Transferred Fermenters During Active Fermentation due to Blowout

[brianwaynemiller]

I was going to post this in the Yeast/Fermentation board, but this is such a rookie screwup I've relegated myself here.

I awoke early the morning after brew day to some particularly aggressive krausen coming through my 3-piece airlock and threatening to pop the lid off 6 gallon ale pail.

(Before you scold me for not using a blowoff tube in the first place: I normally use a 6gal Better Bottle with blowoff tube for primary, but I've got multiple batches going right now and the bucket was all that was available and clean, so in it goes.)

After cleaning/sanitizing/replacing the airlock multiple times (it would fill up in about 5 minutes), I made the rash/sleepy/hung over decision that this beer needed to go into a different vessel lest I paint my walls with beer. So I cleaned and sanitized everything and siphoned to the aforementioned Better Bottle w/ blowoff.

Now, I know this isn't ideal, I'm just wondering how badly I've damaged the beer. Fermentation continued to be aggressive for another 12 hours or so, but what's in the tank right now is REALLY cloudy, even though there's already a nice layer of trub/yeast collecting on the bottom.

Has anybody done this before? Extensive thread searching leads me to believe nobody has. Thoughts? (FWIW, if it even matters, this is my Pumking-esque beer, OG: 1.072, using rehydrated Safale S-04.)

 

[SIXFOOTER]

I wouldn't have transferred it, but I doubt you screwed it up, might have gotten some more oxygen than it needed but should not be a death nell.
If you open up some of the holes in the 3 piece it will stay together, then once it settles down rinse and refill and let it run.

 

[Slick_Biscuit]

Your beer is probably fine. I think the risk for contamination is pretty low while the yeast is still really active and spitting out a ton of CO2, and simply transferring the liquid isn't going to hurt the yeast's ability to continue doing its thing. The bigger concern is that exposing the beer to additional oxygen after fermentation has started may result in unwanted fermentation byproducts like diacetyl, which could ultimately lead to off-flavors in your finished brew. Unfortunately, you won't know until the beer is finished, but as long you were careful not to splash too much while siphoning you're probably going to be fine.

Hindsight is 20/20, but the next time you run into something like that, you're probably better off just removing the lid and replacing it with sanitized plastic wrap. You'll want to leave a small hole along the edge for blow-off, or you could even use a piece of tubing. It isn't pretty, but it's better than transferring the beer during such a critical stage. Again, hindsight is 20/20, and your beer is probably fine. Chances are you'll be enjoying it thoroughly in a few weeks time. Cheers!

 

[brianwaynemiller]

Thanks. Makes sense about the O2...I was pretty careful to only have the lid off as little as possible, but there was definitely some exposure there. Hopefully the hefty layer of krausen and CO2 should keep things fairly clean. Nevertheless, I'm still worried about having disturbed things.

Biscuit - removing the lid and replacing with plastic is a clever idea. I was trying to somehow fit a blowoff tube onto the disassembled airlock, but it just wasn't happening with the equipment I had available. Will for sure keep that in mind if I ever run into this again.

 

[Slick_Biscuit]

Good deal. I'm sure that if you were that careful about it you should be fine in the end. Glad to be of help. Post again once she's finished - I'd like to hear whether or not it turned out okay.

 

[brianwaynemiller]

Realized I forgot to post the final results. It ended up all right. No oxidation that I can taste, and it cleared up pretty nicely, all things considered. (The interrupted primary, using real pumpkin in the mash, etc.)

If I have to nitpick, it has a slight bit of tannic feel/flavor, but that may not even have been from the fermentation as I've gotten that in other beers.
Dig: http://instagram.com/p/f35a37RL1Z/

Cheers, thanks for the replies!

 

[hellawaits77]

Good to hear it ended up ok. I'm a rookie myself, but I didn't think doing that would hurt anything.