[Joshua Hughes]

Question about active fermentation. My second solo brew. My carboy and air lock have been going nuts. I brewed Thursday evening and it’s still going strong. Last night I had to take out the air lock and clean/re-save itinerary since it was full of beer. Today it’s full again. What do I do? I should have done a blow off tube when I put it in the fermenter. Do I need to do that now or it my serious action almost over. It’s only a 1 gallon batch. On a side note the beer I cleaned out smelled like good hoppy beer lol

[TANSTAAFB]

 If it's still pushing krausen into your airlock you could stick a piece of tubing over the center post of your airlock and run it into a small jar of sanitizer.

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[joe_meadmaker]

If it's still pushing krausen into your airlock you could stick a piece of tubing over the center post of your airlock and run it into a small jar of sanitizer.

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Exactly what I have done a couple times.

[Joshua Hughes]

Thanks for the help guys.

[Joshua Hughes]

Cleaned it last night as of this morning looks good. Past the violent stuff

[reverseapachemaster]

Are you fermenting in a 4l wine jug? If so this is going to be a chronic issue for you because there just isn't enough headspace with one gallon of fermenting beer in one of those jugs. Your options are to use a larger fermentation vessel, hook up a blow off tube, or use a foam suppressant like whirlfloc.

You can keep doing that you are doing but eventually you are going to have a fermentation violent enough that it will push thick krausen into the entrance of the airlock and clog it up enough that the airlock will blow out. I don't mean the airlock and stopper will pop out. I mean a geyser of beer that will reach your ceiling. I speak from experience--on more than one occasion.

[ravenwater]

Oh yeah! Speaking of speaking from experience, that experience of a blowout due to clogging was a doozie. I cleaned hops material and krausen off the ceiling. A lower basement ceiling yes, but still - the ceiling. In continuing to brew you will want to think about having adequate head space in the fermentation vessel and using a blow-off tube instead of an airlock, at least until your initial krausen action subsides. I actually took to keeping the blow-off tube in place the whole time rather than switching to airlock unless I really feel I have reason to more finely monitor at end of fermentation to see if I have any CO2 pushing out - I can view the pressure building in the airlock before it bubbles. But I generally see no reason to use an airlock, I just leave the tube in place and allow adequate time for the beer to finish, perhaps checking gravity to confirm complete fermentation.

[TANSTAAFB]

I am so glad my exploding airlock experience happened inside my old wine fridge chamber. Still a PITA to clean up but way better than Spider Pig all over the ceiling!

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[ravenwater]

TANSTAAFB - You got lucky with your unluckiness, I guess one could say. Definitely easier to clean the inside of a fermentation chamber though still for sure a PITA. When we sold the house I had to repaint the ceiling where my beer blew up.

[Joshua Hughes]

Are you fermenting in a 4l wine jug? If so this is going to be a chronic issue for you because there just isn't enough headspace with one gallon of fermenting beer in one of those jugs. Your options are to use a larger fermentation vessel, hook up a blow off tube, or use a foam suppressant like whirlfloc.

I’m not sure it was labeled as a 1 gallon carboy when I bought it.

[ravenwater]

Are you fermenting in a 4l wine jug? If so this is going to be a chronic issue for you because there just isn't enough headspace with one gallon of fermenting beer in one of those jugs. Your options are to use a larger fermentation vessel, hook up a blow off tube, or use a foam suppressant like whirlfloc.


reverseapachemaster -  Did you by chance mean Fermcap for foam control in fermenter or is there a function for Whirlfloc that I'm not aware of for krausen control?

[Copymutt]

The worst blow out Ive experienced was 5 gal. Of , are you ready, “BEET BEER”
This was a series of amateur guest brewers for a Brewhaha. The girl was dead set on using beets. I figured, yeah theres a lot of sugar, so let her do it. The morning after transfer the garage floor looked like a murder scene.  Huge blood bath. We drew an outline of a body around it. Eventually got bottled and judged. Lets just say “ya gotta like beets”

[Joshua Hughes]

The worst blow out Ive experienced was 5 gal. Of , are you ready, “BEET BEER”
This was a series of amateur guest brewers for a Brewhaha. The girl was dead set on using beets. I figured, yeah theres a lot of sugar, so let her do it. The morning after transfer the garage floor looked like a murder scene.  Huge blood bath. We drew an outline of a body around it. Eventually got bottled and judged. Lets just say “ya gotta like beets”

😷 🤣