Primary exposed right after pitch

[Vernholio]

Been brewing for a couple of years now, but still consider myself a noob... Went through all the work to put together a partial mash chocolate porter yesterday (5 gallon batch):

8 lbs. light malt extract (liquid)
.5 lbs of each:
- caramel malt
- chocolate malt
- carapils malt
- flaked oats
.25 lbs. black patent malt
2 oz williamette
2 oz fuggles
8 oz Hershey's 100% cacao (special dark)

Mash and boil went great. Dropped in the cocoa at 15 mins remaining, and the wort tasted awesome at the end of the boil. Cooled to 78 degrees, added extra cool water to 5 gallons, shook it well to aerate it and pitched my yeast. Put on the bung and airlock (everything sanitized along the way, of course), and stashed it in a cool dark closet. All seemed good...

Woke up this AM, and went to check on it. The damn bung and airlock had popped out of the carboy (glass), and the beer was exposed. I'm guessing the oil/residue in the cocoa must have greased the opening, so it "crept out". If I had to guess, I'd assume the batch was exposed to air for roughly 10 hours. I re-sanitized the bung and wiped out the neck of the carboy with a clean paper towel. After a little over an hour of being on snugly, the airlock started doing its thing... Slowly releasing CO2, and has been on fine all day. Question is... What is gonna happen? Should I just dump this batch (and the $75 worth of ingredients/hours wasted) and start again?

Thanks in advance,

- Vern

 

[cheesehed007]

I say let it ride. Chances are the brew was giving off CO2 and that would help keep things out. Sounds tasty. Cheers and good luck

 

[brick]

Standard advice: RDWHAHB. I've had all manner of stuff happen to my brew between pitching and bottling with little or no effect. Exposure to oxygen that early in fermentation should be a non-issue since there's plenty of time left to use/drive-out what little may have diffused in. The only real concern is infection, and that's simple: either it will be infected, or it won't. If I were a betting man I'd put 5 bucks on "won't."

 

[Oaney]

I would also say let it go, there's no sense in dumping all that money and time down the drain without knowing for sure that its compromised. Let it ferment out, there's a good chance it'll turn out fine. Hey, even if it does get infected there are ways of rescuing an infected beer. In my experience brewing can be pretty forgiving especially if you get the yeast to start vigorously. With that little time exposed, there is very little that can get in there that will make you seriously ill, just see what happens. Cheers!

 

[Seven]

Question is... What is gonna happen?

It's too early to tell. Don't dump it. Let it go and see what you have once fermentation has finished.

 

[sweetcell]

I say let it ride. Chances are the brew was giving off CO2 and that would help keep things out.

+1. let it ride.

 

[GASoline71]

It should be fine...

Gary

 

[BigFloyd]

Let it ferment out and see what you get. The odds are in your favor that any micro-buggers that may have entered through that little hole got the stuffin beat outta them by the yeast cells.

 

[cjgenever]

I bottle and condition anything questionable (just keep an eye on carb levels to avoid bottle bombs). Never toss till you know for sure. It's doubtful anything bad happened. Early fermentation is a tough place for bacteria to survive.

 

[Desvio]

Beer is pretty resilient or the practice wouldn't have survived this long, clean everything up and keep on it.

 

[fartinmartin]

35 year ago we didn't use air locks, we used an ordinary bucket and kept a damp towel over the bucket, co2 could get out, stuff couldn't fall in. Beer has been produced like that for thousands of years !
The co2 is heavier than air and sits over the brew, your brew was not exposed to oxygen unless you shook it.
The air lock is only a device to create a small positive pressure so stuff don't get in and excess gas can get out.

 

[Vernholio]

"RDWHAHB"... Something I CONTINUALLY forget!

Thanks to all for the advice and encouragement. Gonna stick it out and see what happens. Checked it out this AM, bung is still on tight and the yeast is plugging away doing it's thing. With any luck (which, according to my buddies, I have VERY LITTLE of), all will be OK.

Keeping fingers crossed, and will let you all know how it turns out.

Thanks again!

- Vern

 

[unionrdr]

I've had worse happen & the beer came out fine. It's good that it happened during initial fermentation. Not to mention in a closed closet with little to no airflow. And as mentioned,the yeasties are dominationg your beer at the moment. so anything that might've gotten in might get starved out. Let'er ride!