open fermentation « Brew UK Forum

open fermentation

11 months ago | outlaw (Member)

Hey guys, what do you think of open fermentation the reason I say this , is I put a nice brew day to bed added my yeast starter as normal ,and woke up this morning with wort everywhere ,now its constant foaming everywhere been wiping it up all day , to much for air lock to take now am just leaving the lid off its that bad
Any advice on this or will it infect my batch ???

Drinkin--buxton spa
plannin--galaxy pale
plannin--nelson bobek pale
fermentin--centennial pale 3.8%

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Responses

saracen:

Posted 11 months ago by Moderator

Hi Outlaw. Take a look here

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/forum/topic/yeast-crud-runneth-over-help

and here

http://www.brewuk.co.uk/forum/topic/tarting-up-a-cooper-real-ale-kit

POST 5 covers it

If you're not living on the edge..... you're taking up too much space!!

Planning: - To get some more brews on now the weather's a bit cooler
Fermenting: - Ginger Beer experiment
Conditioning: - A normal bitter with Styrians
Drinking: - All of it!!

E-mail: arnyfris@gmail.com

madlen_lieb:

Posted 11 months ago by Member

hi,
bacteria are everywhere! you can infect your beer with dirt and bacteria by just open the lid to make a hydrometer reading.
no worries about infecting your batch, it already is.

i would throw it down the sink.
theoretically: against your bacteria, you could re heat it over 95 degree celsius, cool it down and add new yeast. but you may got already some odd flavour in your beer.

lg madlen

saracen:

Posted 11 months ago by Moderator

Steady. It's not terminal yet. The constant foaming will have put a protective layer over the beer so it could well be OK. Put the lid back without clipping it down, stand it on some old towels or something else, maybe in a tray, and let it all calm down, which it will do within the next day or so.

outlaw:

Posted 11 months ago by Member

Thoughtopen fermentingwas a good thing

Drinkin--buxton spa
plannin--galaxy pale
plannin--nelson bobek pale
fermentin--centennial pale 3.8%

Greg:

Posted 11 months ago by Admin

Should be okay, the foam is going one way, out of the fermenter and will not be a friendly place for most bacteria. Just clean up and get it sealed as soon as it dies down a bit. Definitely don't ditch it.

Hamish:

Posted 11 months ago by Moderator

Many commercial breweries use open top fermenters so its probably good practice but in the home environment its not worth the risk. You don't want any nasties of any description in your wort.

Maybe next time you could fit a blow off tube, a syphon tube from the bung into a bottle with a little water in the bottom to keep it air tight.

Planning: Wheat beer fermented with Schneider Weisse yeast, a Stout, lots of hoppy pale ales
Fermenting: Summer pale ale
Maturing/Conditioning: Marynka pseudo-lager
Drinking: Wheat beer, ESB, Vienna lager & shop bought stuff

Tommo:

Posted 11 months ago by Member

Hi Guys,

Just in relation to this post, the Youngs Harvest that I'm doing at the moment states to losely fit the lid to the FV, without clipping it down... Is this good practice, or would you always advice sealing it down securely?

Tony:

Posted 11 months ago by Member

I know quite a lot of people who ferment with just a (clean) tea-towel over the top. (As has already been said above), the brew creates its own blanket of CO2 which will rest on the surface (being slightly denser than air) if you don't disturb it, it will stay there and protect your beer!

If you are racking it to a secondary, use a clipped-down and trap then. It will also be a good opportunity to have a sip and you should be able to taste if there is any infection. Good luck Outlaw

Beer will get you through the times of no money better than money will get you through the times of no beer
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)

madlen_lieb:

Posted 11 months ago by Member

hi,
but your tea towel will prevent that dirt can fall into the fv. if the lid blows of as stated in the first post and you leave it unprotected open over several hours, than you can be sure there is something in, what shouldn't be in there the co2 protection layer wont work against household dust or lint and the little friends living ontop of them.

lg madlen

Tony:

Posted 11 months ago by Member

Indeed, things could have dropped in but that's not certain. Also the yeast 'foam' will be all CO2 and protective - not to mention a certain amount of alcohol would have already been produced which is pretty good at killing off things.

Never NEVER bin a brew until you are absolutely certain that it is infected.

Beer will get you through the times of no money better than money will get you through the times of no beer
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)

madlen_lieb:

Posted 11 months ago by Member

didn't you need a alcohol concentration of over 40% to disinfect (at least with cuts). my 1st aid course was to long ago

saracen:

Posted 11 months ago by Moderator

If you have enough alcohol over 40%, you won't care anyway!

madlen_lieb:

Posted 11 months ago by Member

true

Nath:

Posted 11 months ago by Moderator

Although to disinfect you do need a high percentage there is a lot of nastys which wont tollerate the conditions of a small percentage of alcohol plus the increase of other factors like co2 etc etc.

Im with Tony, never throw a beer away, let it ferment out and have a taste then. Nothing worse than pouring away what could be decent beer.

Drinkin' - nowt, it's all gone

Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!

nathbrew@gmail.com

Jim:

Posted 11 months ago by Member

Hi Outlaw, sorry the hear the bad news, hopefully it will all work out OK!

Guys, I know that hygiene is mega important, so just how super careful do you have to be. I have racked my last 2 brews in bottles using one of those funky bottling tubes that fits on the tap of the FV and you push the bottle onto and it and it fills the bottle when pushed against the bottom. You are getting some air near the brew when racking, but you end up with the tube in the beer, is this likely to introduce nasties?

I sterilised the tube before fermentation, but not again before bottling

Cheers,

Jim.

“If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it” (Albert Einstein)

Drinkin' - Midas Touch Golden Ale
Drinkin' - Coopers Real Ale (dry hopped)
Conditionin' - Tarwebier
Fermenting' - Admirals Reserve
Plannin' - A Wherry (with Saracen's enhancement)

Hamish:

Posted 11 months ago by Moderator

I sterilised the tube before fermentation, but not again before bottling

Everything should be cleaned and sterilised immediately before use but you'll probably get away with it this time.

Jim:

Posted 11 months ago by Member

Thanks Hamish, never really thought about the filler, will do next time. Can you tell if you have got nasties in your brew? Does it obviously ruin the beer so that it is undrinkable, can you test it out in some way? Don't worry I am not getting paranoid :-) there is just so much knowledge to hoover up!

Hamish:

Posted 11 months ago by Moderator

You won't know until you taste it but as it was beer as opposed to wort my guess is it'll be ok. Its wort you've really got to be careful with, warm and sweet, perfect for all manner of nasties!.

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