First time brewer — bung and airlock popped off

[Farmhousegal1]

Help!! I’m new and made a cherry mead on the first attempt yesterday afternoon.

The bung started slipping out. I read in another form that will happen if the bung and throat of the bottle are wet. So I re-sanitized the bung and dried the side before replacing it. That seemed to work for a bit. (I’m looking at the screw on types for the next attempt.)

overnight the bung popped and stuff oozed out. I don’t know at what time it popped and it sat uncovered. Is it ruined or can I re-bung and proceed??

 

[Branman1986]

I'm not an expert on whether it's okay or not, but I was having the same problem and some packing tape kept my stoppers from slipping out. I just ran it over both sides tight and it kept it down. Strange that this is even a problem, surely they can design stuff better than this?

 

[Farmhousegal1]

My concern is I’m not sure how long it was exposed to air and possible bacteria.

 

[Dtsyukfan]

I had that happen with my first beer. I used to use a bleach solution to sanitize, and the bungs would stay put pretty well. I bought Star San and have been using that. I've noticed that it tends to make things a little more slick, and when the fermentation got really active, it blocked my s-airlock and blew the bung out, as well as overflowed the carboy. I cleaned up as well as I could with sanitizer soaked paper towels and installed a clean airlock. I actually had to do that a couple times. That beer is in bottles now, and in two weeks I'll find out how it is. I tasted it during bottling, and it seemed good.
I also had a micro batch of strawberry wine that had extremely active fermentation, but the airlocks were in grommets instead of bungs. Instead of blowing the bung out, it forced bubbles and sediment out through the airlock top. I had a mess to clean up and replaced dirty airlocks with fresh. That wine is also bottled, and tasted good.
The last batch of wine I made was watermelon, and I left significant head space in the containers expecting a high level of fermentation activity and possible blowout, but it never became overactive. Making wine is an art form, and knowing how much head space to allow with each batch will probably get better over time. Chances are your wine will be ok, just let it keep going and watch it for any signs of infection.

 

[Snuffy]

Sounds like your headspace may be insufficient for the volume of fermentation activity. That’s my diagnosis anyway. I prescribe a bigger fermenter. i wouldn’t worry. With so much pressure and krausen escaping, not much can get in. Have you checked to see if your airlock is blocked with gunk?

 

[SKBugs]

Re-bung the bugger and don't worry. My bungs always slip out.
If you have your sanitisation processes right then smash the bung down. The CO2 from the fermentation will take care of any O2 in the fermentation chamber.
And if your ABV is above 10% then bacteria won't be a problem either - the alcohol will deal with it.

In essence, push it bacjand don't worry about it. Cherry mead is tops, and consider some banana essence in secondary it adds some extra flavour that people wont expect.

 

[Branman1986]

Well, I certainly wouldn't

Sounds like your headspace may be insufficient for the volume of fermentation activity. That’s my diagnosis anyway. I prescribe a bigger fermenter. i wouldn’t worry. With so much pressure and krausen escaping, not much can get in. Have you checked to see if your airlock is blocked with gunk?

For some reason with the bung and carboy I bought, the bung just slips out, especially if there's star san in the mix. I have to tape mine down.

 

[tdp]

I had a bung fall into the beer one time when I was replacing the airlock. It turned out fine.

 

[Farmhousegal1]

Help!! I’m new and made a cherry mead on the first attempt yesterday afternoon.

The bung started slipping out. I read in another form that will happen if the bung and throat of the bottle are wet. So I re-sanitized the bung and dried the side before replacing it. That seemed to work for a bit. (I’m looking at the screw on types for the next attempt.)

overnight the bung popped and stuff oozed out. I don’t know at what time it popped and it sat uncovered. Is it ruined or can I re-bung and proceed??

###

thank you all for the advice! I sanitized a new carboy and transferred it over.
The carboys I have don’t have a fill line, and I saw that it was overfilled by ~3/4 cup. There was also a lot of fruit chunks (think tapenade size) that I took out to help prevent gunking the airlock.

it seems happy in its new home. I jammed the bung deep inside (why does that sound so dirty??) and it’s doing a slow gurgle.

Fingers crossed!

 

[catalanotte]

If it popped during active fermentation, no worries as others have said, the CO2 will protect the fermenting beer and push out any air. Keeping the bung/neck dry is the key. If your krausen is reaching the airlock, try a blow off hose for first 24-48 hrs of fermentation. I forget the size, but you can get a piece of tubing at your LHBS that will snuggly fit into the mouth of the carboy and handle any krausen.