My Beer Exploded

[abidoos]

Brewing a Wee Heavy from a kit. OG 1.080. As I wanted to ensure the FG was within range I added a second packet of yeast and yeast energizer. All was going well until about 24-36 hours after pitching the yeast. The pressure in the vat had essentially blown off the airlock with foam everywhere. It even seeped out around the very tight lid seal. I cleaned up the mess but as I had to travel for a couple of days I left the airlock off, covered by a glass I sterilized and left the lid slightly ajar. I am worried about the sterility as well as the the temp., which had hit 78 degrees.
Is this beer salvageable?

 

[bigdawg86]

Let it ride. It may not be fermented as clean as could be due to the over temp, but in general blowoff won't be an issue with contamination, but even if it were a big risk I would still let it ferment out and package as usual. If it tastes good, awesome. If not, no harm no foul.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

I'm guessing that it will ultimately be fine, even if it doesn't turn out precisely perfect due to the higher temperature.

In the meantime, Google "blow-off tube."

 

[Dland]

It might be OK if it is actively fermenting. The CO2 it is putting out will tend to protect the brew. I would get an airlock of some sort on it ASAP though.

 

[JimRausch]

That 78 temp is the main reason the volcano erupted. And with temps in that range you'll almost certainly get off-flavors. Depending on what yeast you were using, 60-65 would have been better. Next time, work harder on monitoring and controlling fermentation temps. Will this batch be drinkable? Only time will tell. Yeasts are fairly forgiving critters, and if you look around the forum you'll find stories much worse than yours where the beer turned out great. Look for a thread by Revvy titled 'Never dump a batch' or something like that.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

I blew off my air lock/bung one time, making a mess. Beer turned out fine(actually one of my better batches)