This is odd

[Bryon]

OK, I need some help.

I brewed a batch of Brewers Best Holiday Ale, and left it in the fermenter for an extra week. Just got done sanitizing my bottles and bottling bucket, etc. And went down stairs to grab the carboy. When I got it in the kitchen I noticed some beer seeped out of the plug and dripped along the outside of the carboy. My first thought was, GREAT! I just killed my beer because I didn't have a good seal...

But when I placed it on the counter, and gently pushed down on the lug the airlock started bubbling again! What does this mean? Could the yeast still be active, could the walk up the stairs with the slight josling have snapped the yeast out of a nap? Should I not bottle yet? Let is sit for another couple days? Is the beer probably dead due to the seepage?

I want to do this right, but I'd hate to have to put the bottles away and sanitize them again in a couple of days if I don't really need to...

Please advise (I'd love to get some solid feedback tonight if possible) and thanks in advance...

 

[the_bird]

You may have knocked some CO2 out of solution. Take a gravity reading and see where it's at. The beer that seeped out of the side by the plug is no biggie; you didn't have a perfect seal on the carboy, but it's a LOT harder to "kill" your beer than most people think.

Most of all - RDWHAHB!

 

[Donasay]

Are you using glass or a better bottle? The plastic on the better bottles compresses and bends in certain ways that make it suck in or push out air depending on how you handle the thing.

 

[Kai]

Whenever I move my beer, even if it's been conditioning for several weeks, a little bit of CO2 comes out of solution and it bubbles once or twice. Other possibilities: pushing down on the plug forces air out; difference in ambient air pressure between your basement and your kitchen; gas inside fermenter warming up in kitchen. These I think are probably all likelier than a stuck fermentation, but you'll need to check your gravity to find out.

 

[Bryon]

Thanks guys, I ended up coming to the same conclusions but it's good to have folks that know what they're talking about confirm my thoughts. BTW it's a glass carboy. At any rate the beer is now bottled and we'll see how it goes in a few weeks.

Thanks,

Bryon