Blow Off valve

OK so I'm a NEWBIE and this is my first beer, it is a Dos Equix lager. Everything has been going great for the first week in the primary. Today I was going to put it into the secondary because that is what the recipe said to do. When I checked on the brew the air lock bubbler had spewed foam and some sediment on top of the 5 gallon bucket. I tried cleaning and sanitizing the air lock several times. It has bubbled over 5 times now so I ran a hose into a vase of water to create a blow off and foam catcher. So my question is have I done something that I shouldn't have and should I go back to using the bubbler air lock and allow it to foam every where? THANKS!

It's good practice to always start your fermentation off with a blow-off for the first few days, unless it's a recipe you're familiar with. You didn't mess anything up, just made a classic mistake that even the more seasoned vets make from time to time. Let it go for a few days until the fermentation is less violent, then you can switch back to your airlock if you like.

You've done everything right. Just put the airlock back on when things calm down in the fementer. Usually a day or 2 and the very active fermentation settles down.

No you did quite well. A blowoff tube is really just another airlock so let the brew ferment for a few more days. Do you have a hydrometer to check the gravity? You don't want to transfer your brew to a secondary until it ferments out completely.

RDWHAHB...

Sounds like you did everything right. The only question is whether you put cheap alcohol or sanitizer in the vase, in case something would get sucked back up the tube.

I would leave it in the primary for now because it sounds like you still have active fermentation going on. Have you taken a hydrometer reading? Remember, each time you tansfer containers, you are going to lose some of your delicious future beer.

For future batches, I would probably recommend a larger container. My smallest primary fermenter is a 6 gallon better bottle. That gives me room for a 5.5 gallon batch (net 5 gallons bottled) with room for a decent krauesen.

Good luck!

Yeah I have a hydrometer, I thought I didn't want to disturb the batch until it was done fermenting? Also why would the fermenting start out fine for a week and then get violent?

I'm a newb too but have ran into this once...I left the blow off tube on the primary fermenter until active fermentation stopped then I put on the airlock. this happened to my holiday ale that was a much higer alcohol content (11-12 percent) so there was a lot more sugars for the yeast to feast on...what size primary do you have? make sure its large enough to accommodate the foam that the fermenting brew creates. Mine is a 7 gallon food grade plastic bucket.

Lagers tend to get a much slower start than most ales. Yeast are funny like that.

Did you move your fermenter?

Sometimes shaking up you vessel will resuspend the yeast and restart active fermentation.

By the way this site is AWESOME! I love all the responses! Thanks Guys and Gals!

Nope the fermenter has stayed in the same place the whole time. I have it in a 6 GAL white bucket

another reason the fermentation could have started slow then got violent is because the wort was too cool for the yeast to work or work well then as the wort came back up to temp it went crazy.