Beer Forum

This is a bIt of a long one. This past Saturday, I brewed an extract Blind Pig clone kit from more beer. I used a starter for the first time and I also did a full wort boil for the first time. The brewing part of it all went really well and I was really excited about this batch. I tasted the hydro sample and it seemed like if everything went well with fermentation, I was going to have a really kick ass beer. I pitched the yeast at 5pm on Saturday and did not look at the fermenter until the next morning. On Sunday morning fermentation was going strong and it appeared like any other fermentation I have had so far. On Monday I checked the bucket and the airlock was bubbling like crazy and the liquid in the lock was a light tan color. I figured it may be some krausen and let it go while I went to work. When I got home, the lid was bulging and beer/yeast was coming out of the airlock. I quickly opened the lid to releive the pressure and then I removed the airlock, cleaned it (and the bucket), sanitized it and put it back on. The lock was bubling again as soon as I put the lock back on. The same thing happend again this morning and I cleaned and sanitized everything and put it back. At this point, things seem to have settled down and there is no more yeast coming into the airlock. Am I at risk of contaminating my beer? My guess is no because of the amount of activity during the fermentation at that point. My thinking is that anything that may have gotten in would have either been pushed out or overrun by all of the yeast due to the 2000ml starter I made.

Also, do I have to worry about light from regular lightbulbs for skunking beer? I thought it was only sunlight and fluorescent lighting that cause skunking. I have the bucket covererd with 2 black trashbags, but I turned the lights on when I was cleaning everything.

Finally, the recipe calls for dry hoping and and addition of oak chips at 7 days. I have never done any dry hoping before. Up until yesterday, I have not even opened the bucket before bottling time. What can I do to cut back on the risk of contamination when adding the hops and oak?

Sorry for the length of this post, but I could really use some input on this.

Thanks,
Kevin

Everything you have done to this point is just fine. You should probably consider using a blow off tube for the first couple days on your next brew. This will save a mess.

Room light won't bother a thing unless you have a black light for growing cousin right next to the fermenter. Just keep the thing out of direct sunlight and at least 5 or 6 feet away from bright fluorescent lights. The trash bags are overkill but won't hurt anything.

The hops won't introduce any contamination, especially in an already fermented beer. I have not used oak chips so I don't know about contamination possibilities there. I would probably just soak them in a little bourbon for a few days to sanitize them. For dry hopping, I use a knee high nylon stocking (3 pair for $1 at walmart) that I sanitize in some Starsan. You can toss in some sanitized marbles to sink it, but it will eventually sink on its own. Just tie a piece of dental floss to the stocking so you can fish it out later. You might want to do the same to the oak chips too. Oh, if you do use the bourbon idea, don't throw out the bourbon, you need to drink that to make sure you didn't poison the beer (or at least you can tell SWMBO that when she asks you why you are drinking bourbon in the middle of the day.)

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

Dude, that's a short post. Read some of mine :):)

You've really got nothing to worry about here. A nice, vigorous fermentation like that will keep things from getting into your brew. As long as you were careful when you cleaned up (sounds like you were) you'll be fine.

As for the light, it is UV that causes skunking from what I understand. Unless you have those daylight bulbs you'll be fine.

For dry hopping you can just add the hops. They are antibacterial in nature, so no worries. If you are putting them in a hop bag you may want to sanitize the bag by boiling or soaking in sanitizer. Same for the Oak, though you don't want to boil too long and lose the Oaky flavor. Since it's a Morebeer kit, I'd recommend e-mailing them about the Oak addition and getting specific advice on that.

Sounds like you have the makings of a good beer!

Rob

Ok, today I did the dry hopping and added the oak chips. I had the lid open for 5 seconds max. I grabbed a sample (in a sanitary manner) dropped in the goods and sealed the lid back up. About three hours later I noticed the airlock was bubbling again. This is alarming because it stopped bubbling 2 days ago. Should I be concerned about this? Part of me wants to think that it stopped bubbling because the pressure on the inside and outside of the bucket had reached equilibrium. I am hoping that fermentation was still not complete and it was just pressurizing again. Does this make sense? I guess I should be happy that it would be pushing out any oxygen that got in when I opened the bucket. When I took the hydro reading it was at 1.015 (down from 1.060). I can't really see it going down much lower. Would the hops and oak cause additional activity? This is the first time I opened the bucket during fermentation so I think I am just over-reacting. The hydro sample tasted awesome, so I am trying not to f-up this batch. Also, this is a 6% beer and I dry hopped it, so should I be worrying about contamination or oxygenation from opening the lid. Sorry if this sound confusing, I am also competing for drunk of the week while typing this.

Thanks,
Kevin

Everything sounds fine. You just have to chill a bit.

It was warmer here in Philly area this weekend, right? When the temp goes up some CO2 will come out of solution. The colder the liquid the higher it's absorption rate for gases, and vice-versa. So, when the temp went up the gas came out of solution. This is just one of many reasons why you may have gotten a little activity in the airlock. If you're REALLY concerned that it started fermenting again then take another sample in a day or two and see if it dropped. I'd just leave it myself though.

Rob

What you were seeing could be a restart of fermentation due to rousing the yeast off the bottom. More likely, though, you were seeing out gassing due to the additional nucleation sites provided by the addition of the hops and oak. Nothing to be concerned about at all, just a little loss of dissolved CO2. It's all perfectly normal. Let us know how it turns out.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

BugeaterBrewing wrote:More likely, though, you were seeing out gassing due to the additional nucleation sites provided by the addition of the hops and oak. Nothing to be concerned about at all, just a little loss of dissolved CO2. It's all perfectly normal. Let us know how it turns out.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

Exactly, like mentos in diet coke.

RDWHAHB