Blown airlock. Contamination help.

I think it may be fine* considering your fermentation was going that strong and holds more pressure than any exterior pressure. There is actually a form of "open" primary fermentation process without a lid. Just give it some time and see. If you are going to rack to a secondary for dry hopping, you'll know for sure if it's contaminated or not, (so I think).

 

In all probability your beer is fine.

The one thing I personally would be a little bit concerned about is flying insects (e.g., fruit flies) getting into the beer. Hopefully this did not happen here.

Cheers!

 

I'll agree with the others who have posted here in saying that everything should be fine. There's really nothing to do now but continue with the process after putting the air lock back in and see how it turns out. I'd give it a 98% chance of being just fine.

What I used to do when I brewed kit beers is use a large hose in the stop of my ferment container which went into a bucket half full of water until blow off was no longer a problem, then I'd replace the hose with an air lock and continue with the rest of the fermentation. The larger hose in water would still act as an air lock, but the blow off would be contained in the bucket instead of getting the little air lock all cruddy.

Good luck! Let us know how the beer turns out!

 

Keep us posted!

 

Will look forward to updates; but if you had a good robust fermentation going while the top was off, I'd imagine you will be fine. RDWHAHB!!!

 

Is it still actively fermenting? I've had activity slow down after four days and I've also had it churning for over a week. I wouldn't worry too much about the gravity and proceed with your original plan for fermenting.

One hint for your air lock problem. When I started brewing, I had the lids on my air locks blow off frequently. I drilled out the holes in the lid to 1/8" and never had a problem with it blowing off again. I put an air lock with the original cap on when I transfer it to secondary fermentation.

 

Your beer is probably fine. How does the ceiling look?

Regarding rate of fermentation, with a healthy dose of yeast may see about 1pt per hour drop. So 4 days is reasonable although I would not consider it "done." Leave it alone for a few more days at least.

 

Four days sounds appropriate for some yeasts. Especially with the higher amount of sugars you're feeding them.
Am presuming too that since it is such an aggressive fermentation that there's also not much chance that whatever may or may not have come in contact with your krausen would survive or reach the beer below.

 

I think most bugs (bacteria, wild yeasts) landing on Krausen would be happier than pigs in sh*t to be there. What do you suppose would kill them?

ETA: Just remembered...I have actually seen colonies (unknown species) growing on top of Krausen in a blow-off container.

 

Oh, them things. Not knowing if the krausen collapsed as a result of the top blow off. I'm going to place a doubt on many, or enough of them in the air of a basement to make it happen coming into an environment with fermentation like that already in place and also it's a +8abv beer they're going into. They'll be oxygen starved. But, anything is possible and should be.

 

Some brewers like to add their dry hops when there is still a little bit of fermentation left to go.

I personally prefer to wait until all airlock activity is finished; I do not want my dry hop aroma ‘burping’ out through the airlock.

When you add your dry hops is your personal decision. You could add them now with just a bit of fermentation remaining or you can wait until airlock activity stops. Both ways ‘work’.

Cheers!

 

I wait a week into primary to dry hop my IPAs, let the dry hop go 5-7 days, and then bottle, always turns out great. I've never felt like I was losing anything doing it that way, and if I brew on weekends, it just works out better schedule wise for me.