Pow!!

Just put a 1.060 porter in the Ale Pail. I had way more wort than expected (I never boil off what I anticipate). There is less than a gallon of headspace in the fermenter, using a yeast I've never used before (Wyeast 1968 )and I do not have tubing for a blowoff hose. I'll post pictures of the carnage tomorrow. It's inside my ferm chamber, so the collateral damage should be minimal.

I'm taking it your airlock plugged and the stopper + airlock popped out?

This happened to me a few days ago, at 4:15 in the morning. Fermentation had just started getting aggressive the day before and my airlock got full of yeast/krausen. The airlock got plugged up and boom... woke me out of a sound sleep.

Fermcap for foam control? Are you using an airlock? It'll be fine, but if you're using an airlock try and keep it as clean as possible and make sure there is water/booze in place to keep the fruit flies and other nastys out. I have mini-blowouts all the time (never use blowoff) and haven't had in issues. Cleaning up after the yeasties isn't too fun though!

jeff62217 said:

I'm taking it your airlock plugged and the stopper + airlock popped out?

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I just pitched an hour ago. I'm just predicting a mess at this point.

Why not run out and get a blowoff hose before things go wrong?

FatDragon said:

Why not run out and get a blowoff hose before things go wrong?

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Where's the sport in that?

It's 9:15pm and I'm sitting in my jammies. I'm not going anywhere.

Living on the wild side. I like this guys attitude!!!!!!!

If it is inside your fermentation chamber, how many fruit flies get into the fermentation chamber past the rubber door seals? I'd recommend an open ferment (lid, no airlock or even no lid) until the ferment slows. Your bucket might still spill over but that spill should be easier to clean up than an explosive lid removal which will spray krausen all over.

Pitch+ 12 hrs:

Temperature is being held at the low end of the yeast range.

Slow action in the airlock.

No krausen mess as of yet.

Ridire said:

Pitch+ 12 hrs:

Temperature is being held at the low end of the yeast range.

Slow action in the airlock.

No krausen mess as of yet.

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As long as this is true your yeast will work slowly and you probably won't have a mess. My beers sometimes get going so fast that I see a bubble almost every second but rarely any faster.

RM-MN said:

As long as this is true your yeast will work slowly and you probably won't have a mess. My beers sometimes get going so fast that I see a bubble almost every second but rarely any faster.

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That was my thinking in dialing down the temp. I'm in no hurry for this beer to ferment. I'm making this as a Christmas beer. It can take 4 weeks to finish up for all I care.

Loosen the top and then any overflow can escape without an explosion.

Nearly 24 hours in and the airlock is going nuts. Had some starsan bubbles foaming all over the joint earlier but still no sign of krausen coming up through the airlock.

EDIT: and it smells frigging amazing.