fingers?
A:

RDWHAHB

 

[chrishart7]

The container was very open. Definitely exposed to O2! We'll see what happens. Thanks for the comments.

 

[Calder]

As everyone said, don't worry. Remember some of the great beers of the world have been brewed in open fermenters. As home-brewers, we seal them up as it gives us the best chance of success to stave off contamination.

Contamination is the biggest worry before the yeast have started working. Once you have kraeusen, it is protecting itself. No O2 will have gotten to it. Replacing the lid and airlock will allow the fermenter to fill with CO2 again for when kraeusen drops.