Time To Chuck It?

[hobbsy4]

Hi All,

My first brew is a czech pilsener concentrate by brewcraft with 1kg of dextrose added.

I had a taste just before, after fermenting for a week at a 22oC fermentation temperature, and it had a bit of a sweet aftertaste. The SG has come down to 1.011 from 1.040.

I had decided to stir it up and let it sit until the weekend and see if anything had changed. After I took the lid off the fermenter, I ended up turning the lid upside down to let it sit on the bench, but while doing so dropped the water from the air lock directly into the brew. :unsure:

How likely is it that I will get an infection and should I just cut my losses now and throw it out?

Cheers,
Hobbsy

 

[RdeVjun]

Don't panic, probably no harm done. Beer once fermented is far less likely to get infected, all the food is gone for many of the nasties. I'd carry on, learn from that fairly minor mistake and bottle/ keg it. Far worse stuff makes its way into beer every day! :icon_cheers:

 

[Oatlands Brewer]

Droping the airlock water in shouldnt be to much of a problem.....the number of times ive taken a gravity sample and not cracker the lid..thus sucking the same water in to the fermenter...and ive so far (touch wood) not had an infection yet.

A bit more of a concern is why you wanted to stir up your batch mid or end ferment....to my mind that would be more cause for an infection.

 

[hobbsy4]

Droping the airlock water in shouldnt be to much of a problem.....the number of times ive taken a gravity sample and not cracker the lid..thus sucking the same water in to the fermenter...and ive so far (touch wood) not had an infection yet.

A bit more of a concern is why you wanted to stir up your batch mid or end ferment....to my mind that would be more cause for an infection.

Yeah my mate works at Dave's homebrew in North Sydney. He said that stirring it was the wrong thing to do....I read that the SG should be somewhere closer to 1.008 and on a thread someone recommended stirring up a beer to get the SG down. In my current mining town there is no homebrew shop within about 100km.

Thanks for the replies

 

[Wolfy]

While it's not an ideal situation, you should have a level of alcohol and still some yeast activity that will help protect your beer from any infection.
As Oatlands Brewer it's most likely not - generally - a good idea to stir your beer up and mix in the yeast once fermentation is well under way.

 

[Pennywise]

I agree that you should be ok, something to keep in mind though for these situations, fill your airlock with a sanitising solution so there's a lot less worry if it does happen again.

 

[manticle]

Chuck it if/when you know it's infected, never before.

As for the airlock - it's dispensable. If I use a lid I use the airlock to cover up the bung hole but the lock itself just gets closed over with glad wrap and a rubber band.

I also recommend against opening your fermenter to stir - gently swirl. The only times I would open my fermenter would be

1. Dry hopping
2. Adding extra fermentables (eg candi sugar in a belgian)
3. Top croppping
4. Adding bulk priming solution

Any and all of these bar number 3 can be done by racking although I'm not sure if that's any safer. In any case relax, taste the brew and see how it is. It was a kit? What was the kit made out of? Was it the same tap water you just threw in the brew only many many more litres of it?

 

[michaelcocks]

Hi All,

My first brew is a czech pilsener concentrate by brewcraft with 1kg of dextrose added.

I had a taste just before, after fermenting for a week at a 22oC fermentation temperature, and it had a bit of a sweet aftertaste. The SG has come down to 1.011 from 1.040.

I had decided to stir it up and let it sit until the weekend and see if anything had changed. After I took the lid off the fermenter, I ended up turning the lid upside down to let it sit on the bench, but while doing so dropped the water from the air lock directly into the brew. :unsure:

How likely is it that I will get an infection and should I just cut my losses now and throw it out?

Cheers,
Hobbsy

don't chuck it until you taste it ( you'll know I'd it's infected it'll taste horrible ... Really horrible)
never stir at that stage of fermentation but always stir (aerate) at the start of fermentation
chuck the lid and those silly airlocks, go the gladwrap and rubber band route and you will never go back..

 

[felten]

If I'm using an airlock I will put some spirit in it, like vodka or bourbon; but I believe alcohol can attract vinegar flies in some areas, mine is in a fridge so even if there was any around it shouldn't be a problem.

Using left over sanitising solution or even preboiled water is probably a better idea, or just going with the gladwrap.