Lid popped

[impatient]

The lid blew off my batch this afternoon. I put it back on when I got home. What are the chances of it spoiling?

Mod edit: please use a descriptive thread title
You've been published.

 

[kornbread]

Did you wash it and sanitize it b4 you put it back on?

 

[impatient]

I wiped it down. But the lid only popped up on one side letting out a massive amount of foam.

 

[Revvy]

Welcome to the wonderful world of active fermentation and blowoffs...you may want to rig a blow off tube up...you can do one witht he hose from your bottling wand and the center post of your airlock like this;

BTW, your beer is fine...it happens to all of us at one time or antother.

 

[cuinrearview]

Is your beer spoiled? Heck no! If that sucker pushed out enough CO2 to blow a lid off, there's no way something floated in to spoil it. RDWHAHB my man!!

 

[Flattop]

It's called positive pressure
relax and have a beer

 

[Orfy]

Step away from the beer. It'll be fine.
Lots of breweries use open fermenters.

 

[Flattop]

Yes Orfy but not everyone wants a lambic...controlling the environment is important for newbies.
Relax positive pressure is good, pop the lid back on and have a beer.

 

[Revvy]

Yes Orfy but not everyone wants a lambic...controlling the environment is important for newbies.
Relax positive pressure is good, pop the lid back on and have a beer.

No I believe being obseesively paranoid is important for newbies...Open fermentation does NOT automatically equal lambic or bad beer...esepcially it there's co2 pushing out...

It is really really really really hard for a first time brewer to ruin a batch of beer...there are really to many factor in play AGAINST bad buggies getting in, including having brand new, unscratched equipment as opposed to equipment that's been used a bit...

From one of my blogs..

And it is more likely that an experienced brewer, like myself, will slip up in our process/sanitation practice, or have scratched equiptment/gunk hiding in our hoses from lots of use, or from just becoming overconfident/ lazy, then a hyper vigilent, first time or beginning brewer using the most rudimentary of sanitization practices on relatively new equipment.

But for all that, beer is a lot hardier than we give it credit.

Some people come down on me for saying this, but beer has been made (nearly spontaneously) since the Ancient Babylonians, and up until Louis Pasteur came along, with almost no knowledge about sanitzation practices.

And yes it may not have tasted as good as ours today (or maybe it did, we'll never really know), and yes sometimes it got infected BUT it must have been uninfected most of the time, and must have been damn good or else we wouldn't be drinking it today...it would have gone the way of the betamax, or Pepsi Clear, or New Coke, if most of the time it sucked.

So even the sloppiest of our sanitation practices blow away the ancient methods...even us simply having an enclosed place, clean fresh water, and the fact that we bathe on occasion is more than the ancients had...

 

[Orfy]

The point is that having beer in an open container will probably not harm it.
Not only lambics are brewed in open fermenters.

If you have good initial sanitation and a good batch of yeast then your beer is tough and can fight of most things that may take up residence.

Some English Ales are fermented in open top fermenters. They are not left to ferment with airborne yeast though.

Like I said it is very unlikely that the beer will suffer. It's no big deal, just try to prevent it. Leaving the lid loose can help if you have not set up a blow off yet.

 

[impatient]

Thanks for the input.

 

[Flattop]

Agreed lambic is over the top, more of a joke really

 

[IXVolt]

Thanks Revvy... I miss Crystal Pepsi

 

[COLObrewer]

I believe Traquair house ale (Scotch ale) is still fermented in wood vats with a loose hinged lid (open fermented), Primary only though. Then transferred to stainless, if memory serves.

 

[BigPoppa502]

Huge help Guys~! Thanks for the posts!
My second batch a Wit Bier - blew the bung hole clear out of my carboy last week(tried Carboy as primary). I freaked out! Started searching for answers to this question and found you guys!
Since my first batch didn't blow out I went back to the 6.5 gal primary bucket that came with my kit for my third batch (a German Kolsch). I woke up this morning and peeked in at the bucket - My brew was up the wall and actually popped the lid on the thing. this surprised me because it took both me and my brother to put the lid on. (very snug fit). I guess I got overzealous and hadn't read carefully enough to realize a blow off tube isn't quite as optional as I had thought!
Good Stuff!

Primary - German Kolsch
Conditioning - Witbier
Aging - Scot Ale (Kiltlifter Clone)

 

[scrambledegg81]

BTW, your beer is fine...it happens to all of us at one time or antother.

Never had one myself.







*goes off to pray the Beer Godz didn't hear that*

 

[william_shakes_beer]

We help you, and still you don't reward us with beer porn. Its sad, really.....

 

[slyfoxqh]

On Thursday afternoon I brewed a batch of Sly Fox beer. I put it into a 7.9 gallon fermenting bucket and used one of those rubber stoppers with a airlock (half filled with idoral solution). On Friday night, the stopper with the airlock still attached BLEW out of the bucket ... Foam and beer everywhere. It was late, so I didn't clean anything up, just cleaned the stopper and airlock - filled it with Vodka and put it back into the bucket. This morning, the airlock was filled with 'brew' ... what should I do? Since it doesn't appear to be bubbling any more, how long do I wait to move it over to the 2nd ferment carboy???? This is only my second batch of beer - the first batch behaved - this one seems to have a mind of its own.

 

[Revvy]

On Thursday afternoon I brewed a batch of Sly Fox beer. I put it into a 7.9 gallon fermenting bucket and used one of those rubber stoppers with a airlock (half filled with idoral solution). On Friday night, the stopper with the airlock still attached BLEW out of the bucket ... Foam and beer everywhere. It was late, so I didn't clean anything up, just cleaned the stopper and airlock - filled it with Vodka and put it back into the bucket. This morning, the airlock was filled with 'brew' ... what should I do? Since it doesn't appear to be bubbling any more, how long do I wait to move it over to the 2nd ferment carboy???? This is only my second batch of beer - the first batch behaved - this one seems to have a mind of its own.

You clean out the airlock.

Remember, an airlock is not a fermentation gauge, it's a vent to release excess co2, and HOPEFULLY prevent the lid from blowing. The airlock's not bubbling NOW because all the excess co2 was voided when it blew. That doesn't mean it's still not fermenting. In fact if it's that active it more than likely is still fermenting.

The only way to know is to take a gravity reading and find out where it's at.

I'm not going to tell you when rack to a secondary, many of us don't use them any more, instead leave the beer in primary for a month minimum then bottle. You can find plenty of info on when or if to do so already on the forum. It's one of the most discussed topics on here.