Fire question....

[bastump218]

My wife an I recently experienced a house fire and I had three batches in my fermenters in the basement......the basement smells like smoke but air locks and fermentor are in tact. But the temp in basement went for 70 to like 54.....are my brews any good and will my brewing equipment be bad now due to being exposed to smoke....

 

[Revvy]

The only one who can tell if the beers are ok is you. Taste them and see.

As to the equipment, try cleaning them, soaking them, and exposing them to the sun and see if any smells are lingering...

 

[cooper]

WOW, sorry to hear about the fire in your house man! Did you lose everything or was it a localized type of thing and you got it put out and aren't living in your car or something like that?

I'd definitely keep the beer though and just package it as you normally would. As long as there was fluid in the air locks then the smoke could not have gotten into your beer. Even if the airlock lost its liquid there is still usually a layer of CO2 on top of the beer. I'd just see how it turns out and go from there.

 

[meadmazer]

As a firefighter, glad you are ok.
Any plastic equipment may have smell and stains that wont go away. Give it some time, try the sunlight as above, etc. I would think metal should be cleanable. Best guess on beer is yeast may slow down during lower temps, "should" pick up again when warmed a bit, but I have very little experience with temp control on yeast and am guessing here.
If there is still water in the bubblers, that is, enough that no atmosphere from the fire got in, beer should be fine to drink. Even if all the water was gone, only so much atmosphere fits in a carboy, though it could of course infect the batch. Drink it with those you care about, it is now a very special beer.