Airlock question. HELP!

should I remove must from my airlock if it is half full the second day of fermenting? I fear I may have over filled the Carboy? Supernoob here, so any help would be much appreciated....Thanks P.S. also the lid of the airlock should be tight on the airlock right?

Are you saying you are having a blowwoff???? You have krauzen filling your airlock?

If so, remove it, clean it, and then, rig up an airlock blowoff tube...take your bottling wand hose or other suitable one, put a small slit in it...Heat it for a few minutes in hot water to soften, then do this.





One thing that I do to all my airlocks is saw or break off the little criss/cross of plastic on the bottom of them.

then you'll be fine.

If must got into the airlock you should dump it, clean it, and refill it. If it's a two-part airlock the plastic cap should snap on tightly.

I can't say if you've overfilled your carboy, but if the must is foaming badly you may need to replace the stopper & airlock with a blowoff tube until the fermentation settles down.

I really dont know if it is right or wrong but i keep it there. I mean to say that if for some reason my air lock loses water i refill with vodka. I dont move it for fear of some contamination. I am also really bad at this and forget to us a blow off tube. Hope this helps. If anything dont worry youll probable be fine.

Ok, thanks guys.. I didn't put water in it initially(like I said supernoob) so would it be fine to just keep that must in there to act as the original water / vodka? I mean its only half way full. I wish I could just post a pic but don't have enough posts yet.

Keeping that must in the airlock would be a bad idea. The point of the airlock is to keep undesirable nasties out of your must. With the sugary water mix in your airlock, the nasties you are trying to avoid could take hold and get into the must if you have suck back.

If you didn't have anything in your airloack at all, then you'll definitely want to clean it out and put a sanitized liquid in there to act as a buffer. I use cheap vodka, and haven't had any issues, since the alcohol adds an additional barrier against foreign nasties. Just make sure to sanitize your air lock before you reinstall it, otherwise you're asking for trouble. I had a minor foam up some time last night, actually, and some of my pyment made it to my airlock. Not enough to have a full blowout, but enough to prompt me to change out my airlock with a fresh one. As a bonus, I had a nice little shot of grape flavored vodka to make up for the annoyance of having to clean my airlock. It tasted delicious, in case anybody was wondering. ;~)

Just FYI, you want to use a sanitizing liquid that's safe to drink in the airlock. If the temperature drops in your fermenter the air pressure inside may drop, sucking liquid out of the airlock and into your must.

Some people use plain water but if it picks up any bacteria or wild yeast from the atmosphere and it gets sucked into the fermenter it could infect the must. Vodka will kill anything that falls into it. Some people use metabisulfite solution, but it loses its sanitizing properties over time and must be replaced.

Just happened upon this post, but lots of good info. Thanks, all!

--R

I also use cheap vodka to sanitize and fill my airlocks. Its cheap and is a very effective sanitizer that keeps working in there as fermentation continues. Get that thing cleaned out otherwise like others said you are asking for a possible disaster with airborne bugs.