I’ve been spying this forums for a while now. Great info and appears to have great members.
I’m new to brewing. I purchased a kit from Brooklyn Beer Company and couldn’t wait to get it going. I fired it up January 1st.
Went awesome! Put it in the fermenter, I think that is what the one gallon jug is called, and put the disinfectant topper in. 2 weeks couldn’t come fast enough to start bottling!
Wellllll, here I sit in August and it is still in that jug with the disinfectant sitting in a dark area having never been moved.
My question:
Do I need to dump it and start again or because it is air tight and hasn’t been moved am I able to bottle this bad Larry this weekend?
Need some expert advice before I bottle this and make people blind. Thanks in advance and once again, great community here. Very informative.
It’s possible the beer is still good. Have you maintained water in the air lock (disinfectant topper)? If not bacteria could have entered and spoiled the brew.
Take the air lock off and give it a smell. I can smell like 3 thing. Beer. Vinegar (save it for cooking). Or sour, many fine commercially available sour beers.
You will not make someone blind brewing beer. That is a moonshiner issue. IF the beer where to be bad enough to make someone sick, it would smell/taste bad enough you would not drink it.
After that long it might have become contaminated or experienced yeast autolysis which tastes like rubber or burnt matches. But you might be lucky and it might be just fine. Taste it. If it tastes good, then add a sprinkle of new dry yeast and bottle it, it will be fine. If it tastes bad… dump it and start over. I figure odds are about 50/50 both ways.
Thank you for the insight. I am new to this and didn’t want to make anyone sick, however my go blind comment was tongue in cheek, I know you won’t go blind from bad beer. haha
Ok, Sunday is the day. Going to test it out and see. And yes, there is still disinfectant in the stopper. The jug really hasn’t moved an inch in 8 months.
Time will tell…hopefully not too much more time.
Thanks again. I’ll be back to report my findings.
Interesting, I have to add vodka to my air locks after 2-3 weeks. No way would they still have liquid in them 8 months later. 
Curious at to the “disinfectant” you use.
I used whatever came with the Brooklyn Brewery kit. I’ll see if I can find the packet and will report later on.
Rinsed all my stuff in it and what have you. Filled that little clear stopper on top with it. I promise you there is still liquid in that stopper.
It’s probably Straight A or One Step. Both claim to be sanitizers but do not have current, or past that anyone I know has seen, USDA accreditation. I don’t think they have a sanitizing ability past a couple hours if they do sanitize.
We used C-Brite.
There is still fluid in that clear stopper. Gonna be an interesting Sunday I’ll tell ya.
