Boy, that was close! (A Cautionary Tale)
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 7:38 pm
So I brewed up a cream ale yesterday. I figured it was still too chilly in the basement for good fermentation, so I put it in the beer closet. By the way, this is the maiden voyage for my new 3-gallon Better Bottle carboy.
Anyhoo, I checked it last night before bed, and it was starting to work. Checked it again this morning, and it was churning pretty good. Not crazy, but good.
Had a rough end of the day at work. Got home later than usual, tired and dirty, and just wanting dinner and some R&R. Well, I don't know what it was -- maybe Ninkasi watching over my beer-making efforts -- but I decided to check on the cream ale, and it's a good thing I did.
The airlock wasn't bubbling, so I figured something was wrong. I quickly set up another airlock and then removed the original. Sure enough, it was clogged with gunk. Had I not checked it and changed airlocks, it might have blown overnight. But no harm, no foul.
It also spurred me to rack my batch of Kingpin IPA to a secondary and dry hop it. I've already turned down the temperature in the lager fridge to the mid-30s so I can cold crash on Thursday in preparation for Saturday's bottling. So much for a quiet evening doing nothing!
But here's the thing: I was never a Boy Scout, but I've learned it pays to be prepared. When I bought the new carboy, I also bought another bung and airlock. I told myself I had enough of these things; one for each carboy. But a voice in the back of my head told me to get them. JUST. IN. CASE.
Yes, had I not had it, I would have sanitized a piece of aluminum foil and placed it over the carboy's mouth, no harm, no foul. But this was so much easier, and makes me feel better about how the situation was handled. There are always those homebrewing incidents that call for quick decisions and kludging something to get through a crisis. And we do that, because homebrewers are resourceful. But it's pretty neat when a little bit of pre-planning - just in case - makes life that much simpler.
Anyhoo, I checked it last night before bed, and it was starting to work. Checked it again this morning, and it was churning pretty good. Not crazy, but good.
Had a rough end of the day at work. Got home later than usual, tired and dirty, and just wanting dinner and some R&R. Well, I don't know what it was -- maybe Ninkasi watching over my beer-making efforts -- but I decided to check on the cream ale, and it's a good thing I did.
The airlock wasn't bubbling, so I figured something was wrong. I quickly set up another airlock and then removed the original. Sure enough, it was clogged with gunk. Had I not checked it and changed airlocks, it might have blown overnight. But no harm, no foul.
It also spurred me to rack my batch of Kingpin IPA to a secondary and dry hop it. I've already turned down the temperature in the lager fridge to the mid-30s so I can cold crash on Thursday in preparation for Saturday's bottling. So much for a quiet evening doing nothing!
But here's the thing: I was never a Boy Scout, but I've learned it pays to be prepared. When I bought the new carboy, I also bought another bung and airlock. I told myself I had enough of these things; one for each carboy. But a voice in the back of my head told me to get them. JUST. IN. CASE.
Yes, had I not had it, I would have sanitized a piece of aluminum foil and placed it over the carboy's mouth, no harm, no foul. But this was so much easier, and makes me feel better about how the situation was handled. There are always those homebrewing incidents that call for quick decisions and kludging something to get through a crisis. And we do that, because homebrewers are resourceful. But it's pretty neat when a little bit of pre-planning - just in case - makes life that much simpler.
