Ever been covered by airlock blowout?

I've only done about 20 batches and last night was my first crazy fermentation with some Danstar-Windsor in an Altbier. I have never needed a blow off tube and I didn't have supplies to rig one up. So I thought I had bled the pressure off the airlock and went to remove it, but the airlock was clogged so the pressure was built up before the airlock and when I went to twist it off, KERRRSPLAT! It puked on me big time.
Any good explosion stories?

i pulled a disconnect to get a face full of beer once.

penaut butter jelly time! peanut butter jelly time!

Thread titles like that have mandatory picture requirements.

No, but one of my batches hit the perfect balance of pressure and krausen formation. A fine mist of brew was spraying out of the airlock and the kitchen was not quite foggy.

when ever i've had a popping airlock it always seems to happen with Belgian yeast. usually makes a mess all over the floor.

Zen_Brew said:

Thread titles like that have mandatory picture requirements.

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+1

pics or shens!

Hasn't happened to me. I have had the airlock come off a couple times, but it's never gotten on me. In fact, the worst one just spilled krausen on the floor, the second time, it seemed to just want the airlock off. It pushed the krausen up to the airlock, pushed it out of the carboy, and fell back down.

And I do believe they were both Belgian yeasts.

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Sorry, didn't take any pictures until after the spew was cleaned up.

nope.. i use a blow off

Hophead75 said:

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you, sir have had "a little to much." why don't you go home and sleep it off?

Hophead75 said:

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Sorry, didn't take any pictures until after the spew was cleaned up.

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Nice pics...I have done that a few times. And to my surprise....SWMBO did get over it.

Can't say I've had that happen from a fermentor (knocks on wood), but I have had a roommate open up a two-year-old bottle of belgian brown that sprayed a wide, long stripe of foam from his navel up to my kitchen light fixture.

i had a tense moment with the Wee Heavy that just went into secondary... it was very quick to start and i went into the city for a few hours, came home to a stream of foam pouring out the top. Luckily i had a tubing laying around that fit the airlock opening, sanitized and slipped it on and dumped it in a bucket, which caught quite a bit.

I came on here to read other experiences, promptly returned to my fermenter, took out the airlock and cut off the "cross" section on the bottom of it to prevent a clog. I must say thank you to HBT

I had an airlock clog and the lid on the bucket was swollen and sounded something between the sound of a teakettle and a jet engine, just not as loud. I slowly wiggled the rubber bung to release pressure. That was a disaster about to happen. The house filled with gas too and set off the smoke alarms, carbon dioxide sensors I guess. I had just gone to bed for the night and the alarms went off. I had to leave the doors and windows open all night to stop them from going off. That happened this past summer.

I shot a geyser of Cider out of a corny keg in my face and all over the ceiling. I filled the corny so full the cider was up to the "gas in" tube. When I pulled of the CO2 disconnect I was promptly notified by my keg that it has a slow sealing poppet valve. It came out like a laser!

jpsloan said:

Can't say I've had that happen from a fermentor (knocks on wood), but I have had a roommate open up a two-year-old bottle of belgian brown that sprayed a wide, long stripe of foam from her navel up to my kitchen light fixture.

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I took the liberty to edit for our reading pleasure.

...out of her naval...

I have had an unfortunate encounter with a carboy volcano. It happened when I added some dry champagne yeast (not re-hydrated) to a barleywine to deal with a stuck fermentation. I added the yeast and reached for my airlock, all of a suuden I had an eight inch geyser erupting from my carboy. I put my hand (already thoroughly cleaned) on the hole to stop it. It took me twenty minutes to slowly release the pressure and prevent more loss. I ended up losing almost a gallon of precious barleywine.

The barleywine ended up tasting great.

mordantly said:

i pulled a disconnect to get a face full of beer once.

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Yup, same here. I took a pale ale shower a few months ago. I don't know what was stuck in the poppet, but it seemed to remedy itself after I put the disconnect back on and removed it again.

yeah, the gods sometimes set us up for their own enjoyment.

HA, just this morning I got a face full of krausen after I was dressed and ready to go to work. I had no time to change...so I smell like a brewery...

It'll never happen again, because after that incident I started always using a blowoff for primary.

lunchbox said:

HA, just this morning I got a face full of krausen after I was dressed and ready to go to work. I had no time to change...so I smell like a brewery...

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brewers are dedicated! i processed beverage containers at a recycling facility for 2 years. i know all about the nastiest "moldy brewery" smell. i used to be able to identify the beer by the mold in the container. you meet all the street-folk, and know everyones drinking habits. if only big brother ran them...

Recipie is bouncing betty brown ale (extract)...

Using nottingham, the krausen blocked the airlock, blew the lid off, broke the glass shelf, launched a clown figurine from the shelf into the beer, and soaked the walls, table, floor, ceiling, and kegerator.

I am going to start using a blow-off because it just seems easier.

https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=29846&cat=1

Fished the clown out... beer tastes good...

Yeah, I did the same as the OP with an early batch of Stout. I pulled the airlock out of the stopper (intending to insert a blowoff tube) and took a load to the face like I haven't experienced since prison. Made a mess on the ceiling too, and all the wife said was, "you're painting that."

That was a year ago and I still haven't painted it.

zinger084 said:

Recipie is bouncing betty brown ale (extract)...

Using nottingham, the krausen blocked the airlock, blew the lid off, broke the glass shelf, launched a clown figurine from the shelf into the beer, and soaked the walls, table, floor, ceiling, and kegerator.

I am going to start using a blow-off because it just seems easier.

https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=29846&cat=1

Fished the clown out... beer tastes good...

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I'd think the clown would have made it taste at least a little funny. :cross:

zinger084 said:

Recipie is bouncing betty brown ale (extract)...

Using nottingham, the krausen blocked the airlock, blew the lid off, broke the glass shelf, launched a clown figurine from the shelf into the beer, and soaked the walls, table, floor, ceiling, and kegerator.

I am going to start using a blow-off because it just seems easier.

https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=29846&cat=1

Fished the clown out... beer tastes good...

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You can't even make story up like that, glad you had the picture to back it up:fro:

You might be a homebrewer if . . . ?


TL

P.S. Zinger, that picture is friggin' amazing. I'm waiting for Oscar the Grouch to pop up out of that pail.