i have a brew that I put away to ferment a month ago. Life happens this and that and I forgot it was in there. Should I just dump it? I didn't have sanitizer so I used soap and water in the airlock anyways. So I'm already hesitant let alone it should have been bottled two or three weeks ago.
One month in primary is not too long, though you took a risk by not using sanitizer. I usually use iodophor but if I was out i would at least use diluted bleach solution in a pinch. Anyway, taste it and if it tastes fine its probably OK.
don't dump it. no way. worst case it is infected, but there is no good reason a 4 week beer is contaminated if you were sanitary. you'll know. there is a good chance you have picked up some oxygen though. if it was left undisturbed it's probably perfectly fine. bottle and enjoy. Cheers.
“I have a brew that I put away to ferment a month ago. Life happens this and that and I forgot it was in there. Should I just dump it?” I personally would not dump it. “I didn't have sanitizer so I used soap and water in the airlock anyways” I always just use plain tap water in my airlocks. There is no requirement that sanitizer be placed in an airlock. “So I'm already hesitant let alone it should have been bottled two or three weeks ago.” I would recommend that you just bottle it now and enjoy it when it is carbonated. Cheers!
Basically what everyone else said, with one caveat. If your airlock got sucked dry (and the soap ended up in the bucket), you might want to taste before bothering to bottle.
How did you sanitize your equipment on brew day if you don't have any sanitizer? If you ever don't have sanitizer for an air lock, use vodka or whisky.
I had sanitizer on brew day but used the rest of what I had and forgot about that I needed some for the airlock when the blow off tube was done during fermenting. So I just used Dawn and water instead which I know is not very smart but I didn't want to use a bleach solution. There was no build up of anything looks fine but it's a little sketchy to me if it even worked
Going to bottle it tomorrow morning. It's a citrus gose. Will see how it turns out. Thanks for advice.
I recommend that you taste it. If you don't detect off flavors, proceed to bottling or kegging. If it tastes infected or oxidized, dump it. I would not consider 1 month too long. Bottling three weeks ago could easily have been too soon. I think a lot of instructions rush you to packaging too quickly.
Since you sanitized the primary you should be good to go. You should have just used plain water or water mixed with liquor in the airlock since you don't want anything in the airlock you wouldn't want to drink. But worst case scenario a couple tablespoons of soapy water on your beer shouldn't hurt that much
Yuck! I don't put anything in the airlock I wouldn't be willing to drink -- ever move a fermenter and see the level change on your airlock? StarSan > cheap booze > filtered water
I'm going to use this post to hopefully answer my question as well...I brewed a brown ale around 3 months ago. I kegged the 5 gallons and had some left over so I let it sit in a growler and a 2.5 gallon container. However, they sat there with with airlock full of water for about a month and a half. I bottled it 3 weeks ago and I cracked one open last night and it was flat as heck. Very little noise when I opened the bottle. I don't think I used too little priming sugar. Did I let it sit too long? It wasn't disturbed at all and they were covered from sunlight.
Probably not enough sugar but it is also possible that your yeast dropped out of suspension and you did a really clean job of racking & bottling and didn't have enough viable yeast in the bottles (unlikely). If you have *any* yeast sediment at all in the bottles, it's probably the sugar.
