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overblown wirt

Had a batch of IPA fermenting. During the late stage of the process(about 6 days) the top blew off the primary fermentor. As I was about to begin transferring the wirt to a secondary the following day (Sun) I was not monitoring closely. When I went to transfer, I found that the out gassing had blown the top off the sealed primary fermentor. I was using evaportive cooling with a damp towel to maintain temp and didnt see it till the towel was removed. Figure it was like this for 20-24 hours in an open state. I transferred and resealed it with a new clean lock. 6 hours later and no activity. Is the batch ruined? Anything I can do to help restart the process?

Reply to
Gremlin
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On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 19:37:46 -0700, Gremlin said in alt.beer.home-brewing:

1) It could be fully fermented out. Check the SG against what you expected. 2) Give it about 24 hours. Don;t only check for bubbles - check the SG again. 3) If it still doesn't restart, swirl it, then give it another 24 hours. Check the SG again.

If it doesn't restart then, keg or bottle it. If you bottle it, make sure that the SG hasn't changed. If it's dropping, let it ferment out, even if you don't notice bubbles, or you might make bottle bombs.

The very worst that can happen is that it got contaminated and it'll taste like bubble gum. Chances are, though, that it's fine. (Fermenting with no top doesn't stop beer from fermenting. That's how it was made for thousands of years.)

Reply to
Al Klein

Reply to
Gremlin

On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 07:42:13 -0700, Gremlin said in alt.beer.home-brewing:

If it was fermenting and the top was just unsealed, not in another part of the room, the outflow of CO2 through the crack would probably have kept anything out. And anything that got in is usually killed by the yeast if it's vigorously fermenting. It's really only between cooling the wort and the start of vigorous fermentation that we have to worry if we keep everything clean.

Reply to
Al Klein

Reply to
Gremlin

Still done that way. See

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Large open stone squares are used for fermentation.

If you haven't had any of their beer it is well worth the $2-3 a bottle US they get for it.

Reply to
default

Why don't you do what has been suggested to you, measure the specific gravity of the fermented beer. Depending on your starting gravity, if its down to 1.010 or therabouts its done. Steve W.

Reply to
QD Steve

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