Did my beer go bad?

[sjm1027]

I need some advise please.

Made a lager beer 7 days ago in a conical fermenter (Fast Ferment) and the gasket fell in while I was screwing the cap on. I could never get the air lock to raise. About 72 hours in I decided to remove the top and wrapped the threads with teflon tape, it worked for 1 day then airlock did not raise. The next day I fished out the gasket and could see the bubbles in the airlock for 10 hours then airlock went down, no activity. 7 days later still no activity with gasket intact. Did my batch go bad? Is there anything I can do at this point to revive it?

Thanks

 

[Stillraining]

Hard to say..sounds to me like the yeast was active and doing its thing. Fairly common for fermentation to be completed in 4 or 5 days so not supersizing your not seeing anything now after 7 ..Only concern is what bacteria might have gotten in there when you fished it out. I would have just let it go as is without the gasket.
Take a couple Hydrometer readings a couple days apart..If they don't move and are in a ball park you can live with its done. You can either move it to secondary to monitor for infection or let it set in Primary 3 weeks..You will know by then if anything happened.

 

[sjm1027]

Hard to say..sounds to me like the yeast was active and doing its thing. Fairly common for fermentation to be completed in 4 or 5 days so not supersizing your not seeing anything now after 7 ..Only concern is what bacteria might have gotten in there when you fished it out. I would have just let it go as is without the gasket.
Take a couple Hydrometer readings a couple days apart..If they don't move and are in a ball park you can live with its done. You can either move it to secondary to monitor for infection or let it set in Primary 3 weeks..You will know by then if anything happened.

Thanks I did disinfect everything but I know what you mean. A rookie move indeed.I will keep an eye on it.
I will have to see the best way to take a reading on the fast ferment.
Thanks

 

[Stillraining]

Beer is pretty forgiving and resilient..to a point.

 

[BeerChef17]

Definitely sounds like the fermentation went through. Your excess CO2 was just taking the path of least resistance and sneaking out through the loose seal. But enough would have been produced to keep oxygen off your beer. As long as you sanitized well everything should be just fine.

If you are going to transfer to secondary grab a sample then. If not just let it ride another week or so undisturbed then continue forward!

 

[RM-MN]

While it is fun to see the bubbles in the airlock they aren't necessary for fermentation. A quick peek in on the second day to verify that there is a krausen will be proof of fermentation. The main points to using an airlock is to let out the excess gas produced so it doesn't blow the top off the fermenter and to keep out insects.

Don't transfer it to a secondary to monitor for infections as that is where most infections start.