Irish Stout issues?

Hey guys!

Newb here. This is my first batch so I'm extra anxious.

To start off, I'll just say I thought I cleaned and sanitized everything correctly. I used star-san on everything, etc. (I think) I also followed the Brewers Best Irish Stout ingredient kit well.

OK, so here's my problem. Pictures are attached. Picture 1 is right after it was put in the 6.5 gallon carboy. There was 5 gallons total in there. Picture 2 is about 24 hours later. Picture 3 is about 12 hours later. Pictures 4 and 5 are about an hour after that. If you can't tell, pictures 4 and 5, the carboy is completely full.

It seems like the fermentation is going crazy fast. I was worried the carboy would/will explode. The cap popped off so I rinsed it off, sanitized it and put it back on.

Should I be worried?

Thanks!

looks fine to me. Let it go. When the foam subsides put the air lock back on and let it sit for a bit.

captwalt said:

looks fine to me. Let it go. When the foam subsides put the air lock back on and let it sit for a bit.

Click to expand...

Thanks for responding! I think/hope everything is under control now. It's calmed down. I just had a minor freak out. Whoops!

You should use a blow off tube...search for it...lots of threads about one.

The stopper will pop out long before the carboy explodes. Look into rigging a blowoff tube for the next time. "Out of control" fermentations that lead to blowoffs can happen for many reasons: high OG, too little headspace, too high of a fermentation temperature, and finally some strains of yeast just go nuts. I've found that for the most part, fermenting on the cooler side keeps blowoffs under control. Nevertheless I use a blowoff tube on pretty much every batch.

I miss the days when I used to freak out too! The co2 will continue to push out anything that might have gotten in there and by now the PH is probably somewhere around 4.5 or lower so there's little chance that anything will be growing in there if anything did get in there, which is highly doubtful. Just continue on with the plan and everything should be great. Also, if your starting gravity was 1.050 or higher, I'd let that stout sit for at least a month in the bottle or keg before you try your first one. You'll be happy you did, these things are so much better at a month after packaging than they are at 2 weeks trust me.