Foam?

I just setup my first batch of beer ever yesterday. I went the coopers route to keep thing simple the first time, and when I woke this morning, I checked the carboy and noticed a bunch of foam coming out of the airlocker. And the air locker looks like it is filled with beer. I did a little bit of google searching to see if this is normal, and I found a thread stating this was normal for ales, and if I understand correctly all coopers are ales. Anyways, I took some pictures to see anyone could give me a definitive answer on the situation.

You're about to have a rocket there. You need to replace the airlock with a blow off hose, a piece of tubing running into a cup of water.

The "foam" is normal - however you're gonna want to put a blow off tube on that until the krausen subsides. Google it - blow off tube.

Just make sure to put your most expensive vase directly above the airlock and you'll be fine.

+1 on blow off tube. Also would add that once your blow off is no longer necessary, you want to have clean sanitizer or spirits in your airlock. If you get some contaminants in the airlock it's okay... but you get too much stuff in there and it can become a vehicle for contaminants into your carboy. Happy brewing man.

Welcome to brewing my friend! That is called krausen. It is the foam from active fermentation. With the size of your carboy you will have this happen to you many times. Construct a blow off hose. You can either take out the "guts" of your airlock, and slip a hose over the plastic piece, or just jam a hose into the stopper of your carboy. You want as little blockage as possible, so cut out any obstructions in your airlock.

Like BarleyWater said, you should set up a blow off line. I would recomend putting either a little bit of cheap vodka or sanitizer in that water just to help prevent the slight chance of an infection. I usually use a blow off for the first few days of fermentation just to be a step ahead incase something like this happens. Its not a huge deal and as long as you take care of it ASAP, your beer will be just fine.

Also, welcome to the obsession.

Also,

Welcome to the wonderful albeit sometimes messy world of home brewing! What an introduction.
I sure hope you get your blow off line installed in time. Good luck and no matter what happens, keep brewing!

ipatch,

I'm a new brewer also, when I brewed my first batch last week... the same exact thing happened to me. I didn't have any large diameter tubing, so I took my 3/8" tubing (sanitized it first!) that came with my kit, and i stuck it in the airlock (fit just right). The other end I put in a bucket, with some sanitized water solution in the bottom.

Aaron

aaronard said:

ipatch,

I'm a new brewer also, when I brewed my first batch last week... the same exact thing happened to me. I didn't have any large diameter tubing, so I took my 3/8" tubing (sanitized it first!) that came with my kit, and i stuck it in the airlock (fit just right). The other end I put in a bucket, with some sanitized water solution in the bottom.

Aaron

Click to expand...

hey thanks for the advise.

cheers.