milholen
Well-Known Member
So I brewed a batch of Jamil's Hazelnut Chocolate Porter on Saturday. I'm fermenting it in a 7 gallon plastic bucket. I've never needed a blow off tube before unless I was pitching on a yeast cake. I was suprised to go downstairs tonight to check on it and find that the lid had blown off the bucket and was sitting on my basement floor about 10 feet away. There was delicious chocolate porter all over my basement wall.
So I cleaned and sanitized the lid and installed a blow off tube. This was a 6 gallon batch so maybe there wasn't enough headspace?
Anyway, I think the wort was exposed to the air for somewhere in the range of 2-18 hours. When the lid was off, the top of the fermenting wort was gurgling and frothing like mad. My question is what can I expect at this point. Is the beer doomed due to the introduction of wild yeast and bacteria or does such a strong fermentation and the resulting CO2 pad on top offer protection from infection?
I really hope this isn't a lost cause here because this looked to be one awesome beer. Has anyone had a similar experience?? What can I expect?
Thanks for the help.
So I cleaned and sanitized the lid and installed a blow off tube. This was a 6 gallon batch so maybe there wasn't enough headspace?
Anyway, I think the wort was exposed to the air for somewhere in the range of 2-18 hours. When the lid was off, the top of the fermenting wort was gurgling and frothing like mad. My question is what can I expect at this point. Is the beer doomed due to the introduction of wild yeast and bacteria or does such a strong fermentation and the resulting CO2 pad on top offer protection from infection?
I really hope this isn't a lost cause here because this looked to be one awesome beer. Has anyone had a similar experience?? What can I expect?
Thanks for the help.