I purchased an Alt Extract kit from Northern Brewing a year and a half ago. Brought new yeast and brewed it two days ago. Put the glass carboy in a cold dark corner of my basement and the second day it was bubbling fine, checked it this morning and found it bubbled up and fouled the airlock. I replaced the airlock with a clean one and am hoping for the best. Did I do something wrong (other than waiting a year and a half to brew), think it will be OK?
It was probably one (or both) of two things: 1. Your fermentation temp was too high, or 2. You didn't have enough head space in your carboy. You did the right thing by cleaning the airlock and replacing it. Your beer will most likely turn out fine assuming you did everything correctly up to this point.
What yeast did you use? You should be ok , didnt do anything wrong, but 1.5 year old extract might be a problem if it wasn't stored properly. I made this Kit once (didn't like it that much)
I'm sure it will be fine. Infection problems are often overstated. If you are using healthy yeast, they can overpower most bugs, as long as you are not trying to age it for a long time. How big is your carboy? You need at least a gallon of headspace in a carboy to use an airlock. Otherwise you will need a blowoff hose instead, which will lead to some loss of beer. I prefer buckets - they are easier to move, not breakable, and cheap.
Thanks, five gallon carboy. Had no idea where to fill the carboy up till- filled it to the beginning of the neck. I got a state of the art yeast, with the popable bag. Anybody use any kits from the same supplier that they recommend?
The only NB kit that I've ever brewed is the "Patersbier" extract kit. I really liked it. It's a perfect beer snob lawnmower beer and a good gateway beer for your non-craft beer experienced/ macro-beer loving friends.
Get a 6.5 gallon carboy, a 6.5 gallon ale pale type bucket, or a 6 gallon Better Bottle. (I don't think BBs are available in a 6.5 gallon size.) A 5 gallon carboy is not big enough for 5 gallon batches, even with a blowoff tube instead of an airlock.
Yeast sounds healthy. Extract is probably fine. Your carboy is too small for a 5 gallon batch. I would recommend a bigger carboy, a blow off hose, or smaller batches.
"fouled the airlock"... "state of the art yeast, with the popable bag" Again, what was your ferment temp and how did you measure it? The "state of the art yeast" was a liquid yeast from Wyeast, but which strain was it? /what was the number? Most strains are OK between 60-75*F You will be fine unless you are growing tomatoes in your basement or made a huge starter (both of which I doubt) next time use a bigger fermenter/blowoff...welcome back
