Fermenter Erupted

Big mess, ceiling was the splash guard for the sky. No pictures sorry. Believe me big damned mess.

I let it keep fermenting after it settled down. As soon as it stopped acting like old faithful I put the breather cap back on and set it to sit once again.

It's probably a week past the suggested brewing time, is it still something that can be salvaged or should I dump it out?

I figure, who knows how much of what ingredients came spraying out, so it might not be an even brew.

But on the other hand everything's boiled together so it might all be evenly mixed when erupting. Then I'd just have to figure out how much sugar to add to the remaining 3.5 gallons that didn't spray out instead of the whole bag that came with the "brew kit".

Thanks for any input!

It will be fine this happens all the time. You may lose a little volume. Rig a blow off tube for any future brews and this won't happen again.

Just think, things were mixing up so fiercely that it spewed out of the fermenter and onto the ceiling. It was definitely well-mixed. And, what's left of your beer is still going to taste great.

I agree, go with the blow off tube next time. Also, what size is your fermenter? A 6-6.5 gallon fermenter is a good size for a 5 gallon batch and may still need a blow off tube. A 5 gallon carboy/bucket/etc is too small to ferment a 5 gallon batch.

If you estimate 3/5 to 4/5 of the sugar based on package size you'll be close enough to the right carbonation.

Thanks for the replies. I definitely learned the hard way not to use a 5 gallon carboy when I have a perfectly good 6.5 gallon to use also. Blow off breather tubes are also going to be a must have for me in the future. I don't ever want to clean that kind of a mess up again.

If I have 2/3 of my brew left, I'll just take away a third of the sugar I'm supposed to use for the carbonating while they're bottled and see how it tastes!

Thanks again

You may also want to invest in some FermcapS, that stuff is great for blow-off's and boil-overs!

Are fermcaps little deals that have two holes, one for the carbon dioxide bleeder and one for a blowoff tube? I guess I'll look up a picture of them. Thanks!

useless without pics

I'm afraid of this myself. It's half the reason I built a ghetto plywood 'ferm cabinet'.

mddimond said:

Are fermcaps little deals that have two holes, one for the carbon dioxide bleeder and one for a blowoff tube? I guess I'll look up a picture of them. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Lol, no those are Carboy Caps, this is Fermcap.

The carboy caps with 2 holes are used to make racking easy. You insert the racking cane through the top hole, then hook a tube up to the other hole and blow. Instant siphon. I have used the second hole for unexpected blowoff when I didn't have a blowoff tube, but it's not a good idea as krausen can easily clog that little hole and you'll have the same situation on your hands again.