danmdevries
Well-Known Member
Background: 1.128 OG Belgian/English Barleywine with my first 4L starter. I was already nervous about this brew: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/critique-my-recipe-please-358847/
I last saw it just start bubbling a little before I went to bed around 230-3am last night and when I went downstairs this morning at 8, I saw the carnage. The part that made my stomach churn was that I'm in the middle of battling a fruit fly infestation in my house.
I washed and sanitized the bucket lid, removed the airlock and clipped the tip (I clipped all the other ones I own, I don't know why this one got missed), skimmed the top with a sanitized spoon hoping any fruit flies didn't get past the top foam layer and sealed it back up.
The part that blows my mind is this is a 4.25gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon bucket and sometime between 8 and 13 hours after pitching it blew the lid. I don't use blowoff tubes unless I'm using a carboy because those force everything up into a small area creating more pressure to blow the top. I've never even popped an airlock out let alone blow a lid off a bucket.
I'm really hoping with how vigorous that fermentation is, that the fruit flies didn't contaminate the brew but only time will tell...