Infamous airlock full of foam...

So it finally happened to me and I remained relatively calm but you see the lid was arched pretty high (7.5 gal plastic fermenter) and I felt I needed to releve pressure SOON... Here's what I did:

Lifted lid just a tad to let some pressure off.... Got myself a new airlock ready. Pulled the old one out and covered hole with syranwrap... went to clean the bung and when I came back there was a huge ball of foam coming out of the hole!!!

I quickly realized the new airlock was useless so I set up a hasty blow off tube! Rigged it up as quick as possible but the whole time that hole kept spewing foam (like a small fist size ball of it)...

So my question is: WILL IT BE OKAY?

I mean there was nearly 3-5 minutes of open hole (minus the foam coming out) and the bung was only sanitized with hot water due to time constraints...

It's all set up with a blow-off tube now.

Now I know: RDWHAHB and I think I will if someone can just say "don't worry you'll be fine" lol

What do you all think?

I'll post some pics once I find my card reader...

I wouldn't worry. The CO2 pushing that foam out was keeping anything else that could be bad out too.

Don't worry, you'll be fine.


With all that CO2 pushing the foam out of the hole, not much of a chance for anything to get it.


I actually just had the same thing happen to me last week. I'll post a pic up of the mess too

Thanks guys! I can't find my card so I can't post any pics but the blowoff tube seems to be working okay and the lid is actually letting a little escape too I think... Here's to hoping nothing gets in or clogged! Off to bed!

You should see the yeast cake forming though! Seriously it is 1 1/2 to 2 inches think! I'll be dumbing another brew on top of that one as soon as I bottle this thing! It's a Brown porter and the yeast is German ale yeast pitched from a 1600 L starter at just past high Krausen.

Mine wasn't quite as mess as that Newbeerguy! lol Good stuff!