Noob Airlock Question

I made my first batch and placed my jug in a bucket in the closet to do its thing. About a day and a half later I checked on it and the airlock had popped off. Roughly 12 ounces of beer was in the bottom of the bucket. I re-sanitized it a put it back on. About 8 days later I bottled it. I haven’t tried it yet. How do you suppose it turned out???

The airlock not being in place does increase the risk of infection. I would have given the beer more time in the primary to see if anything unusual started to develope on the surface. Chill a bottle in five days to check the carbonation level and SG. Warm the SG sample to the calibration temperature of your hydrometer to read accurately. Probably no infection if the SG is the same as your FG before bottling.

The airlock popping off and losing some beer is one of the indicators of a fermentation that was to warm and overly vigorous. On the other hand you may just have had not enough headspace in your fermentor since this was a one gallon brew in a one gallon fermentor. How the beer tastes when you check the SG will tell you if fusel alcohols have formed from an overly warm fermentation, if it was to warm. Using a blow off tube for the first few days of fermentation will safe guard your fermentor.

If this first test bottle is okay give the rest a couple of weeks of warm conditioning before chilling another for a couple of days to check the carbonation level.

Let us know how the first bottle checks out.

Thanks flars. The problem is I have no idea what you said. SG= specific gravity? FG= ???

FG is final gravity. Final gravity is established by taking two SG readings at least three days apart to be able to discern whether there has been a change. Some yeasts like WY 3787 are very slow to finish and the second SG sample may need to be at least five days, sometimes more, from the first to establish whether or not Fg has been reached.

A finishing hydrometer is a good tool to add your brewing equipment. The hydrometer measures from 0.994 to 1.020. The markings are much further apart than the standard hydrometer. Easier to notice a change in SG.

1 Like

Correct. SG is specific gravity, FG is final gravity. You should check your beer a couple times to determine if it has stopped fermenting, reaching terminal gravity or FG. With FG, you could figure out if you’ve developed an infection post fermentation because the gravity will continue to drop.

I wouldn’t be too worried about the airlock. Although it did pop out there was positive pressure pushing out anything that may have tried to get into the fermenter.

1 Like

calisdad- good advice above, but it sounds like you are starting from square minus 1. I would strongly suggest you look for the online version of John Palmer’s ‘How to Brew’. It’s a bit old (there are newer versions available in hardcover) but it will give you the basic knowledge to make a beer you might actually be proud of. Knowledge is power.

2 Likes

I think that SG is a “type” of measurement, the same but different as brix. But, I use SG as my STARTING gravity, some use OG, original gravity. FG is as its stated, finished gravity… So when you look for a hydrometer, the common one we usually talk about uses SG, “specific gravity”, Brix and plato are other measures used commonly too. Sneezles61