Airlock overflow

Hello, and thanks in advance for any/all responses.

My S shaped airlock has overflowed with foam after approximately 36-48 hours of percolating. why did this happen and what to do to recover this problem ?

I happened becasue you had a good vigorous ferment, and or maybe you're using a bucket or carbot that's not quite large enough. (6.5 gallons is good for primary for a 5 to 5.5 gallon batch.)

Rig up a blowoff hose if you can until it settles down in a couple days.

And relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.

^^^^^^^^=True

They are he!! to clean. Let the airlock soak in bleach water overnight and tackle it with pipecleaners or just buy a new one for $2.

I almost had the same problem with my 6 gallon carboy last night. I removed my airlock and bung, and put a sanitized cup over the top of the carboy. I then wet down my siphon tube and inserted it into the bung. I dried the bung and the opening of the carboy, and re-inserted the bung. The other end of the hose went into a small bucket filled with sanitized water. I then partially closed the lid on the siphon, just enough to keep it from falling out. Worked great!

i appreciate your interest....

This happened to me. Just cleaned it out w/ hot water added some vodka and put it back on....

i did the tube and bucket thing. it works as designed. thanks again.

It jsut happened to me last night also. I brewed my first wheat. It took a while to get started, then BLAM. It went from no krausen to overflowing in about 4 hours. I sanitized some aluminum foil, and put it over the top while I cleaned and sanitized the airlock, then replaced it. It seems to of calmed down now.

I've always wondered: why aluminum foil specially and not just saran wrap or something?

beerlover84 said:

I've always wondered: why aluminum foil specially and not just saran wrap or something?

Click to expand...

Its jsut easy to work with and will hold its shape around the top well.

Hi, I just had the same issue. Having a pretty vigorous ferment in there and it went straight into my airlock. It seems to have settled down for now, do I need to clean this out right away, or can I do it when I switch fermentors? The beer shouldn't be affected by this right?

chillHayze said:

I've always wondered: why aluminum foil specially and not just saran wrap or something?

Click to expand...

Cause its easy to sanitize with heat. Either sick it in the oven or boil it for 20 min.

davidisser said:

Hi, I just had the same issue. Having a pretty vigorous ferment in there and it went straight into my airlock. It seems to have settled down for now, do I need to clean this out right away, or can I do it when I switch fermentors? The beer shouldn't be affected by this right?

Click to expand...

I would clean it out just to be safe, and no, your beer should be fine .

This happened to me a few months ago with a trippel. Now I know to use a blow-off tube! I was worried about contamination but it turned out fine, it just made a huge freaking mess that looked like someone puked green crap all over my kitchen floor

Will getting a 6-6.5 gallon carboy keep the airlocks clean for a 5 gal brew most of the time? Seems like a few extra bucks for a bigger carboy would be more efficient than having to switch from a blow-off to a airlock. Anybody know if using a bigger carboy is the easiest solution to overflow?

What size vessel are you using now? I would at least have a 6 gallon for fermentation. You need that space for the krausen to form. A bigger carboy won't necessarily eliminate the need for a blow off, though. Different yeast strains and higher gravity beers usually tend to overflow even a 6.5g carboy.

How long do you usually leave the blowoff tube on there for? A couple days?

I had the same issue on mine, except I was using a 'mr beer' tank to ferment, so instead of overflowing the air lock, it blew up like a balloon, then when I tried to loosen the lid a bit to lose some pressure, it blew the top right off.

I wasn't too sure what to do (just found this thread) so I drilled the lid to take an air lock & drained out some of the beer to give it the space at the top of the tank that it needed. Hopefully nothing got contaminated in the 'explosion' - I guess I needed to use a smaller batch size or lager tank

I've been fine before in my 6 gallon primary carboy with beer around 5% ABV but this time I'm doing an Imperial Stout which will end up around 8% ABV. It looks like I'm going to have to switch to a blow off before it comes busting through the airlock but I'm not sure I have the tubing to set it up!! Wish me luck.

uh oh...this just woke me up with the spitting & squeeling sounds coming from the airlock...



edit to add: Thar she blows! I've got the carboy sitting in a tub, and i'm keeping some sterilized tin foil over the top for now...but don't have the tubing to make a blowoff tube right now, and probably won't be able to get to the brewing supply store until after work. dammit.