First time poster and new to the forum. Brewing for just the third time. Found that my airlock wasn’t sealed properly after I realized that there was no activity in the primary. (Been less than 2 days). At first I wasn’t thinking much of it as it was the Wyeast 1335 which I did on my second batch and took about a day to see activity.
Now that it has a proper seal it seems the yeast is doing its thing. Crazy how instant it was…
Anyway just curious the damage I may have caused and or contamination?
Believe it or not during the beginning of fermentation and up to about 2 weeks some of us don’t use airlocks. When I used to ferment in carboys I used to just pit foil over the opening. Bugs fall down, not sideways or up, so for the most part you are safe. But eventually the co2 will mix with the o2 and acetobacter will take hold and even this isn’t necessarily the end-game if you catch it early.
After fermentation stops producing co2 and there is no longer positive pressure your chances of infection drastically start to increase. But during active fermentation it is very difficult to infect a beer from outside environment unless you are completely open to the elements. That said, there are a lot of breweries that open ferment. If your room is clean enough even then you might could get away with a beer open to the elements.
I keep saying I am a brew newbie but actually a college buddy and me brewed a lot of “beer” waaaay back in the day. We brewed in a 12 gal. open crock with some Saran wrap on the top with a few knife slits. Bottled 44 quarts every 6 days. Never had a bad batch. Of course we were broke, thirsty college students so a batch never fully conditioned before we (and friends) had it drunk and gone.
