So, here's one for you all.
I was happy that my two batches (from the parti-gyle I did) were bubbling through the airlocks like gangbusters. I added some sugar to my big beer after the fermentation was going strong in hopes of drying it out a bit. I figured there would be plenty of head space, as it ended up as a 4.5 gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon carboy. About 36 hours after pitching the yeast, everything was looking good.
I was happy with how it was going and had no qualms about leaving town for a week with my wife and daughter.
Well, a week goes by and we keep in touch with the in-laws (we live with them
), and everything is great. We get home earlier today and I'm unloading the car (including a great haul of beers that I can't get around here which I might post about in another thread), which includes taking some stuff downstairs to the basement near my fermenting beer.
I take a peak at my fermenters and I SEE THE CARBOY HAS NO AIRLOCK?!?!? Even with 2 gallons of head space, the fermentation was nuts enough to clog the airlock and dislodge it. The t-shirt covering the carboy was covered in speckles of yeastiness, but it didn't look like much had gotten anywhere else. My guess is that the bung just eased out of the carboy and fell off, rather than building up pressure and spewing to the ceiling.
Anyway, I see 2 major results coming from this.
1) Those that have seen me comment on HBT about people that preach the necessity of a blow off tube and how they just need to use a big enough fermenter will probably give me **** about not having a blow off tube in place.
2) My big beer was left without an airlock or any sort of covering over the opening of the carboy for probably about a week. We left town last Monday -> the incident probably happened within 24 hours of that point, as it was at what appeared to be high krausen already -> an entire week of being open to dust, dog hair, and who knows what else that could just fall right in through that carboy opening.
I generally haven't freaked out about sanitation stuff since my first few batches, however this has me a bit nervous. The beer was pretty heavily hopped, high gravity (should come out around 10% abv or so), and already in ultra-active fermentation, so the odds are in favor of the beer turning out just fine and not being infected.
Here's a question, though. Should I go ahead with my planned dry-hop and then bottle it up? Or should I let it sit for a while and see if any signs of infection appear, so as to avoid possible bottle bombs or other issues?