[uintafly]

My beer brewing career is having a rough day.  I did a Belgian Triple yesterday and everything went fine, except for overshooting my OG due to some miscalculations on my part, but really not a big deal at all. The real trouble started this morning. When I checked on it this morning it was at a good temp (62 degrees) and was bubbling away. But I noticed a few chunks in the stem of my airlock so I decided to clean it out so it won't get clogged.  So I take it out, clean it and sanitize it and as I am putting it back into the fermenter, the rubber gromet breaks through and falls in the wort.    I don't have a spare at home so I rig up the hole to get a tight seal. Seems to work as my airlock is bubbling away again when I leave for work.  I pick up a spare gromet on my lunch break and come home to replace it only to find my lid 4 feet from the fermenter and my basement walls covered in a nice slime.    When I saw it all I really couldn't do anything but laugh.

To top it all off, this is the first batch that I haven't used hop bags so the slime is filled with fine chunks of hop particles. On the bright side I had the door closed so at least my dog wasn't down there drinking away! 

[jeffy]

My beer brewing career is having a rough day.  I did a Belgian Triple yesterday and everything went fine, except for overshooting my OG due to some miscalculations on my part, but really not a big deal at all. The real trouble started this morning. When I checked on it this morning it was at a good temp (62 degrees) and was bubbling away. But I noticed a few chunks in the stem of my airlock so I decided to clean it out so it won't get clogged.  So I take it out, clean it and sanitize it and as I am putting it back into the fermenter, the rubber gromet breaks through and falls in the wort.    I don't have a spare at home so I rig up the hole to get a tight seal. Seems to work as my airlock is bubbling away again when I leave for work.  I pick up a spare gromet on my lunch break and come home to replace it only to find my lid 4 feet from the fermenter and my basement walls covered in a nice slime.    When I saw it all I really couldn't do anything but laugh.

To top it all off, this is the first batch that I haven't used hop bags so the slime is filled with fine chunks of hop particles. On the bright side I had the door closed so at least my dog wasn't down there drinking away! 

And I'm willing to bet it will be your best beer ever!

[pinnah]

 , that is a classic for your brewing career. 
On the bright side, you won't let that happen again, and I will bet with jeffy.

[hopfenundmalz]

These problem beers often turn out much better.   They do!

[bluesman]

The battle tales of a homebrewer...you will be telling this one for a long time to come.

The fix for this, as some of those Belgian strains are turbo-charged, is a blow off tube in a bucket of water. I know you're probably thinking...a day late and a dollar short but it will cure that problem from ever happening again.

At least you laughed because if you didn't laugh you'd probably cry. It should be fine. Let us know how it tastes.

[Mark G]

This will be a great story to tell over a pint of Belgian Triple... It will turn out to be one of your best beers, just wait.

[gordonstrong]

Be thankful it didn't explode next to you...

Beer should be ok. It's early in the fermentation and likely has kraeusen covering up the beer.  Clean the lid, replace the parts, and get back on the horse. 

[tubercle]

This will be a great story to tell over a pint of Belgian Triple... It will turn out to be one of your best beers, just wait.

 These times build character

  BTW, the next time you push the grommet out of the lid just wrap the airlock stem in tinfoil to hold it in place. This has always worked  the 15 or so times it happened to me.

[tschmidlin]

But where are the pics?!  You took some before cleaning up, right?

[euge]

This just goes to show that there is no need for a fermentation lock if you primary in a bucket. Open fermentation...

[bluesman]

Be thankful it didn't explode next to you...

Beer should be ok. It's early in the fermentation and likely has kraeusen covering up the beer.  Clean the lid, replace the parts, and get back on the horse. 

+1

Keep in mind that open fermentation was the normal order of business back in the day.   

I agree that it will be just fine.

[uintafly]

It seems I may have not been the first to do something like this and I hope you guys are correct and it turns out okay.  I should have taken some pics but my wife was on her way home and I didn't want to see what she would say when she saw it all.  Though I guess if I got a picture of her face that would have been pretty good too.

[corkybstewart]

My most hellish batch went wrong from flameout until I finally had it in the kegs, my wife even suggested I pour it out in the yard and start over.  But it did turn out to be one of my finest ever.

[hamiltont]

Might I suggest naming this one "Apollo 13"....     Cheers!!!

[euge]

Not really a batch from hell but I checked my latest test batch and about a quart had leaked out of it. I was gonna bottle but luckily there was a 2.5 gallon corny handy.