What can go wrong?

[Frank22088]

Ok so here's what happened to me today. I went to my local home-brew shop and bought 6.6 lbs of wheat LME, 1 lb of wheat DME, 3 oz of Amarillo hops, and 1 oz of Warrior hops. I was aiming to brew something similar to a gumballhead. So I brew my beer and everything is going as planned. I have successfully cooled my wort and i put it in the fermenting bucket. I pitch the yeast and put the lid on......
Here's where things go horribly wrong. After putting my lid on my bucket, I realize my fermenter lid is missing the little rubber piece where the airlock goes. In my frantic despair, I sanitize a glass carboy with the leftover sanitizing solution I have from brewing (about 2 gallons). Now mind you, the yeast has already been pitched. I transfer over the beer to the glass carboy. There was a little foam coming out of the top of the carboy and there was a little hop residue in the airlock. My question is, is my beer ruined for sure? Is it ok? What is the chance of an infection? Should I just ride it out and hope for the best? Any help is appreciated. This is the first time anything like this has happened to me. I've always brewed and had everything go as planned.

 

[jro238]

As long as you sanitized everything then there's nothing at all to worry about and your beer will be just fine.

 

[RM-MN]

As a reference for you if this ever happens again, that airlock is really there to keep flies out and to let excess gasses escape. You could have just taped a piece of plastic over the opening and used a pin or needle to make a small hole in it, small enough to keep flies out, big enough to let gas escape.

 

[unionrdr]

Or rig a sanitised blow off tube that fits the airlock grommet hole...

 

[roccityroller]

You'll be fine. I had the rubber grommet push through and into the beer when i went to put the airlock in and had to transfer to another bucket and back to get the grommet out (because ofc it doesn't float). And that one came out good.

the additional aeration from transferring might actually help.

 

[boydster]

There's no problem here. You're fine. Just keep your temps under control now and you'll have some tasty beer soon.

 

[flatlanderHQ]

As a reference for you if this ever happens again, that airlock is really there to keep flies out and to let excess gasses escape. You could have just taped a piece of plastic over the opening and used a pin or needle to make a small hole in it, small enough to keep flies out, big enough to let gas escape.

Exactly. Remember that beer has been fermented in open troughs. Ie original Steam Beer process.

 

[Frank22088]

Thanks for the responses. Worst case, I oxygenated my beer a little more. The only thing I hate is that I have 5 gallon glass carboys so it's a tight fit. I had to use a blowoff tube and have some foam coming out into the dish I used at the end of the blowoff tube. In any case, this beer smells amazing. I'm really hoping it's a winner because I love Gumballhead beer.

 

[MrNickVT]

I'm sure everything will be fine. Good luck