Houston I have a problem

[crentinger]

I was making Northern Brewing's Caribou Slobber and just ran into a problem. Primary was finished, I hit attenuation and FG real nice, and had just transfered to secondary for conditioning and finishing. That was Sunday. Monday everything was nicely happy and doing real good. Because it was conditioning, I havent been mothering over it. I checked it today and the airlock was blown off and there is a scum on top of the beer with little white circles floating around.

At this point the airlock was out 1-2 days assuming it came out right after I checked on it. My question is this. Is this a dump and start over? I'm guessing some buggies got in while the airlock was off. Or am I way off base? Second question is this. What would cause the airlock to blowout if fermentation was done? I'm very careful to always do everything related to handling with all my equipment dripping with Star-san.

Thank you for your advice,

Chuck

 

[Indytruks138]

Never dump until tasting and determining if anything is wrong. The airlock should not have blown off in secondary if your specific gravity was already low and there is no krausen. I would assume it wasn't pushed down hard enough and being wet from starsan just worked its way loose.

 

[solbes]

Yeah I think this will turn out fine. Maybe you oxidized it a bit, so don't keep it around for 6+ months. Otherwise it is probably fine.

Agree that the stoppers can sometimes work themselves out. I've never seen just the airlock get blown from the stopper bung. If the airlock was not free to vent somehow, it will blow. Even though fermentation is done, there is still some CO2 being produced or off gassing.

 

[bbohanon]

I had an AG batch of Winter Ale fermenting in November that blew the Airlock and bung out in my swamp cooler and I lost 2 gallons of the batch to overflow/spillage(most of it went into the swamp cooler thankfully).
I bottled the other 2.5 gallons after I cleaned the hops off the ceiling and its awesome!
I say clean up the mess and let it roll.
Just beware the wife if you have one when these blowouts happen. Messes like that put you deep in honey-do debt.

:rockin:

 

[crentinger]

So dont worry about the white circles of mold looking stuff floating on top? Do you think I should just bottle and draw down to the last inch or so or wait? I had intended to leave in secondary to clarify it

 

[BigFloyd]

The beer was probably miffed that you transferred it to a secondary when there was no valid reason to.

 

[TheZymurgist]

Are you sure it's mold? That's unlikely in a fermented beer. Go ahead and bottle, and next time skip the secondary unless you're dry hopping or aging for an extended amount of time.

 

[solbes]

They are probably yeast rafts, but it's very hard to see in the picture. 90% sure you have no problem at all, except maybe a bit of oxidation.

If it is truly mold, you could rack underneath and then you'd want to drink it up within a month or so.

If it is lacto, pedio, or brett, then you would not want to bottle as it will continue to ferment lower. You could have bombs if you bottled early with an infection.

Again pretty sure it is fine. I'd just keep the airlock in place and check it every few days.

 

[Cider123]

You often will have little bits of leftover krausen, yeast, and stuff floating on the surface. It is possible that there is mold, but not very probable. I'd just try to rack under it.

I like the comment about your beer is just angry that you transferred it to a secondary. Good stuff

Drink and enjoy. If it is foul and you can't swallow it, then don't. That's nature's little warning.

 

[crentinger]

I'm happy to report that I bottled today and I tasted the beer. A-OK. Thank you all for the advice. As long as it carbonates well happy days are ahead