Overflow - Am I Safe?

[ConorO]

Hello all!

Well, it happened . . . I had my first overly-violent fermentation. I found out about it via an early-morning phone call. Being a young brewer, I move between two homes on a weekly basis due to a somewhat complicated situation. I do all of my brewing and bottling on the weekends, so I'm usually away while the height of fermentation is occurring, but I (up until now) have never had any problems with this cycle/process. However, it appears that all of the yeasties decided to have a frenzy my Nut Brown Ale (OG 1.060). The temperature of the basement where I ferment is usually in the mid 60's. I went to inspect the damage this morning and found a large brown ball of dried krausen coming out from around the bottom of the airlock and out through the top - but the airlock never "popped" out of the carboy. This evidently happened a day or so ago, so instead of putting in a blow-off tube I just cleaned the airlock and bung and reinserted them into the top of the carboy. My main concern is whether or not this will have affected fermentation in any significant way. A secondary gnawing fear, however, is that infection will somehow have found its way into my batch . . . When I removed the bung there was a lot of pressure behind it (so much so that the bung popped into the air and sent bits of krausen flying) so I'm hoping that this gunky mess/pressure staved off any outsiders who wanted to spoil my brew . . .

Have you guys had anything like this happen? Are there any signs of infection to be looking for? Is there anything I can do about it?

Thanks!

 

[kev211]

You should be fine. The CO2 from fermentation will form a protective barrier from oxidation and the pressure caused by it that pushed the krausen out will be enough to keep the bad guys out. Should be fine. Let it ride, bottle/keg and enjoy

 

[mhurst111]

you should be ok. The force of the CO2 and krausen going out should prevent anything nasty from getting in. I've had it happen 2-3 times to me. Never had to dump the batch.

 

[m00ps]

Probably wouldve been best to just quickly swap with a fresh airlock and bung but the violent fermentation should keep you pretty safe while you were cleaning it, unless you left it open for like a long period

Also FWIW, this isnt at all uncommon. I come home to a mess like that about once a month due to sheer laziness to not rig up a second blowoff when my usual one is being used or dirty

 

[ConorO]

I cleaned the airlock rather quickly . . . and until I reinstalled the airlock, I placed a paper towel soaked in star san over the top. I also used this to clean off a bit of the gunk. However, it may have been entirely ineffective. Thank you guys for your reassurance! Hopefully this thing turns out!

 

[nettekdl]

You will be fine like everyone has said, the co2 pressure will protect your beer from nasties and oxygen. FWIW I don't use airlocks unless I plan on aging, I just rig a blow off tube for the entire length of primary. I've done well over a hundred batches this way and have never had an infection