How long would lager take to spoil?

[dj_jaimej]

disclaimer.. newbie here...

I've just finished crash cooling my first batch of pressure fermented lager. i checked after about 24 hours and i found i'd accidentally put my spunding valve on the liquid out post of my fermzilla, so about half of my brew had made it's way out of the fermentation vessel and into the bottom of the chest freezer i bought as a fermentation chamber.

Because it's my first brew and was likely going to make mistakes i decided to pump it back in to the fermzilla and carry on with the brew and go through all of the process as i'd likely make more mistakes along the way.

so a few days later when the specific gravity checks had settled i crash cooled the lager down to about 2 degrees, no off smells or tastes at that point. so that was nearly 2 days ago, the lager actually tastes really nice, carbonation levels are good and it seems like i've got a very drinkable lager on my hands.

i'm very aware that the wort will have been exposed to oxygen during the spunding valve debacle and will probably spoil.. on the off chance that it doesn't I'm curious about what sort of timeline i'd be looking at before i'm able to say that somehow i've dodged a bullet and got a good batch of lager, or how long before any issues with an infection would take to present.

i'm going to be bottling soon to get some practice in there (and no doubt make some more mistakes), but i don't see any sense in bottling the entire batch if it's going to spoil.

so how long should i wait before i can have some confidence that the lager will be ok?

 

[Rwilts]

Are you saying you pumped out the bottom of the freezer back into the fermenter??

 

[dj_jaimej]

Yep

 

[Rwilts]

Well. Your either very brave or....

As your in now already I would bottle it all and see what happens. Good practice as you say.

I don't think anyone here would recommend doing what you did due to risk of infection (as you have identified)

Let us know how it works out

 

[jof]

Well, if you cleaned and sterilised your freezer before it's first use, you might get away with it.
But the chances of that are vanishingly small.

 

[dj_jaimej]

Well, if you cleaned and sterilised your freezer before it's first use, you might get away with it.
But the chances of that are vanishingly small.

The freezer was brand new, and was cleaned inside with no-rinse before I used it.

Honestly I was totally expecting it to get infected and be muck, I just continued with the process so I could get a fell for all the other bits and no doubt make more mistakes, I’d rather get the practice and make mistakes on an already spoiled batch than start again and ruin another batch one or two steps down the line.

So really just looking for guidance and opinions on how long any infection would take to show itself as it hasn’t already

 

[DocAnna]

It will likely be fine
.... bacteria require something to feed and live on- new plastic without food debris doesn't really count, and there won't have been time to form a biofilm. There's more risk from the bacteria from your skin but even then it's unlikely as the yeast will produce the alcohol first and suppress the bacteria ... probably.

Anyway - you could always expand on this and just ferment in the freezer - go with a cool ship approach to brewing ... (I'm not entirely being serious but hey if the Belgians think it's a good idea. https://www.allagash.com/coolship/

 

[dj_jaimej]

Thanks for the feedback. That coolship brewing looks a bit much . 1-3 years to ferment as well. I’ll stick with my 3 days pressure fermenting I think. Just need to try keep it in the vessel next time

 

[YeastFace]

There's always this to try too

 

[jof]

Isn't that how they make prison hooch?

 

[MashBag]

I am with @DocAnna.

It'll be fine. I have probably done worse.

Enjoy your beer. That's what it is for.