Crazy fermentation in secondary...

You guys have seen the pics...the little space in my 5 gallon carboy in not completely filled with foam.

Should I attach a hose and set up a blow off or should I just leave it alone?

There isn't anything in the airlock yet but its not looking good. Now I'm seeing little chunks of yeast swimming around.

It's not going to hurt anything to hook up a blowoff tube.

There was definitely some gack in my airlock this morning, but didnt have time to sanitize the blow-off hose and set that up, so I placed a baking pan under the carboy to catch any foam that might leak out during the course of the day, and if the foam is rising when I get home I'll set up the blow-off hose/water.

This is the most excitement I've encountered since my kids were born!

Blow-outs are not a huge deal. If you have a mess when you get home just clean it and attach a blow-off tube.

Personally I always go with a blow-off until fermentation dies down and then I attach an air-lock.

This happened in the secondary fermenter? I think it's best to ensure that the fermentation is done or very close when I rack the beer to secondary.

As for the question, I would stick a blow off tube on there when you get the chance, but having gunk on your airlock isn't going to hurt anything.

I thought it was done. I took hydro readings 2 days in a row and it was stuck at 1.017. I posted that and everyone thought it was high but it looked like it was done so I racked. I'm not sure why it happened, but I knew there was something funny going on when I saw yeast swimming around the next day.

Oh well, I guess the yeast will work it down to the 1.010ish gravity that it should be... isn't this a good thing or do you foresee any problems?

It's better than staying stuck. I've had this happen once and the beer was fine. You'll want to start counting your days in secondary once it's stops again though. I mean, you're trying to get it to clear in there so you have to give it time now or rack into tertiary.

When I got home last night there was krausen coming out of the little holes of the airlock! Blow-off tube was installed and she's bubbling away.

When do I take the tube off and put the airlock back on? When all the activity stops?

Bobby_M said:

It's better than staying stuck. I've had this happen once and the beer was fine. You'll want to start counting your days in secondary once it's stops again though. I mean, you're trying to get it to clear in there so you have to give it time now or rack into tertiary.

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No kidding. Having the fermentation become unstuck in the bottles is a BAAAAAD thing. Ask me how I know.