Need Recipe.........winner gets some
Hey Deafcone. Your beer should be fine. It was fermenting the whole time the airlock was off, producing plenty of CO2, which is heavier than air. Wine is done in open primaries all the time. Till the fermentation is close to stopping, wine will stay in an open fermenter. Some wine makers don't transfered to glass with an airlock till the SG is below 1.000 Your beer will just be a little short of volume, but should suffer no ill effects from being open overnight. Besides, you probably needed to clean the fridge anyway, right?
Speaking of abrupt fermentation, I started an AG oatmeal stout yesterday, and put it on a yeastcake of Safeale 04 at about 2 PM. I forgot to pull my starting SG, and didn't measure it till last night at 10 PM, when it measured 1.040. My target was 1.056 and I figured my efficiency was way off, till I measured the SG again this morning at 7 AM. It measured 1.010 I frankly couldn't believe it. Even more astonishing, I had no blow off at all. I did use a 1" blow-off tube, as I had an explosion from this yeast last batch and didn't want to scrub down the bathroom again... But no blow-off and an almost complete fermentation in under 24 hours. Glad it was cool, or I would wonder about the off flavors. The temp never got over 72 degrees, at least when I looked.....
Well bottled the brown ale today. turned out fine as everyone said it would. didn't get around to making the mack and jack like I wanted today. next weekend I'll have to make it. Dunkelweizen will get transferred this week to secondary. Razzberry wheat might get transferred this coming weekend, might add more raspberried depending on taste. Down to my last 4 bottles (22 oz) of Oatmeal Sweet Stout.
DC