Airlock contunually overflowing...

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Ed134

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Yesterday I brewed a "Holiday Ale" kit from my LHBS. I finished at 3pm and put the fermenter(Brewers Best Ale Pail) in the basement(67F). I checked before work today(5AM) for any activity, there was none. When I came home from work today(3PM, 24hrs after pitching), I encountered a fermenter that has overflown through the airlock and one side of the bucket. I called my LHBS and they recommended cleaning and replacing the airlock, which I did, twice.

I searched the forums and put a blowoff tube in place of the airlock. The fermenter is still producing a steady stream of cream colored foam(krausen?) into the tube and the lid is slightly domed and bubbling a bit. I was careful to top off both fermenters to 5gal, not over.

Is there anything else I can/should do? I have another lid(maybe its a bad seal), should I swap it out? Do I just ride this out and clean up the mess after the vigorus fermentation stops? Is this good/bad for my beer?

I also brewed a second batch after that(Rye Porter extract kit) and that seems to be doing fine, activity in the airlock, but no overflowing.

I used White Labs liquid yeast in both batches, no starter, just shook well and dumped into the cooled wort.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions/help!
 
Ask your LHBS if they carry Fermcap S or any other food safe anti foaming agents. Two drops per gallon into the fermenter will help keep that krausen in check.
 
with everything coming out of the fermenter, it is unlikely that anything could get in that would compromise the beer. SHould be all set.

BTW, how big a fermenter are you using? Sounds like you need something bigger.
 
Keep an eye on the temperature- it sounds like it got pretty warm and explosive!

In a 67 degree room, a fermenting beer could easily be 75-78 degrees due to the active fermentation producing heat. If you have a stick on thermometer on the fermenter, check and make sure it's under 70 degrees. If it is, no worries. If it's over, especially way over, some action should be taken.
 
aiptasia said:
Ask your LHBS if they carry Fermcap S or any other food safe anti foaming agents. Two drops per gallon into the fermenter will help keep that krausen in check.

Are there any concerns on whether or not the Fermcap is sanitary? I put a few drops in my starter boil last night, but I didn't know if there was a chance for infection if you add it during fermentation.
 
Im using the Brewer's Best Ale Pail(6.5gal, filled to 5gal). I have a Rye Porter kit that I also brewed yesterday in an identical Ale Pail, also with White Labs liquid yeast, right next to the overflowing fermenter that's doing fine(action in the airlock, no overflows). Rye Porter: WLP005 British Ale Yeast 65-70F optimum, Holiday Ale: WLP013 London Ale Yeast 66-71F optimum. If temperature was the culprit, wouldn't both be overflowing? Could the spices in the kit(cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg) added for the last 5mins of the boil be adding too much sugar?
 
Im using the Brewer's Best Ale Pail(6.5gal, filled to 5gal). I have a Rye Porter kit that I also brewed yesterday in an identical Ale Pail, also with White Labs liquid yeast, right next to the overflowing fermenter that's doing fine(action in the airlock, no overflows). Rye Porter: WLP005 British Ale Yeast 65-70F optimum, Holiday Ale: WLP013 London Ale Yeast 66-71F optimum. If temperature was the culprit, wouldn't both be overflowing? Could the spices in the kit(cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg) added for the last 5mins of the boil be adding too much sugar?

What are the temperatures of the beer (not the room)? That's the crucial thing to note- the rest (like room temperature) don't matter.

The reason one can be overflowing and the other not can be due to temperature, pitching rate, yeast health, the OG of the beer, ingredients, and simply just different yeast strains.

There isn't too much sugar, but in any case there is no sugar in spices.
 
Stupid stick on thermometer isn't working.

Rye Porter OG: 1.057 WLP005 High Flocc, 67-74% Atten
Holiday Ale(problem) OG: 1.057 WLP013 Med. Flocc, 67-75% Atten

Both White Labs tubes were well before expiration date and brought up to room temp over several hours.

Not worried about using the blow off tube, but worried about leaking out of lid and the lid is bubbled up. I don't want to wake up to a loud boom and beer all over the basement.
 
The stupid stick on thermometer may be working but you might be off the scale on the hot side. If you use a blow off tube of a size large enough to evacuate the extra krausen you shoulc not be worried about blowint the lid.

