BeerBorg

This morning, before fully waking up, I decided to check in on the batch of beer fermenting in the chest freezer since Saturday. Of course I didn't see any visible signs of bubbles in any of the airlocks, and being curious, I figured I would lightly press down on the fermentor lid and try to smell fermenting beer coming from the airlock. Well needless to say I received the shock of my life, the cO2 that came out of the fermentor burned my nose and sinuses so bad I literally jumped back a foot. While the burning did eventually go away several minutes later, that did teach me a lesson that I won't soon forget. Co2 makes beer taste soo much better but it is the worst smelling gas imaginable, no wonder carbonation adds bitterness to beer.

I did that at a craft brewery one time, bending down to sniff the bubbling bucket they had attached to a hose coming out of the large fermenter and I think I saw Jesus.
Actually, that can kill you if you're not careful. I already knew that but didn't think I was close enough to get all the nasties but boy was I surprised.

Wow, that's just screwy...

Well duh?!? That is probably what makes your hair stand on end and your peter (oh nevermind)

I ferment in a chest freezer and quickly learned not to lean in to see what's going on. The entire interior fills with CO2 during fermentation. It'll take your breath away.

I usually take a fan to mine when I need to be in there for any kind of time, chest freezer that is.

Yep, did that once. Decided to take a whiff on bottling day right after I opened the top of my bucket fermenter. Once is all it takes...

What a difference a day makes. This morning both fermentor lids had globs of yeast on them and the airlocks looked like they were filled with light coffee instead of StarSan. I almost feel sorry for the poor wort inside, the WLP-001 seems to be ripping it apart like a fish in a tank full of Piranhas. It's a little disturbing to see such horror so early in the day, my prior perception of yeast as being gentle little creatures has been changed forever..

The_Professor wrote:Decided to take a whiff on bottling day right after I opened the top of my bucket fermenter.

I did something similar, I opened mine to take an FG reading before the cold crash. I was expecting a whiff full of citrusy hops. I was wrong....holy cow, I thought I inhaled fire.

Been there, done that too!
Opened the bucket before bottling to pull the hop sack and figured I'd
catch a whiff of some tasty beer, but nooooo!

Sinuses hurt for about an hour afterwards.

Beer-lord wrote:I did that at a craft brewery one time, bending down to sniff the bubbling bucket they had attached to a hose coming out of the large fermenter and I think I saw Jesus.
Actually, that can kill you if you're not careful. I already knew that but didn't think I was close enough to get all the nasties but boy was I surprised.

I did that in a brew club brewery tour. I than proceeded to tell my buddies they needed to get in on the smell and check it out. They weren't fans of mine after that.

This past week I had a blow off going for a DIPA and I opened my ferment chamber and it hit me again though not as hard and heavy. It actually takes your breath away.

Haha! I did this exact thing when I pulled the lid off the Screwer in Rye a few weeks ago. Then I did it to an empty keg I had pressurized from moving over a year ago. That was a little more intense. I depressurised, pulled the lid and gave it a whiff to see if it smelled like soda from a batch I bought. I'll never do that again!