"Two Piece" Airlock?

[ddeluca]

Newbie here... Day after brewing my second (1 gallon) batch I came home to find my 3-piece air lock clogged and spilling all over my 2 gallon fermenter. I'm using a 2 gallon pail, and the pressure also forced it open a bit on the side, allowing a bit of brew/krauzen to leak onto the side of the bucket.

Cleaned and sealed everything up again. Now a few questions or comments...

Even though the lid wasn't wide open, I know there was potential exposure for bacteria (if goo can get out, then little critters can get in). I'd like to wait this out, and try my luck. Question - worth the wait, or don't risk drinking an effected batch?

Everything's bubbling pretty rigorously, so I'm thinking maybe I should keep the top of my three piece off, and give all the bubbles all the room they need to escape. Foolish? Not really achieving anything? Good idea? I've got cleaned sanitized liquid in there, and I'm oping it's going to act more like a blow-off tube, given the freedom for the gas to escape (I unfortunately can't fit a proper tube in the grommet / hole)

I'm brewing a extract base + grain stout (recipe kit). 1 gallon OG 1.085. > teaspoon of Safale 04 (instruction called for 1 teaspoon, but I admittedly got over zealous with my interpretation of a teaspoon - I'm guessing that attributed to the activity)

 

[MaxStout]

Welcome to the forum!

No biggie if the airlock top popped off. There's still the little bulb thingy on the airlock stem. I doubt anything major found its way in and I wouldn't worry about it.

Make a blowoff tube from some 1/2" plastic tubing. Connect one end to the inner stem of the airlock and the other end of the tubing submerge in a jar of water or Starsan.

Edit: something like this.

 

[kh54s10]

Your slightly open lid is not of much concern, contaminates fall. They cannot fly up under the lid and over the lip of the bucket. Unless, you have a fan blowing in the area, that might blow some in.

With a blow off tube, check the bottom of the 3 piece airlock and if there is an x of plastic there cut it off. This would be likely to clog. You want as big an opening as possible all the way to the catch vessel.

For sanitizer, only use enough in a margarine cup or similar to keep the end of the tube submerged. Put that in a larger catch vessel in case it overflows. With only a little sanitizer, if there are temperature changes you will not have a reverse siphon sucking up a gallon or so of Starsan as is often mentioned in "Is my beer ruined by suck back of x gallons of Starsan and will it kill me?".

 

[ddeluca]

Thanks everybody! At about 40 hours after pitch, the yeast activity seems to have slowed a wee bit (but definitely still doing it thing). That's a great idea about connecting a blowoff to the airlock itself, and I'll give a look for that X later this week when I transfer into a secondary.

 

[RM-MN]

I'm brewing a extract base + grain stout (recipe kit). 1 gallon OG 1.085. > teaspoon of Safale 04 (instruction called for 1 teaspoon, but I admittedly got over zealous with my interpretation of a teaspoon - I'm guessing that attributed to the activity)

That is at least part of the reason for the high amount of activity. The other possibility is that the beer temperature is too high. Yeast like it warm and tend to get very vigorous when the temperature suits them. Keeping the beer near the lower limit of their preferred range keeps their activity in check. Yeast also warm the beer so unless you have a way to keep it cool, the beer temperature will go up and the yeast will be more active, making the beer temperature go up even more. At higher temperatures the yeast's fast activity causes them to produce esters and fusel alcohols. These are off flavors and the fusel alcohol has been found to lead to hangover.

 

[kh54s10]

Thanks everybody! At about 40 hours after pitch, the yeast activity seems to have slowed a wee bit (but definitely still doing it thing). That's a great idea about connecting a blowoff to the airlock itself, and I'll give a look for that X later this week when I transfer into a secondary.

There is no need to do a secondary. That is an outdated step that came from commercial processes that is no longer in favor. It might help the beer to clear a very little bit more, but increases the chance of infection and adds to oxidation. I have only done 3 secondaries in the last 8+ years. One was because I fermented warm and was advised to. The second was to add oak chips that wouldn't fit in my Better Bottle.