Room temperature? Low to mid sixties WORT temperature is optimum for most ales. High sixties room temperature will allow the wort to get too warm.

Swamp cooler - Google it!
 
Wort/beer leaking out of side of fermenter is cool to the touch. Previously fermented 5 extract batches using the basement, constant 67F, without incident. I'll see what the temp is on the outside walls(lows in the low 20s tonight), maybe it'll be a few degrees colder there. Is this excessive foaming damaging my beer?
 
You're fine, don't sweat it. Just make sure the airlock doesn't get to gunky, if it dries out it may let pressure build inside. Even if it blows off, the amount of CO2 being produced will keep most stuff out. Just wait it out and clean/sanitize/replace the airlock when it slows. The lid usually will "bubble" out a bit, especially when using a blow off with a high water level on the blow off end, just takes more pressure to force air out and that causes the lid to deform a bit upwards.

Really though, don't sweat it. I came home to the same thing tonight, I knew I should have swapped out the batch I will bottle tomorrow to free up the blow off but got lazy and just went with an airlock on yesterday's Kolsch. Bubbling all over but that's happened before. Never once ruined the beer. I would think that worst case the airlock pops off, throw a trash bag over the fermenter just in case to keep the spray in check.
 
Wort/beer leaking out of side of fermenter is cool to the touch. Previously fermented 5 extract batches using the basement, constant 67F, without incident. I'll see what the temp is on the outside walls(lows in the low 20s tonight), maybe it'll be a few degrees colder there. Is this excessive foaming damaging my beer?

Not the foaming but the high temps will ruin your beer. High temps will create off flavors and fusel alcohol.
 
If you want to take your brewing from making beer to making great beer, you must control the fermentation temperature of the beer. For most ales you want the maximum temperature of the wort to stay in the mid sixty degree range. There are exceptions - for instance - Saisons which need higher temperatures.
 
Thanks for the advice/encouragement everyone.

The blowoff is around 5'(it was the tube that came with the autosiphon), would a shorter tube be better?

Saw the post about putting it in a tub of ice water, would this be beneficial, or would it be better to just leave it alone? I have to go to bed in a couple of hours so i don't have all night to monitor the temp.
 
Ed134 said:
Thanks for the advice/encouragement everyone. The blowoff is around 5'(it was the tube that came with the autosiphon), would a shorter tube be better? Saw the post about putting it in a tub of ice water, would this be beneficial, or would it be better to just leave it alone? I have to go to bed in a couple of hours so i don't have all night to monitor the temp.

Ice bath may be a good idea for next time. Don't do it now. The swing in temp may put the yeast to sleep.
 
It's really hard advice to take at this point, you've invested much time into making it. However, what's done is done, not much to do at this point but wait till it's finished. Rest assured it will be fine. Don't get yourself all worked up over nothing and don't over think it.

RDWAHAHB (?) is a saying for a reason.
 
Thanks. It's slowing down, more of a trickle through the blowoff than a steady stream I had earlier. Looking through the fermenter with a flashlight for a second I saw the liquid line was a little over the 4gal mark.
 
What size bucket are you using?

6.5gal Ale Pail, was filled with 5gal of wort at pitching time, now it looks like 4.25 gal.

Rapid fermentation stopped this morning, no krausen flowing through the tube. On bucket thermometer reading 70 now, no reading last night thought it was broke, obviously it was too high to read.

What does this mean for my beer? Did the high temps in the fermenter damage it?
 
If it really went that high (off the scale), tempwise, that would be unfortunate. At best you'll just have unwanted fruity esters that you may or may not care for, but may age out over time. Worst case, and much more serious, would be the creation of fusel alcohol that will taste like nail polish remover and result in splitting headaches. All you can do at this point is wait and see. And think about what you might do to better keep your fermentation temps under control for your next batch.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I wish I knew what went wrong so I can avoid doing it again in the future.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe the wort was too warm,80F, when I pitched, but that's what the instructions from my LHBS recommended. I've brewed 4 previous extract kits in the past with the same methods and never had the overflowing problem I experienced yesterday. Oh well, at least I still have beer. Since it appears I lost around 3/4gal of wort, should I deduct some of the 5oz of priming sugar included with the kit?
 
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