Home brew help!

[PhillyPhaithful48]

Ok I'm panicking. Another rookie mistake on my third batch.

So as I'm wrapping up on my brew day, I must have dropped my airlock and the piece inside (sorry forget the term) fell out. I didn't notice this at the time, so I just placde the airlock and lid on and stored in my basement.

I go to check on it today (about 20 hours later), and see no bubbles in the airlock. That makes me notice the missing piece. I go outside and sure enough it's laying on the ground. I immediately removed the airlock, dropped everything in some star San, and reinserted the air lock as quickly as possible.

Question is, is this batch still good or is there a chance I ruined it? I'm really freakin out because I spent an extra few bucks to get something I was really excited to make, a New Zealand honey IPA.

Can I rest easy?

 

[Cobrabit]

You should be fine. If your yeast got to work right away, they wouldn't leave much time for any bad bacteria to get a foot hold and would start to create positive air pressure to keep any baddies from getting in through the small holes of the air lock.

If you're worried, just keep an eye and nose on it the next few days. If you start to really smell something sour, then it may have been turned, but I have a feeling you'll be fine.

So relax and have a homebrew

 

[thecrow124]

Agree with cobra, you should be fine. What type of yeast did you use? Some have quite a long lag time from when you pitch it until it really gets going, but even still, I would think you would be fine.

 

[PhillyPhaithful48]

Good to hear for the most part


I used white labs Edinburgh Scottish ale yeast

 

[757Hokie83]

+1 what cobra said.

 

[PhillyPhaithful48]

Almost a week into it. Still new to this so I'm not exactly sure what if anything I should be looking out for. Any tell tale signs that it's bad or just fine?

 

[Cobrabit]

Almost a week into it. Still new to this so I'm not exactly sure what if anything I should be looking out for. Any tell tale signs that it's bad or just fine?

If it's bad, you should be able to smell a rotten/moldy mess, especially if you press down on the lid to force a little air through the airlock. You could also crack open the lid at this point and check on it since I routinely transfer to my secondary after 7-10 days for most of my brews. If it's moldy on top, then it's infected. Google 'infected homebrew' pictures and you'll see why you should be able to tell at this point if it was bad.

If you don't have the smell/mold, then you're all good.

 

[wartyOne]

I'm curious, why did you use a scottish ale yeast for an IPA?