Fermenter has high pressure, lots of foam

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jark

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Brewed a porter on Sunday (this is my second batch). I had to leave in overnight in the fermenting bucket to cool and pitched the yeast Monday morning. I went back this morning (24 hours) to make sure the airlock was bubbling, and the fermenter had a high pressure inside. The bucket lid was swollen out, airlock full of foam, a nice spray pattern on the wall of the closet it was in. I pulled out the airlock and it sprayed out everywhere. I let it sit while more foam poured out the hole in the lid.

WHAT SHOULD I DO? I'm afraid to put the airlock back on; I don't want the whole lid to pop off under pressure.

Thanks for helping our a newbie. My first batch just went a little too smooth I guess.
 
Rig a blow off tube in place of the airlock & put the other end in a jug 1/3 full of water & a splash of starsan.
 
Ok. I put tubing from the lid gasket to a bucket of water. LOTS of gas bubbles coming out. Should I just leave it like that until it stops then put the airlock back? Or leave it like that through fermentation?
 
Airlocks are trash. Toss it out and use a blowoff tube from now on.

Airlocks are not trash, they just are not the best thing to use for brewing BEER. Get used to using a blow off tube for the rest of your life. The bigger the diameter of the hose, the better. Use a hose only, that fits snuggly in your carboy plus the bucket of water/Star San. I thought my fermeting temp was too high,turned it down to 64 and I still get stuff in my blow off tube.

I'm fermenting Coffee Porter in pic

photo.jpg
 
I keep it in the coolest part of my place. Not high gravity. When I pitched the yeast the wort was 74 deg. Now, with fermentation, the temp is higher but I don't know exactly what. Higher than 76, that's what my stick on thermometer on my fermenter goes up to. I'll check the actual temp this afternoon when I get back home.

So I should just plan to keep the hose on? I have a bucket not a carboy. I just ran the hose into the hole in the bucket lid where the airlock goes. Should I leave it like that or connect the hose onto my 3 piece airlock? The hose seemed like a pretty tight fit in the hole.
 
I keep it in the coolest part of my place. Not high gravity. When I pitched the yeast the wort was 74 deg. Now, with fermentation, the temp is higher but I don't know exactly what. Higher than 76, that's what my stick on thermometer on my fermenter goes up to. I'll check the actual temp this afternoon when I get back home.

So I should just plan to keep the hose on? I have a bucket not a carboy. I just ran the hose into the hole in the bucket lid where the airlock goes. Should I leave it like that or connect the hose onto my 3 piece airlock? The hose seemed like a pretty tight fit in the hole.

That's way too warm! Try to put it in a cooler with a water bath and add some ice. A water bath will help maintain the temperature in the 60s.

You normally want to pitch at about 65 (or less), and keep it no higher than about 68. That is one reason it's so explosive- a "hot" fermentation will really rock.

A very active fermentation produces heat, and the more heat it produces, the faster it goes. I've personally seen the fermentation temperature be 10 degrees warmer than ambien temperature.

Next time, cool the wort down better so when fermentation starts it doesn't exceed 70 degrees.

I've needed a blow off tube exactly one time in all of my years brewing. But I ferment cool, and the bucket has plenty of headspace. I use a regular airlock every time.
 
Temps higher than 74?

Probably want to get that down a little bit dependent on the yeast strain that you are using as internal temp of fermentation is often higher than indicated temp on outside of ferment vessel. So if outside reads 74 degrees than you can make a solid bet that internal ferment temps are around 80 or higher.
Again depending on yeast strain you might get some off flavors (esters)

Given that a good majority of the fermenting is done, it could possibly be too late BUT still beer when it is all done and drinkable for sure.
 
Airlocks are trash. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

I have dozens and dozens of trash then! Like I said, I've needed a blow off tube ONE time in 13 years in beermaking, and never in winemaking (25+ years). I think technique and temperature are the important things.
 
I had the same thing happen with my porter last week while using an airlock. OG was 1.061 and temp was 67. The blow-off tube is a nice way to solve the excessive pressure problem.
 
I have dozens and dozens of trash then! Like I said, I've needed a blow off tube ONE time in 13 years in beermaking, and never in winemaking (25+ years). I think technique and temperature are the important things.

When you are in the business I am you become accustomed to minimizing risk ;)

Plus a blowoff tube is fewer parts and cheaper. I don't see any benefit to using an airlock and a major negative, that being the propensity to bottleneck your vent and create a nasty mess in the process.
 
When I got home the internal temp was 75. The yeast ideal temp is up to 70 so I rigged up a swamp cooler to try to cool it off. Hopefully my version of a swamp cooler will work. I need to find a better permanent solution but space is pretty tight in an apartment. Any suggestions? I doubt my way would even work during a Florida summer, even if I am in north Florida. Luckily my wife likes good beer too, so she's a little more forgiving about having a cooler with water and towels sitting around. After all this I just hope I end up with something drinkable at the end.

I was kinda panicked this morning when I saw the spray all over everything. Kinda felt like carrying a bomb to the bathtub to release the pressure. In the future I'll be using the blowoff tube. With this just my second batch, I didn't realize it was even possible to need one. Appreciate everyone's advice.
 
I find a blowoff tube is really only necessary for "bigger" beers (higher O.G.). With normal-gravity beers, a plain old airlock is sufficient. The key is controlling fermentation temperature. If you ferment in a room with ambient temperature of 60-65, you'll get a nice, controlled fermentation and no blowoff tube is necessary.

I'm afraid this batch will almost certainly have some harsh fusel alcohol flavours (which do not go away with age), but it may still be drinkable, and it's worth seeing it through to completion so next time, you'll know what can happen if you ferment too hot.
 
Given 3-7 days after FG to clean up & settle out,the yeast will eat those off flavor inducing compounds if there isn't too much of them. I had a strange one this morning with my airlock on the brew I did yesterday. I filled it with cheap vodka last evening,& it's kinda yellowish this morning. I guess it had a good belch or two?
 
I am on my 3rd beer (2nd AG) and I had to use a blow off tube for all of them. I think my plate chiller cooled my wort down too far this round and 12 hours after pitching my temps were in the low 60s. So I used a brew belt for about 2 hours and got the temp to ~66. After 24 hours the temps were around 69-70... turned the heat off in my apartment last night, and they dropped to ~68 this morning.

Hoping SWMBO does not notice the apartment being in the low 60s....
 
I just had 2 beers fermenting in buckets a few days back.

Beer 1: Centennial Blonde with dry yeast - Airlock
Beer 2: Oatmeal Stout with harvested yeast and yeast starter - Blowoff Tube after a day, lid was bulging

So it really depends on the beer strength and yeast.
 
if you paid 10 dollars for tubing at home depot you got hosed.

You are correct, I must have been thinking of the 20' tubing. It was about $5 after tax. I'll edit my post above.

I thought it sounded odd saying the LHBS was reasonably priced.
 
You are correct, I must have been thinking of the 20' tubing. It was about $5 after tax. I'll edit my post above.

I thought it sounded odd saying the LHBS was reasonably priced.

I bought 10' of 3/8 and 10' of 1/2 for 9.82 after sales tax (6%)
 
GenIke said:
How do you attach a blow off hose to a bucket lid?

Either use 3/8 tubing and insert it right into grommet, or use 1/2 in ID tubing and put it over the tube in a 3 piece airlock
 
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