Just a little Krausen in airlock...

[demps]

Hey guys - still new at this... I had a bit of a lag time with my fermentation, it took around 40 hours to notice any activity, so I gave it a little shake to get things moving once I noticed some positive pressure in the airlock. It was obviously better off than I thought, because some foam/krausen came up into the airlock.

It settled back down, and its still fermenting steadily (after 3 days) - but there is some residue in the airlock. (Its not blocking the C02)

I'm wondering if I should have cleaned and sanitized it, but I didn't want to take it off since it's been nice and steadily bubbling. It's only on the inside of the tube, didn't touch air I don't think, plus there's vodka in there so I figured it would be fine.

You guys think I should have sanitized it? Should I do it at this point?

Thanks!

 

[devilishprune]

Well I can tell you that it's not going to contaminate your beer because the beer is what put the stuff in the airlock in the first place. That said, I would take it out and clean it, sanitize it, and put it back in. If you're really concerned, put a piece of Al foil over the gasket for a minute that it takes you to do this. No point in risking this, dig?

 

[demps]

yea, I just thought it would be best to not disturb an active fermentation. Maybe it doesn't matter for that short amount of time... Thanks.

 

[ncmcdonald]

I had the same thing happen to me a couple of times and I took the airlock off and sanitized it. There will be a layer of CO2 protecting the wort whilst you do it anyway so next to no risk of infecting anything.

 

[WuWeiBrewing]

This has happened to me before as well, but with a beaker while doing a yeast starter. I don't use a stir plate - I just aerate it manually every so often. I underestimated the activity one time and had some creep up into the airlock.

But yeah, you're fine. If you have vodka in the airlock, like you mentioned, then anything that could potentially sneak into that krausen is going to be taken care of. I wouldn't even worry about cleaning it right now. Perhaps when you do a reading, clean it then. No rush for now, though especially with the amount of CO2 being produced (as was mentioned in another response).

If you're limited on headspace in your primary fermenter, I'd also suggest using a blow-off hose in the future for the first 48 hours or so of fermentation, just for precaution.