Airlock is bulging and overflowing

Doing my first extract brew in a 6.5 gallon plastic bucket
Making a hefeweizen with WLP300 Hefeweizen liquid yeast
There is 6 inches 'free' from the level of the wort to the top of the lid

I was expecting active fermentation from reading up

In reality
0-24 hours - Not much activity
24-36 - Some bubbling in the airlock
36+ - Bucket is bulging, thick krausen, some overflowing over the 3 piece airlock and outside the bucket

There is a small plastic lid on top of the 3 piece airlock
Should I unscrew this and relieve a bit of pressure so the C02 can get out or should I just leave everything alone ?
The main lid is still sealed and I pushed down a bit more to ensure a tight seal

There really isn't too much of a mess (a few ounces) but if it's likely to get worse and I can do something about it now, let me know
thanks

richfei said:

There really isn't too much of a mess (a few ounces) but if it's likely to get worse and I can do something about it now, let me know
thanks

Click to expand...

Not much of a mess...yet. You need a blow off tube on that puppy.

Get some tubing and fit it to the air lock and the other end and drop it in sanitizer or vodka. You to set up a blow off tube. Congrats on the active fermentation!

if the airlock is clogged I would install a blowoff tube. Basiclly a large diameter tube that has one end in the frementer and the other end in a buket of water. It acts as an aiorlock and allows the krausen overflow to empty into the water bucket.

Probably won't need the blow off since there is still 6" of head space. But... If the krausen builds up to the lid it'll clog the air lock, then blow the lock or lid off spewing your beer everywhere. Tubing is cheap, leftover water jugs are free.

At this point, do I just remove the plastic airlock completely and just use new tubing into the cork and out into a sanitized jar of tap water ?

If so, was there any point in using the airlock to begin with, wouldn't I be best served by going straight to this jar ?

If it clogs ... the co2 will continue to be produced. Eventually it will find the path of least resistance and come out all at once. Im sure you can picture what that means. A blow off tube is needed for sure.

richfei said:

At this point, do I just remove the plastic airlock completely and just use new tubing into the cork and out into a sanitized jar of tap water ?

If so, was there any point in using the airlock to begin with, wouldn't I be best served by going straight to this jar ?

Click to expand...

Yes and yes...I always start with a blow off. Install airlock after active fermentation stops.

yes, just pull the airlock and insert the tubing in its place. in the future you can just start off with a blow off tube if you like. Its really just a bigger version of an airlock. The advantage of the smaller one is that it takes up less space and will also bubble easier as it doesnt require as much pressure to push thru the smaller amout of water.

Made an airlock. Main lid hasn't blown off but I have heard stories like that. If that occurs and the wort is exposed for a day, does that ruin the batch ?

should be enough CO2 in the bucket to protect it. Can't speak for all the stuff that got yeast and hop covered from the blow up though