I made a kettle sour and added guava in secondary. Everything was going well for a week. I went out of town for the weekend and noticed my carboy stopper and airlock about three feet away on the floor. Beer looks like it may be contaminated... thoughts on what to do?
Could I add some campden drops or reboil? Or is it ruined?
Guava will do that. My first guava ferment went so much harder than that. A couple of days before leaving on a two week trip (with very little pre-planning due the reason for the trip) i had started a carboy full of guava mash. The night before departure the airlock clogged with foam and sometime around two a.m. the house boomed and i thought a handgun had gone off in the other room. The roof, walls and door of our mud room were painted with guava mash, and our departure for the airport was too close to even clean up. It took serious scrubbing when we got back. SO yeah, guava will do that. But it also makes a real fine melomel.
It usually happens with strong fermentation when the krausen clogs the airlock, it is then ejected with the pressure.
If the fermentation was still active when you returned, the beer might not be contaminated due to gas escaping the container. What makes you think it is contaminated? Is there anything unusual floating on the surface?
You can always add campden drops, but if a contamination already occur, there is no way to know if it will be enough to salvage the batch.
It could also be fine, I would continue the brewing process, smell and taste the brew from time to time to make sure there are no changes compared to what it is supposed to be.
It happened to me once, a full day without airlock and the batch turned out great. Keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best, but do not drop the batch before trying.
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