Vodka in airlock went below fill line so I topped it off and

[KimmiC]

Hi! I am totally new to brewing and made my first batch last night. So happy to find this forum! I made Moose Drool from a kit from my local brew place. I had so much fun doing this and I believe I followed all the instructions. Beer is fermenting in a bucket with a 3 piece airlock that was filled to the fill line with vodka. I finished around midnight and when I woke up at 6 am, the airlock was bubbling nicely. By 7 pm today the airlock stopped bubbling and I noticed the vodka was a little below the fill line. I took the top cap of the airlock off, added a little more vodka and replaced the cap carefully. As soon as I did that, it is bubbling again. Not violently but at a good rate. I didn't screw anything up did I? Bucket is in our basement, dehumidifier on, temp about 68 to 70 degrees....68 at night, 70 day time as some sunlight comes in....finished family room.

 

[ewebb]

Might want to drop the temperature on that fermentation to the mid 60's, since fermentation will raise the temperature by 4-7 degrees. Try putting a wet t-shirt over your bucket to evap away the excess heat.

As for your airlock, as long as the vodka level covered the bottom lip of the "moving" part of the three piece, i don't think you did anything wrong....

 

[passedpawn]

Don't worry about it. Even if the airlock went completely dry, a day or two like that is not likely to be a problem.

Don't worry. It's going to be a great success. You made beer.

 

[meteorbrews]

Agreed, you shouldn't worry, chances are there was positive pressure inside the entire time.

 

[RM-MN]

Hi! I am totally new to brewing and made my first batch last night. So happy to find this forum! I made Moose Drool from a kit from my local brew place. I had so much fun doing this and I believe I followed all the instructions. Beer is fermenting in a bucket with a 3 piece airlock that was filled to the fill line with vodka. I finished around midnight and when I woke up at 6 am, the airlock was bubbling nicely. By 7 pm today the airlock stopped bubbling and I noticed the vodka was a little below the fill line. I took the top cap of the airlock off, added a little more vodka and replaced the cap carefully. As soon as I did that, it is bubbling again. Not violently but at a good rate. I didn't screw anything up did I? Bucket is in our basement, dehumidifier on, temp about 68 to 70 degrees....68 at night, 70 day time as some sunlight comes in....finished family room.

I think that the bubbling is from escaping CO2 that was dissolved in your beer and was released by your moving the fermenter while adding the vodka.

 

[KimmiC]

Thank you! Still bubbling but slowly. I will put a cold wet t shirt around it

 

[RitalinIV]

I also agree- you should be just fine! I wanted to give you a quick word of caution with regard to the sunlight coming into your room. Keep sunlight away from your beer! Sunlight (and I have even read about prolonged exposure to florescent lighting) breaks down the good chemicals in your beer and leaves a "skunky" flavor. There are some articles out there on the topic, and if you are interested, here are some links:
Washington Post Article and Thread From This Forum

Welcome to a great hobby! Let us know how it turns out.

Good luck,

-Ritalin

 

[Clonefan94]

You'll be fine. If it started bubbling, it means that CO2 was still escaping and even without any vodka it would be tough for anything to get in that small hole with the out pressure being produced by the escaping CO2.

Heck, I even had one go completely dry while it was just sitting - fermentation and off gassing completely done and had no issues with it. Seems the one bad thing I've noticed with Vodka, you have to keep an eye on it because it evaporates pretty quickly.

 

[yewtah-brewha]

Vodka will evap, thats where your loosing it too, In my airlocks I use the water that I sanitise my buckets and bottles. I ve used this solution since I bagan 15 batches ago and cant say that ive had any issues with it.

as for temp 68-70 is good for ales. I use a mini fridge with temp control and have it set at 68 I will be expirimenting with lower temps in the future,

I would'nt worry too much about sunlight with a white bucket, but it cant hurt to put a sheet or t-shirt around it to keep light out.

If youve ever drank a beer in clear glass like corona, you have noticed the skunky taste. thats because its in a clear bottle, alot of people like this so if you skunk your beer you didn't ruin it, you just skunked it, a practice some people try to do on purpose.

when you bottle your beer (for light ales/lagers) put 6 in clear the rest in brown glass. set clear in dirct sunlight for 30 minutes. and see if you like it.

the great thing about this hobby is the experiments are endless.

Good luck and happy brewing kimmi

 

[unionrdr]

Beer getting light struck or skunked means the hop oils are being broken down by the UV wavelength in sunlight. And I use cheap grocery store vodka in my airlocks & it doesn't evaporate that fast. Maybe 10 days or so.

 

[KimmiC]

Moved the bucket carefully into a dark part of the room. I do not like Coronas, Bud or Coors. This is supposed to come out as a brown ale. I am partial to Dirty Bastard, Loose Canon, Sierra Nevada Torpedo's, Little Sumplins, and once I got a bottle of Tactical Nuclear Penguin for a gift ....... Now I would LOVE to clone that one! I have a feeling the Moose Drool will be not strong enough in taste for me but it looked like an easy kit so wanted to try to see if I could actually do this and enjoy it. So far it is lots of fun!

 

[RitalinIV]

Yes it is! I love Sierra Nevada everything. The Torpedo IPA is, well, WOW! I have done many clone versions and if you want a recipe, let me know if you plan on using a kit or extract. I can hook you up. This forum is also an exceptional resource for recipes. No need to reinvent the wheel. I will tell you this, the key is Cascade hops. Use an ounce at the 60 minute point and another ounce with 10-5 minutes left. It sounds like you really like hops so a little more might even be prudent.

Tactical Nuclear Penguin? Now I am intrigued. I return fire with:
Dog Fish Ale 120 Minute IPA
and
Mojo IPA

The only IPAs that come remotely close to Sierra Nevada IMHO.

Moose Drool always reminds me of Survival School in Spokane. Good stuff but an acquired taste for sure.

Good luck to you and welcome to an awesome hobby!

-Ritalin

 

[eltorrente]

Vodka evaporates rather quickly, and actually there is no real benefit to using it. Just stick with water next time and you'll be fine.

When it's fermenting, it's pushing CO2 out of the fermenter, so it's under pressure, and there is basically no chance of bacteria falling into it. Even if some did, the yeast would overwhelm it anyway.

Moving it to a cooler place isn't going to matter at this point. The yeast produces diacetyl in the beginning stages of fermentation, so that stage is already over with. Cooling it a bit isn't going to prevent it. In the later stages of fermentation, the yeast will eat the diacetyl that was produced earlier and use those compounds as food. Ideally, you'd want to start out a lower temperature, then let the temperature come up in the later stages to facilitate the cleaning up of diacetyl - this is called a "diacetyl rest".