From disaster to the glass

[kharper6]

A short story of my beer catastrophe and how it turned out to be the masterpiece that I planned it to be. On 11/30, 48 hours after I brewed this beer, I received this picture from my roommate. Unfortunately due to the nature of my work, I am usually gone for 12-16 hours at a time throughout the day. I got this message at 8am, I didn't return home to fix it until 6pm. So, my beer sat open for ten hours...

I was cleaning beer off of the ceiling. :rockin:

It was pretty bad. But, I decided there is no use in pouring it out, might as well let it continue. Cleaned the lid, soaked a clothe in sanitizer for about 5 minutes, cleaned the brim of the bucket, sanitized the lid, capped the bucket and added a blowoff valve. One week later I siphoned it to secondary on 6oz of cacao nibs and about 10oz of french pressed coffee. No infection yet!

And today, I kegged it, and it is perfect, no infection, and the flavor is incredible.

 

[fartinmartin]

What blocked the airlock?
My airlocks would just throw the air lock cap, not the lid !
To unsnap my lids takes a lot of sore finger stuff, so the pressure in your FV was considerable.
YOU were lucky, it could have split the bin !

 

[kharper6]

What blocked the airlock?
My airlocks would just throw the air lock cap, not the lid !
To unsnap my lids takes a lot of sore finger stuff, so the pressure in your FV was considerable.
YOU were lucky, it could have split the bin !

Krausen I'm assuming.

I did 1.5L stirplate starter with S-04. Angry little bastards.

I have trouble getting the damn lid on and off, I'm amazed. Apparently the lid was actually on the other side of the room.

 

[fartinmartin]

You need to check out the airlock. If under pressure it should come apart allowing whatever to come out !

 

[kharper6]

You need to check out the airlock. If under pressure it should come apart allowing whatever to come out !

I threw all of my airlocks out.

Blowoff tube on every single brew from now on. I have the space for it, so why not!

 

[Cathedral]

I threw all of my airlocks out.

Blowoff tube on every single brew from now on. I have the space for it, so why not!

Amen. I had a beer-splosion once and that was the factor that made me say, "No matter the beer, it starts with a blowoff."

I switch them back to airlocks after a week or so.

 

[fartinmartin]

So why not ?
Cleaning and sanitising plastic tubes is our nemeses !

 

[Cathedral]

So why not ?
Cleaning and sanitising plastic tubes is our nemeses !

On the contrary--unfortunately--cleaning and sanitizing plastic tubes is just as much a part of the hobby as is mashing grains and pitching yeast. Just one of those things you have to do.

There are hoses on the pump, the chiller, the syphon, the blowoff, the kegs... If I had a dollar for every foot of hose I have invested in this hobby, I'd have to spend it on more hose.

 

[kharper6]

I don't see the problem with cleaning and sanitizing the tubes. I siphon some sanitizer out of my 1 gallon growler that is always full of it the old fashioned way, let it slosh back and forth inside the tube for 30 seconds, then roll the tube up and submerge it in more sanitizer.

Takes less than a minute.

 

[fartinmartin]

So give me something new, I wash out , rinse , sanitise with star San and they still look, well not nice.
Yes 2 meters of plastic pipe OUR nemeses

 

[Cathedral]

So give me something new, I wash out , rinse , sanitise with star San and they still look, well not nice.
Yes 2 meters of plastic pipe OUR nemeses

In my experience, Starsan leaves every piece of tubing looking like ****. I force Oxyclean or PBW through my lines to clean them (Oxy when they're keg lines, PBW when they're brew lines [just out of practice, not for any real reason]) then rinse with tap water and store. No reason to sanitize before storage, right?

If I have lines soaking in Starsan during brewing or kegging that I don't use, they develop a film that no amount of rinse water will take off. However, if I force Oxy or PBW through them, the film goes away.

 

[Hello]

That's absolutely amazing.

