Trub in my airlock?

I went downstairs to get another bucket to make some more brew and somehow there is a bunch of trub in my airlock on one of my primes. Does anyone have any idea how this could have happened and what it means for the beer?

Probably just a vigorous fermentation. If you have minimal amounts of headspace in your fermenter, the krausen can definitely get into the airlock, and potentially clog it. Because of this, I always use a blowoff tube for the first couple of days of fermentation. I had a lid blow off an ale pail before, and fly clean across the room. I was cleaning trub off the ceiling! I've also heard about glass carboys exploding, so I like to be safe.

sounds like you had an active fermentation and the krausen got pretty high. sometimes a blowoff tube is the better way to go. most likely you will be ok. just clean and replace the airlock.

Very common,
I would suggest investing in a blow off tube for your carboy.
I held off for a long time, but kept having to clean out my airlocks and one actually blew off and hit the ceiling. So.... Better safe than sorry.

this is perfectly normal. the karusen just reached the top of your bucket and kept on going out the airlock. there is nothing to worry about from your brew. just make sure the airlock doesn't get clogged. otherwise you may end up with a beer geyser. just take the airlock off and cover the hole with a sanitizer soaked paper towel. clean and sanitize the airlock then put it back. if your worried switch to a blowoff tube.

Maybe if you use alcohol (vodka) in the airlock and it sucks it back in it will clear the trub out?

I was going to say like the previous poster that vodka or rubbing alcohol (rinse after using rubbing alcohol) gets the gunk out of the airlock quite well. But as others have said you need to make a blowoff device.

Pretty easy to do. just get a rubber stopper with a bigger hold than normal. Get a piece of tubing that will fit snug thru the hole in the rubber stopper. Then put the other end (free end) of the rubber tubing in a milk jug of water or something like that. Its essentially a giant airlock.

Just use fermcap-s. Your krausen will stay subdued and you wont have to worry about a blowoff tube or God forbid a carboy exploding. I just used it with a vigorous wheat ale ( i was worried about overflow) and it worked great!