First Batch Brewed

[indybrewer]

Brewed my first batch last night. Everything went perfect. Boil went well and it all finished up in about 3 1/2 hours. Which from what I have read is about right. This was a Amber Cerveza beer and smells and looks good. I did however have one problem. I put the plastic lid on the fermentor bucket and went to put the airlock in and it pushed the rubber gromet into the beer. I could not retrieve it and didn't have another lid. I pushed the airlock down to prevent air from the bottom and taped around the bottom as well. This morning I saw tiny air bubbles. Should I be worried about this at all or just forget about. Thanks for the help.

 

[BangorBrewer]

I actually had the same thing happen to me on my first brew, but I panicked where you stayed relatively calm. Rather than trying to make the airlock air tight without the grommet, I reached into the wort (with a sanitized hand, of course) and retrieved the grommet. To my surprise, this didn't effect the beer in any substantial way.

My thinking would be that if you aren't seeing gas released and are merely seeing small bubbles, one of two things is possible.

1. Fermentation hasn't started yet and those are just air bubbles.

2. Your airlock isn't exactly air-tight and some of the air is escaping as it should be (although not as vigorously as it normally would) and that is causing small air bubbles.

Either way, as long as everything is sanitary you should be fine. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

Mt

 

[kellsean]

The exact same thing happened to me brewing Apfelwein. I retrieved/resanitized it and it has not had any effect--that I can tell--thus far.

 

[Yooper]

I think my first post (or at least one of the first) here at HBT was the same thing- I pushed the gommet through. I bought an extra and never did it again!

Later that day, I read the instructions again and they said something like, "Put the airlock on the lid, and then put the lid on the bucket". Oh. Now I know why the instructions said that!

 

[indybrewer]

Good News, I checked on it when returning from work and it is fermenting!!

Hopefully we will have some good cerveza in about 8 weeks.

 

[coloneldom]

If it happens mate, I have heard of people just using cling wrap over their brew instead of the lid and airlock. While i haven't tried it myself, apparently it works very well!

 

[indybrewer]

I opened ther primary up and took a FG and it was perfect. So I put my sample in a glass and did a taste test. It smelled amazing and tasted great. Thanks for everyone's reply's.