First Batch- The Air lock blew off

[Clweed]

Brewed my first batch of Beer last night, I went to bed two hours after pitching the yeast and nothing was happening.

Woke up this morning to find the cap had blown off and was bubbling over.

Do you think the batch should be tossed?

 

[Hello]

No. Clean out the airlock good, re-sanitize, clean the bung, re-sanitize. Clean around the carboy without getting anything in the carboy, I used star san myself and just sprayed it like crazy so the gunk ran down the sides, and clean it. Let it ride and see what happens. It came out, which is good. There was probably little suck back so I think you may be okay.

What was the gravity? That isn't a ton of headspace and if my gravity was over 1.060, I would have done the blow off tube. In fact, if I reach that volume I just use a blowoff tube through active fermentation. A little more to take care of but worth it, as you can tell.

 

[Clweed]

No. Clean out the airlock good, re-sanitize, clean the bung, re-sanitize. Clean around the carboy without getting anything in the carboy, I used star san myself and just sprayed it like crazy so the gunk ran down the sides, and clean it. Let it ride and see what happens. It came out, which is good. There was probably little suck back so I think you may be okay.

What was the gravity? That isn't a ton of headspace and if my gravity was over 1.060, I would have done the blow off tube. In fact, if I reach that volume I just use a blowoff tube through active fermentation. A little more to take care of but worth it, as you can tell.

The Og was 1.07 according to the recipe it should have been 1.063. I think that i'll run to HD and get a 1.25" piece of tubing

 

[YeastFeast]

ALWAYS use a blow off tube for every batch. Doesn't hurt and can always help.

 

[Mad4sax]

Just clean it up and it will be fine.

 

[surffisher2a]

Yep, clean it up and everything will be good. At least you now have first hand knowledge of why blow off tubes are needed rather than just taking everyone's word for it.

You have earned yourself an extra brewers merit badge!

 

[Hello]

The Og was 1.07 according to the recipe it should have been 1.063. I think that i'll run to HD and get a 1.25" piece of tubing

Yeah do that. Clean it up and use a blow off…even on that batch now. Put the other end of the tube in a jug of star san.

 

[fuelish]

I've always used blow-off tubes making beer....easy-peasy...heck, you could leave the blow-off tube in place as an airlock for the whole ferment if ya want, same principle, just larger diameter to prevent such problems.

 

[Clweed]

Lesson learned, I used a piece of 1/2" Id tubing as a temporary fix

 

[fearwig]

When the airlock blows off your first batch, you have an excellent opportunity to throw it in the trash. You don't need an airlock in primary, at all, ever. Of course you CAN use one, and once people already have one they often do, but a blowoff tube that fits your carboy neck is all you need. Really, a bucket with a loose lid and a clean enough place to ferment is all you need and is much easier to clean, but once someone has expensive equipment they tend to use it even if it gives them headaches.

Infection is never a certainty, even when something goes wrong, so never throw away beer on a hunch. It's harder to infect your beer than introductory instructions would have you think. Reasonable precautions are all you need, it's just a matter of brewing a number of times until you have an idea of what precautions are reasonable and necessary.

 

[Clweed]

When the airlock blows off your first batch, you have an excellent opportunity to throw it in the trash. You don't need an airlock in primary, at all, ever. Of course you CAN use one, and once people already have one they often do, but a blowoff tube that fits your carboy neck is all you need. Really, a bucket with a loose lid and a clean enough place to ferment is all you need and is much easier to clean, but once someone has expensive equipment they tend to use it even if it gives them headaches.

Infection is never a certainty, even when something goes wrong, so never throw away beer on a hunch. It's harder to infect your beer than introductory instructions would have you think. Reasonable precautions are all you need, it's just a matter of brewing a number of times until you have an idea of what precautions are reasonable and necessary.

That is what I get for buying a Kit instead of doing the research and buying what I need.

 

[surffisher2a]

That is what I get for buying a Kit instead of doing the research and buying what I need.

Don't take what he said the wrong way, you will still need that airlock (or blowoff tube) once primary fermentation is over. You don't want your beer sitting with o2 on top of it or it will oxidize fairly quickly.

Putting an airlock (or blowoff tube) on near the end of fermentation keeps a Co2 bed of air above your beer and protects it from O2 that may get in.

 

[fearwig]

Of course, when primary is really over (stable gravity for 3 days) you can also go ahead and bottle--most people don't recommend racking to secondary these days, for most types of beer (the main purpose of secondary being to dry hop, if you choose to do that off the yeast, or to add fruit). If I don't have time to bottle or keg right away I simply tighten the lid on my fermenters at this point.

It's not your fault in terms of the research, you will get a number of different possible answers from different people (including from the LHBS, who will say you need everything). Many answers involve buying more stuff than you typically need, but that never hurt anyone much.

A K.I.S.S. approach, however, will get you brewing more often, and everybody should be happy about that.