 

[butterpants]

In my experience, Starsan leaves every piece of tubing looking like ****. I force Oxyclean or PBW through my lines to clean them (Oxy when they're keg lines, PBW when they're brew lines [just out of practice, not for any real reason]) then rinse with tap water and store. No reason to sanitize before storage, right?

If I have lines soaking in Starsan during brewing or kegging that I don't use, they develop a film that no amount of rinse water will take off. However, if I force Oxy or PBW through them, the film goes away.

Have you tried using distilled water to mix your starsan in?

 

[Cathedral]

Have you tried using distilled water to mix your starsan in?

Have you tried using US Dollars to wrap your gold in?

Just kidding.

I know distilled water cuts down on the cloudiness; I don't fear the cloud. But I know people who do so I figured out what cleans it.

 

[IslandLizard]

Amazing story.

There's a little "cross" on the bottom of those 3-piece airlocks. Cut it off, so you have a straight tube. Then slide a 1/2" ID hose over the stem on the top side as a blow-off hose. The other end goes in a milk jug with Starsan.

 

[kharper6]

Couldn't wait for carbonation to finish so I poured myself a glass.

This beer is fantastic, but I can tell it needs to settle a bit, there is a lot going on with the alcohol, coffee, and striking (surprisingly) cacao.

 

[butterpants]

Have you tried using US Dollars to wrap your gold in?

Just kidding.

I know distilled water cuts down on the cloudiness; I don't fear the cloud. But I know people who do so I figured out what cleans it.

I giggled... but seriously, get your happy ass some DI water. My home water is crazy hard, starsan clouds up in under a minute with tap water. All the calcium/magnesium are precipitating out. Can jack with the ph and render your solution ineffective over time. With DI water it stays crystal clear and ph 2 with starsan dissolved even months later.... PLUS no foggy tubing.

If you're a cheapo living in a 3rd world country just self distill.... boil then capture steam and condense. That cheap enough for ya?

 

[Paps]

@ OP.
With the amount of CO2 your beer was putting off to shoot the lid off your ale pail i'm sure was more than enough to keep any micro-bugs from getting into your beer. Also keep in mind that airlocks are a relatively new thing to brewing in general. For hundreds if not thousands of years people have fermented in the open air and had decent product. Glad that yours turned out tasty.

 

[kharper6]

@ OP.
With the amount of CO2 your beer was putting off to shoot the lid off your ale pail i'm sure was more than enough to keep any micro-bugs from getting into your beer. Also keep in mind that airlocks are a relatively new thing to brewing in general. For hundreds if not thousands of years people have fermented in the open air and had decent product. Glad that yours turned out tasty.

This is exactly what I tell myself every time I brew beer. If I spray the heck out of everything with sanitizer religiously I'll be fine, vikings made beer and got hammered, so can I.

Also what I figured when I was recapping it. It didn't look pretty but I figured in my studies in biology in college, yeast were really damn aggressive and would eat other bacteria out of house and home, if not destroy them entirely.

I hoped for the best and that is what I got.

I agitated my keg last night for about 5 minutes at 30psi, dropped it to 25, should be fully carbed by tonight. Fridge is set to 46 degrees. It is beer day!

 

[fartinmartin]

Yo. Up the vikings

cheers

 

[hotspurdotus]

Wait, your roommate took a pic but didn't put the lid back on? :smack:

 

[ChuckO]

A little bit of keg lube on the OD of the air lock and just barely inserting it into the grommet will help. That way the air lock pops out of the lid if it gets clogged. If I can't rig a blow off tube I will do this and put an inverted mason jar over it to contain the mess.

 

[kevron]

Wait, your roommate took a pic but didn't put the lid back on? :smack:

If he was sitting on the couch when it went off I wouldn't blame him for not wanting to go anywhere near that thing...

 

[cjgenever]

Wait, your roommate took a pic but didn't put the lid back on? :smack:

My thoughts exactly... he left the lid on the floor along with the mess to let it dry. Not roommates responsibility but kind of dink IMHO.