Does Carboy Overflow skunk beer?

[geer537]

Well I am new and experience is the best teacher. This was a great experience!

So far my 5 gallon batches have all come out under 5 and I had never had an overflow so I have never set up an overflow system (read all about them yesterday though...)

I brewed a blond on Sunday and had more than usual; about 5.5 gallons. My primary is a 6 gallon carboy. It overflowed Yesterday. Not having any tubing to set up an over flow at the time I Sanitized my siphon and pulled off almost a gallon thinking I was leaving enough room. My wife just called and said our closet smells like beer and that it overflowed much worse about an hour ago. I told her to put the carboy in the bath tub in case of further overflow and I'll deal with it when I get home. She did have time to sterilize a new airlock. It is currently sitting in my bath tub covered to protect it from the light.

Now that I have amused you with my misadventures in brewing, has anyone else gone through this and then carbonated the beer with positive results? I realize there is a chance I skunked the beer but if there is just no way that the beer will turn out, I would rather dump it and start over instead of wasting my time. Any advice would be awesome!

Yes- I'll set up an overflow on my primary next time...

 

[BendBrewer]

Skunked comes from being exposed to ultraviolet light.

It sounds like you are worried about bacteria and not light. Stuff came out of your carboy, it didn't get into it. It's going to be fine.

 

[jerryalan]

I went through something similar. I had a beer blow the lid off of my primary 6.5 gallon bucket. It sat open for at least 12 hours. I sanitized the lid and airlock and sealed it up. The beer turned out great. The fact that your beer is in a carboy is more promising because the opening isn't as wide as a bucket so you might not have as many bad things coming through.

 

[geer537]

Thanks guys!

I'l finish it out and post how it turns out. Maybe it'll put someone else's mind at ease as well.

This is only my 4th all grain batch. Two browns and a hoey pale all turned out good. Let's hope I keep the streak alive

 

[BendBrewer]

If there was any wood to knock on around here I would tell you that I have found it pretty difficult to ruin a batch of beer. If you follow basic procedures you almost have to go out of your way to screw it up to the point of dumping it.

 

[jerryalan]

If there was any wood to knock on around here I would tell you that I have found it pretty difficult to ruin a batch of beer.

Quick! Find a piece of wood!

 

[geer537]

Quick! Find a piece of wood!

Done!

And I'll finish this one out. After my buddy walkking me through my first batch and reading the Joys of Home Brewing, I got a little paranoid about wild yeasts getting into my beer.

 

[jerryalan]

You read a good book. Now you just have to RDWHAHB

 

[geer537]

My favorite part of that book is RDWHAHB! problem is I can't drink while I am at work...

 

[geer537]

I'm home and I have RDWHAHB... I have a better outlook on the situation now.

I also went to Home Depot and got a clear plastic tube to set up my blow of. It's working f=great and the yeast is still going strong (already starting to shoot through the tube. Smells like beer and I can't wait to taste it. Good or bad I'll let you know.

 

[BubbaK]

Where are the pictures?

 

[geer537]

Damn- sorry all!

I am still new at this posting stuff. I do more reading than posting. Everything is cleaned and I can take a few shots of what it looks like now but unfortunately the damage that was done has been undone. I'll post pics of the blow off tube later and remember for future posts.

I can tell you that there was a lot of dough-type matter all over my bathtub before I cleaned up and after I submerged the blowoff tube in the water (with a little iodine) I found a pleasent aroma of rotten eggs bubbling out, but thats not a bad sign. I'll take pics from here through carbination andget some of the first and last beers for everyone

Cheers!

Steve

 

[geer537]

So I ran down to Home Depot and took the airlock with me to make sure I got the correct size. I believe it was 5/7".

It fits snugly onto the bung. The problem is that it is a very heavy tube and when I fed it into the receptacle, it leans pretty far over.

I shoved a bunch if cotton between the side of the bung and the blow off tube in order to keep the tube upright. I think this will keep the tube from puling itself off under it's weight. So far it has worked. The tube is about 4 ft long and submerged into the red bucket next to my Carboy (yes I have a wet T Shirt on my carboy and it's helping control the temps). I coiled the tube onto itself in the bucket to keep it submerged under water and also have a bit of iodine in the water to keep it sterile. I marked the end I submerged to keep myself consistent in the future since I can take the tube off and put the air lock back on. I'll post more pics at transfer

Cheers

 

[geer537]

Two weeks in and I remember the mantra- RDWHAHB

Probably made a noob mistake but I don't care, it'll probably turn out. The blond was still bubbling slowly and I transferred anyways. So far it has been maintaning between 64-68 degrees and I suspect the honey is what's taking fermentation slowly

Here is the after math of the transfer. Not great at documenting these things but I'll get better

Here is a better pic of the blow off tube I used. Worked great and I plan on using it again.

The finished product was still a bit murky and hopefully close to 5 gallons still. With in about 5 minutes the slow but steady bubbling began again and I was eager to take a reading

As you can see the reading was still high and I still suspect its the honey. I kept it and plan on checking it over the next few days to see how it changes. The smell is fantastic and the taste is just like an uncarbonated blond with a touch of honey. I'll be back to this thread when I force carbonate with more pics. I plan on brewing a brown on Saturday from a noobs perspective and documenting everything. My hope is that I get some good tips on what I can improve upon and others can learn too.

Cheers