 

[surffisher2a]

Of course, when primary is really over (stable gravity for 3 days) you can also go ahead and bottle--most people don't recommend racking to secondary these days, for most types of beer (the main purpose of secondary being to dry hop, if you choose to do that off the yeast, or to add fruit). If I don't have time to bottle or keg right away I simply tighten the lid on my fermenters at this point.

It's not your fault in terms of the research, you will get a number of different possible answers from different people (including from the LHBS, who will say you need everything). Many answers involve buying more stuff than you typically need, but that never hurt anyone much.

A K.I.S.S. approach, however, will get you brewing more often, and everybody should be happy about that.

There is more that happens when primary ferm is over. The yeast will start to clean up after themselves and let the beer clear up. Which is why most recommend leaving it in the primary for a few weeks before bottling / kegging. During this cleanup time the beer is not off gassing enough Co2 to keep the Oxygen out, so you need to put an airlock on it to keep the CO2 in and the O2 out. Lets face it, the LHBS isn't getting rich off selling the $1 air lock and $2 rubber bung both of which last a really long time.

 

[fearwig]

Yeast-related beer faults sometimes need time on the cake to clear up until you learn to eliminate them. But CO2 is heavier than air and will remain on top of your beer until a draft gets involved and the gases mix. If there's a draft on your beer after main fermentation is over, you're doing something wrong. You can seal any kind of lid once FG is stable just in case, so an airlock is entirely unnecessary here--it serves the same purpose as a rubber band around your tin foil or a tightening of your lid seal, except you get to fuss with it and wonder "Is there enough vodka in it?" and all that nonsense.

LHBSes don't get rich on airlocks, but they make pretty good margins on carboys and the two tend to be associated. It's not so much a grand conspiracy as a bunch of combined traditions: tell the customer they need a little bit of everything, that there are bugs flying around in the air just waiting to get at their fragile beer, that no one can brew beer in a normal bucket, you need THIS bucket. It's good for business. More innocently, it's also just the vestige of some 1990s homebrew myths we're finally moving away from.

Back to the point, your goal when primary fermentation is complete should be a beer that already tastes pretty decent and is ready to bottle or keg (where it will do the rest of its work). Aeration, nutrient, pitch rate and temp control take you most of the way there. Sometimes it won't work out that way, but the "let every beer bulk age" thing has one foot in the dustbin already.

 

[fijigus]

Already been said, but a shorter version for anyone else reading this who has the same problem, is even though it blew off, there is still CO2 pumping out of there that soon after blow off, so you shouldn't have risk of infection.

 

[Conman13]

Yeast-related beer faults sometimes need time on the cake to clear up until you learn to eliminate them. But CO2 is heavier than air and will remain on top of your beer until a draft gets involved and the gases mix. If there's a draft on your beer after main fermentation is over, you're doing something wrong. You can seal any kind of lid once FG is stable just in case, so an airlock is entirely unnecessary here--it serves the same purpose as a rubber band around your tin foil or a tightening of your lid seal, except you get to fuss with it and wonder "Is there enough vodka in it?" and all that nonsense.

LHBSes don't get rich on airlocks, but they make pretty good margins on carboys and the two tend to be associated. It's not so much a grand conspiracy as a bunch of combined traditions: tell the customer they need a little bit of everything, that there are bugs flying around in the air just waiting to get at their fragile beer, that no one can brew beer in a normal bucket, you need THIS bucket. It's good for business. More innocently, it's also just the vestige of some 1990s homebrew myths we're finally moving away from.

Back to the point, your goal when primary fermentation is complete should be a beer that already tastes pretty decent and is ready to bottle or keg (where it will do the rest of its work). Aeration, nutrient, pitch rate and temp control take you most of the way there. Sometimes it won't work out that way, but the "let every beer bulk age" thing has one foot in the dustbin already.

There is some debate on this. Check out the ideal gas law. If this theory were true, we would all be suffocating under a blanket of c02 right now. I believe the residual "C02 blanket" to be a myth.

 

[BigTuna]

Well things certainly escalated quickly here....

I remember my first batch - a rare vos clone. The same things happened to me, top cap blew off and krausen junked up the air lock. I was also worried just like you and I believe everyone would act this way during their first batch. The main thing to remember is that you have to (not)try really hard to infect your beer. Just buy enough Star San and things will be all good. Just don't go spitting in your beer. That is, unless you want a sour!

 

[fearwig]

There is some debate on this. Check out the ideal gas law. If this theory were true, we would all be suffocating under a blanket of c02 right now. I believe the residual "C02 blanket" to be a myth.

Gases mix once combined/agitated, and tend to stay mixed. The "CO2" blanket is not a myth, it is just a temporary condition. I think I addressed that point pretty well. In a more or less closed, draft-free environment, air will not be gushing in through a loose lid, and a considerable amount of CO2 will remain over the beer. When fermentation has stopped, you can always seal your beer up completely--there's nothing an airlock adds to that equation but science lab aesthetics (and the risk of one more piece going wrong).