Highly Active Fermentation

I've got a 1.091 OG beer fermenting crazily right now. Some krausen has come out of the airlock so the vodka in there is now a beer brown color. Should I pull it out, clean it, then put it back in? Should I wait until fermentation completes? Or should I just say screw it and leave it alone? Next time I brew this big of a beer I'm going to use a blow off tube, I've learned my lesson.

If it is still fermenting you should rig a blowoff tube now. Otherwise you'll have a mess on your hands.

Why wait for next time on the blow off? If you have a tube now, stick 'er in there. Personally, I would clean it out, re sanitize, fill with whatever fluid you like, and replace.

it's a bucket so I don't have tube that'll fit right now.

Do you have one that will fit over the inner "barrel" of the airlock? Like one you'd use for racking? I can't think of the size right now.

A few of mine that I just took...1.080 Winter Warmer

Well the top of my plastic bucket blew off while I was at work I'm replacing the airlock, think my beer will spoil?

shertz said:

A few of mine that I just took...1.080 Winter Warmer

Click to expand...

Geeze how full was that Carboy before it started spewing out.

You know, your supposed to leave some head space in there.

I doubt it. It's certainly possible you may have gotten some bugs in there, but more than likely the yeast are active and can take care of them. Some places use open fermenters with no problem, of course they have a sterile environment. I guess it really depends on how long and the surrounding area. This is another reason why I like carboy's. All you can do now is sit and wait...taste it when fermentation slows and continue to smell the airlock. Lesson learned, especially when you have a big brew.

Sager Brewing Co. said:

Geeze how full was that Carboy before it started spewing out.

You know, your supposed to leave some head space in there.

Click to expand...

Only 5 and 1/2 gallons, plenty of room in a 6 gallon carboy. Yeah, you lose a little krausen, but that's not a bad thing. In a day or so, I'll replace blowoff hose with airlock. No problems. I expected a little more evaporation during boil, so it was a little fuller than I wanted but I'll at least end up 5 gallons at bottling.

Luckily it was in my fermentation freezer so the mess was easy to clean up. I was able to put 1/2" tube over the inner barrel of my airlock to rig a blow off tube, but it seems to me even the small holes on the bottom of the airlock may cause problems? Oh well, lesson learned and hopefully my beer survives.

You can cut off the little divider/small hole part on the bottom of the airlock. It'll be less likely to clog that way.