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I am new to the world of the craft beer, and new to this community too!

I'm developing my first liters of beer, and so far, I have obtained results that have fascinated me! I think i will never gonna buy another beer! At the moment i am using the American Pale ale recipe.

I guess like many of you, these first elaborations are trial and error, and in the second batch (of 40lts) I had a problem: one of the fermentation tanks does not close properly, therefore the airlock doesnt work very well, say that no air is in excess, but not sealed.

  • This can spoil the production of this tank?
  • I have to have a different treatment with the beer of this tank?
  • Will the beer be too rusty ?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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  • Do you have any spare carboy?
    – Philippe
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 1:37
  • @Philippe Hi! The fermentation tank has an airlock and a faucet to fill the bottles after fermentation. I dont know what is "spare carboy" (i cant get a good spanish translation).
    – melli-182
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 12:24
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    A carboy is usually a 5 gallon glass jug. Spare means extra or an additional one not in use
    – Escoce
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 15:27
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    In spanish it would be a "GARRAFÓN" or "Damajuana" of 20L or 23L like this one Carboy.
    – Philippe
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 15:46
  • Perhaps more information about your process could help us give you a better advice. Is it a Coopers pastic bucket that you use as a fermentation tank? Do you measure gravity or do you just bottle after a certain time?
    – Philippe
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 16:13

3 Answers 3

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Don't worry so much. Put some sanitized foil over the top and wrap with a rubber band. If the beer is chilled to pitching temp before being transferred to the fermenter, air locks are absolutely unnecessary to keep beer from being contaminated.

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This could be bad for the beer that's in there now. If fermentation vessel doesn't have a good seal the beer could be contaminated. It's not guaranteed to spoil though, it might turn out ok. It is also possible that if you mess with the seal now, you could accidentally introduce contamination that wouldn't have taken hold otherwise. Without knowing more of the specifics, I don't know if I would recommend messing with it to try and get a better seal or not. You'll have to decide if you want to try and get a better seal now, or wait until next time. Regardless of what you do, this beer has a much higher chance of contamination than an ideal situation.

You don't have to treat this beer too much differently. Let it ferment until it reaches your final gravity and bottle it. Try a little bit early on and see how it's shaping up. Brew Your Own provides a good article on contamination and spoilage. If it is contaminated then you'll deal with it, but there's not much point in worrying too much about it now.

One last thing, if you have a keg, or a secondary vessel I would suggest not using it. If this batch has picked up some contaminate you could introduce that to your other equipment and make problems for yourself in the future.

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  • Why not move the beer to a secondary vessel that would have a good seal/airlock? It would solve the problem, specially if it is done before the end of fermentation (after fermentation I would just bottle).
    – Philippe
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 15:59
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    My worry would be that the beer could already be contaminated, and some types of contamination are difficult to eliminate once they take hold. I would, personally, rather consign this batch to its fate than risk future contamination of my equipment.
    – BBS
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 16:05
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In the past few days i reached the end of the process: drink beer!

I can say that the taste was good (i am not professional), but it was not as clear as previous beers, this was expected since i only let it ferment for 7 days at 20-25 celcius (then the sediment did not fall completely).

Now another batch, wich was cooked at same time is in bottles waiting to reach a suficient maduration time.

Conclusion, as stated in many articules, the fermentation its a really important phase for our beer, it not only generates the alcohol, but also le the sediment to decant, producing an much more clear beer, with less visible particles and impurities.

Thanks everyone for the help!!!

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