Is this bad?

[kproudfoot]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1433771838.957746.jpg

This is my 3rd batch, Irish Red and I'm afraid it's bad. Basically it started fermenting pretty quickly and began to fill the fermenter. New I was going to need a blowoff tub but didn't have time to get to the store before it started spilling into the airlock (which did have sanitized after in it). Undid have clear tubing at my house just not wide enough to take out the airlock so my goal was to sanitize the tube and take the lid off the air lock and remove the bubbler, stick the tube in the airlock and the put the other end into sanitized bucket of water. In the process I somehow completely knocked the entire airlock and bung off (not sure how but it caused a big mess). Beer started flowing out so I quickly threw everything into sanitized water stuck it all back in and the water started to bubble. That was 3 or 4 days ago and it's still bubbling but started noticing black spots. I'm afraid to open it again, so am I screwed?

 

[Hello]

Leave it. Looks like very healthy fermentation and krausen that has stuck to the sides, which is entirely normal.

 

[kproudfoot]

Ok thanks. My 1st 2 batches looked nothing like this so I was worried. I'll let it play out then..

 

[mkyl428]

I don't see the black spots you are talking about in the picture, but it is likely fine during that time the co2 being forced out of the carboy should have kept any nasties from getting in.

Give it a smell and a taste if you like but it's probably fine, also any infection should take a bit longer than 3-4 days to show up

 

[Vamptrump]

I'm with everyone else here, looks fine. Just an extremely active fermentation. My IPA recently did the same thing (it didn't help that I didn't leave much head room for krausen either. Have fun cleaning the carboy!

 

[justenoughforme]

looks like my recent encounters with belgian yeast and high ferm. temperatures.

explosive krausen.

 

[unionrdr]

Those black spots just look like clear holes in the krausen that's all over the sides. Looks normal to me.

 

[kproudfoot]

Good to hear. I did read somewhere that either the pressure of the liquid being forced out would make it difficult for anything bad to get in. And yes I'm sure cleaning will be fun!!

 

[kproudfoot]

And just to clarify what I meant by black spots I was referring to the one just to the left of the shadow on the part of the glass that sticks out. Almost dead center of the picture.

 

[jbaysurfer]

Is that black stuff inside the fermenter? Looks like black mold to me. I have a lot of it in the air where I live. If it's on the outside, clean it off with a solution that kills mold. Bleach is the most common one. If it's on the inside, and it's black mold...it could be a problem.

But relax. I can't see it very clearly. The picture is small and blowing it up just kind of makes it harder to make out. A larger picture/closeup might help a little bit.

Edit, you should definitely clean the outside of the fermenter off no matter what. That's definitely nutrition for various single celled organisms, and you don't want to have stuff growing that close to your beer if at all possible.

 

[kproudfoot]

It's definitely inside but I'll give the outside a good scrubbing. Not a bad idea.

 

[unionrdr]

I usually wipe down the outside of my better bottle with my spray bottle of Starsan & a paper towel. Inside gets PBW swished around, rinse, then Starsan right before filling.

 

[kproudfoot]

So upon further review it looks like the krausen is just stuck to the glass and the black is pockets where it isn't sticking. If I look closely it looks like the krausen is starting to settle. I'm just going to have a mess to clean!!

 

[justenoughforme]

i just cleaned my explosive krausen carboy, it's a super PIA. good luck

 

[Vamptrump]

I did a massive soak in PBW and used a carboy brush. Worked like a charm. I've been tempted to get a water pressure cleaning wand. I almost bought one after my blowoff recently.

 

[m00ps]

a saok in PBW will take that stuff right off no hassle needed

edit: damnit

 

[justenoughforme]

:: runs to go buy PBW ::

 

[Brew_G]

1) Rinse with hot water
2) Scrub gently with carboy brush and rinse again
3) Overnight soak with OxyClean
4) Pour out OxyClean and rinse thoroughly with hot water
5) Dry outside of carboy and pour out remaining small amounts of water
6) Store carboy for future use

 

[Hello]

1) Rinse with hot water
2) Scrub gently with carboy brush and rinse again
3) Overnight soak with OxyClean
4) Pour out OxyClean and rinse thoroughly with hot water
5) Dry outside of carboy and pour out remaining small amounts of water
6) Store carboy for future use

As long as it is glass. Don't scrub a plastic fermenter with a brush.

