My first IPA

Ok guys this is my first IPA and I was not prepared for the massive mess this creates in primary.

The boil was on 11-17 and then I came home from work today, 11-18, to the fermentation pushing through the airlock.

I removed the cap and soaked a towel in sanitized water, folded and covered the airlock.

I can't get to a hardware store until morning to buy a bigger diameter hose to allow burping into a bottle filled with sanitize water.

Will I be ok until morning? I'd hate to lose 5 gal of good IPA to bacteria or something.

Also as a side note I fill my airlocks with cheap vodka to eliminate bacteria.

ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED!!!! Had no idea it would generate so much trub and CO2.

Went from this





To this in less than 24 hrs





I will not make this mistake again... ... Hopefully

Yeah, you'll be fine. At this point, you can even remove the airlock. Short of dropping something inside the carboy, you aren't going to get an infection.

I would suggest putting some sanitized foil loosely over the top instead of a towel.

+1 to sanitized foil

I'm sure opinions vary, but I try to keep most of the hop debris out of the fermenter. Leftover hop gunk will certainly clog up an airlock a whole lot more than just the yeast.

Also, you might just want to make a blowoff tube your standard procedure. It is a lot better to have one and not need it than to need it and not have one.

Thx so much guys. This morning I went out to the hardware store and bought 4 ft of tubing, plugged it into the base of my airlock and have it going into a bottle of sanitized water.

Happily burping away. Glad I avoided a mess and sleepless night.

This way the head space is available for expansion.

yeah, i'd use a blowoff tube from now on...i ALMOST learned the hard way about using an airlock the first couple days

richlong8020 said:

Thx so much guys. This morning I went out to the hardware store and bought 4 ft of tubing, plugged it into the base of my airlock and have it going into a bottle of sanitized water.

Happily burping away. Glad I avoided a mess and sleepless night.

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What is the purpose of using sanitized water with a blow off? sorry. new guy. like to soak in as much info as i can.

jpeebs said:

What is the purpose of using sanitized water with a blow off? sorry. new guy. like to soak in as much info as i can.

Click to expand...

If your fermentation vessels cools quickly it can suck the liquid up, so just a precaution in case that happens.