Hey everyone new to the site and was looking for some advice. My airlock completely blew off of my carboy and there is junk everywhere. Anybody have suggestions on what I can do to save this beer or is it already too far gone?
I would clean off the gunk with some sanitized paper towels and attach a sanitized blow off tube. When the krausen subsides enough, remove the blow off tube and re-attach a sanitized airlock.
Phew that’s a relieve. To be honest this is only my 3rd brew and it’s never happened before. I’m not 100% clear what the airlock is for except to keep wondering bacteria out?
To let CO2 out but not let oxygen, bacteria, etc. in. If all that gas, liquid, and foam run out of space it will push the airlock and bung out though. When using a carboy you really need either a lot of headspace or put a tube running from the whole in the bung into a pail of sanitizing solution to take the pressure off for a couple days then replace the hose with a sanitized airlock. Even easier is a fermenting bucket that is 6.5 at least gallons for a five gallon batch. That gives more headspace. This has happened to most of us.
For active primary fermentation that’s all it is for. A lot of times I’ll just use foil loosely over my carboys and Better Bottles at the beginning of fermentation.
For extended aging, then an airlock serves the more important function of allowing CO2 to escape without letting oxygen in.
This is supposed to be a clone of Rhar and Sons Winter Warmer, and the recipe called for two packs of S-04 yeast. This is the first time I’ve used this yeast or more than 1 pack.
Nothing wrong with your beer only with your carpet.
Temperature control with active cooling during the fermentation peak reduces the change on such a mess. Also a bigger fermentation vessel will help you next time.
Two packs may be overpitching a bit, depending on OG. Next time use the blowoff tube and check on pitching rate using Mr Malty or similar yeast calculator. You are probably fine, but keep those temperatures under control. I love this time of year, because here in Northern IL I can put a heat wrap on my ales and ferment them right in the sweet spot.
My OG was 1.084. I had originally gotten one pack of S-04, but when I got to the counter the guy said I should get a second pack. And temp control is my biggest battle. I’m trying to maintain my temps in a closet in North Texas. We just hit 96*F two days ago so it’s been quite the struggle.
In my house anything over about 68F for room temp means blow offs on ales. I really need to figure out temp control. It seems to be the next frontier for many of us here. Standard problem with lack of space though.
The good news: During active fermentation it is very difficult for contamination to take hold, mostly because of the positive pressure of Co2 coming out of solution pushes everything out. As far as contamination goes, your beer would be fine.
The bad news: Blow offs like that usually happen when you pitch too warm, and especially when you don’t have good control of fermentation temps. I recently pitched US-05 at around 78 degrees for an “experimental purpose” and the fermentor had plenty of head space and still blew off. Normally, when I pitch at a more reasonable temperature like 64, I get no blow off. And the thing is, warm pitching and fermentation temps are almost as bad for the flavor of beer as contamination. You should never pitch over 70 degrees (and preferably much cooler) and you should never let the temp of the fermentation - which can be as warm as 6-8+ degrees over ambient - get much warmer that 68 degrees (70-72 at the highest) for most ale yeasts. In other words, if you are fermenting at “room temp” you are fermenting too warm, unless your rom temp in 58-62 degrees.
Majorvices I get what you’re saying. I pitched at 71 degrees but it’s nearly impossible to maintain that for a fermentation temp. I’d love to get a ferm tank of some kind, but until I do, I have to make do with keeping the a/c on when it gets too hot in the closet.