 

[Vamptrump]

As long as it is glass. Don't scrub a plastic fermenter with a brush.

True! I prefer using steel wool on my plastic. Gives it that deep down clean.



*DON'T DO THIS RANDOM PERSON WHO MIGHT READ THIS

 

[Brew_G]

As long as it is glass. Don't scrub a plastic fermenter with a brush.

Absolutely. I think the OP is using a glass carboy, as do I.

 

[kombat]

1) Rinse with hot water
2) Scrub gently with carboy brush and rinse again
3) Overnight soak with OxyClean
4) Pour out OxyClean and rinse thoroughly with hot water
5) Dry outside of carboy and pour out remaining small amounts of water
6) Store carboy for future use

You can skip step 2 completely. And be careful with steps 1 and 4, you can "heat shock" the glass in the carboy, especially if you clean the carboy immediately after kegging a beer you'd cold-crashed. Taking a glass carboy from the fridge and pouring piping hot water into it is a recipe for a shattered carboy. Here's my foolproof, no-hassle method for cleaning carboys:

1) Rinse with warm (not hot) water, immediately after the carboy has been emptied.
2) Fill carboy with warm-to-hot solution of 2 scoops of Oxyclean and enough water to fill the carboy right up to the brim.
3) Leave a day to soak
4) Pour out, rinse twice with cool or warm water. Again, don't use super-hot water, as the carboy has been sitting for a day and has cooled back down to ambient temperature.
5) Pour in some StarSan, swirl it around, dump it back out, cover the mouth with a sanitized piece of foil and a rubber band.

Now the carboy is ready to go for another brew day, already sanitized. Just put it on your shelf until it's needed. You don't even have to sanitize it again, just remove the foil cap, dump out any remaining StarSan (because when you store it, it will still have bubbles in it that will settle out as liquid while it sits on the shelf) and fill it with wort.

 

[kproudfoot]

I have pbw so hopefully that does the trick.

 

[Brew_G]

You can skip step 2 completely. And be careful with steps 1 and 4, you can "heat shock" the glass in the carboy, especially if you clean the carboy immediately after kegging a beer you'd cold-crashed. Taking a glass carboy from the fridge and pouring piping hot water into it is a recipe for a shattered carboy. Here's my foolproof, no-hassle method for cleaning carboys:

1) Rinse with warm (not hot) water, immediately after the carboy has been emptied.
2) Fill carboy with warm-to-hot solution of 2 scoops of Oxyclean and enough water to fill the carboy right up to the brim.
3) Leave a day to soak
4) Pour out, rinse twice with cool or warm water. Again, don't use super-hot water, as the carboy has been sitting for a day and has cooled back down to ambient temperature.
5) Pour in some StarSan, swirl it around, dump it back out, cover the mouth with a sanitized piece of foil and a rubber band.

Now the carboy is ready to go for another brew day, already sanitized. Just put it on your shelf until it's needed. You don't even have to sanitize it again, just remove the foil cap, dump out any remaining StarSan (because when you store it, it will still have bubbles in it that will settle out as liquid while it sits on the shelf) and fill it with wort.

Doing the gentle scrub is a peace-of-mind thing for me. Might not be necessary, but I like to do it because it's simple and gets rid of the majority of the gunk.

Understood on the heat shock part. My carboy is always 70F+ by the time I get around to rinsing it. I just use water straight from the tap, and it's not searing hot when I start - probably 130F or so. By the time the water heats all the way up, the carboy has slowly done the same.

Obviously there's more than one way to skin this cat!

 

[kombat]

I have pbw so hopefully that does the trick.

It will. PBW is even better than OxyClean. Many of us just use OxyClean because it's almost as good as PBW, but a heckuvalot cheaper.

 

[Rhaop]

"OxiClean Free" for those who don't know, i usually give all my fermenters a soak in warm oxi water