Krausen foaming out of air lock

Cliff's Notes: Amber Ale. Foam is coming out of air lock, 2nd day of active fermentation, what do I do?


Long Story:
This is my 4th batch. This is my 1st batch with DME. Also my first batch using a recipe I got from BeerSmith. Also my first batch using White Labs yeast. Used Wyeast smack packs for all previous batches.

I was pretty unsure what to do throughout this whole batch, really. The BeerSmith recipe shows times to add the hops and Irish moss, but really didn't handle how to deal with the DME. Previous batches I've brewed have been LME and have instructed to use "about half" of the LME after steeping grains had been removed at 140 degrees and then the rest after the boil was over.

The DME was a little difficult to deal with because it got all clumpy and weird when I went to put it in. It eventually mixed/ dissolved in after some time of stirring.

Fermenting in 6.5 gallon carboy in basement that's dark and a very consistent 66 degrees.

Fermentation seemed slow to start compared to previous batches. After 24 hours, there was a 3/4 inch layer of small-bubbled krausen on top. Today, almost exactly 48 hours, I took a look and this thing is bubbling so bad you'd think it was boiling! Foam is coming out the airlock and everything.

What do I do? Allow it to continue bubbling out? Remove the air lock, clean it and stick it back in? RDWHAHB?

Your best bet would be to rig up a blowoff tube.

you can Mcgyver a blowoff tube right on your airlock.



You have to find a piece of long hose that will fit in the center pipe of your airlock...I had to do it in a pinch and found the the hose I had for my bottling wand almost fit....I put a small slit in it, then I soaked it in hot water for a few minutes to Soften and slid it around the tube...

Clean and re-santize the airlock first, or if you have a spare, just rig it up and then swap it.

I also found it is a good idea to cut, saw or break off the little criss crossing piece of plastic at the bottom of the airlock. It works great!

Thanks for the heads-up. It just so happens that I have two spare airlocks hanging around. One I just used to replaced the currently overflowed one and the other I'll be rigging as a blowoff tube.

Mine get filled all the time. I use ferm-cap now. It is working with pacman and that yeast is supposed to be explosive.

schneemann said:

Thanks for the heads-up. It just so happens that I have two spare airlocks hanging around. One I just used to replaced the currently overflowed one and the other I'll be rigging as a blowoff tube.

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Just to be repetitive, because I forget stuff like this all the time, feed the blowoff tube into a mason jar of boiled water or some vodka or something like that, so that you don't get air sucking back up into carboy.