FERMENTATION EXPLOSION. I am so serious.

So I started brewing my first IPA kit from AHS, everything went great, except it was missing an ounce of hops that the recipe called for.

I stirred in the yeast (Cooper's Ale) when the wort was cooled down, then closed up my Ale Pail. This morning when I went downstairs, the airlock had been blown out and the top had come off! I tried to put the top back on, only to have it blow off again. I laid paper towels over the top of the bucket, thinking that less resistance might calm it down, but when I just went to check on it again (I'm home for lunch), it has thrown the paper towels aside and has a frothy fermentation head about 5 inches above the top of the bucket.

I only had exactly 5 gallons in the fermenter, so I didn't fill it too high, but I'm wondering what I can do now to prevent this batch from going bad. Can I skim off the head and then try and close it back up? Is this a lost cause?

Thanks for ANY help you can offer.
Brian

haha, all I could think of when i saw the title was Al Gore in that southpark episode. Oh mah gawd, I am sooo serial!

Don't skim. Your beer is fine. The positive pressure of the CO2 is keeping nasties from getting into your beer. Don't worry!!!

What I'd recommend is getting a blowoff tube---you rig some vinyl tubing to your airlock and run that into a bucket that's partially filled with sanitizer solution. This was, as the fermentation pushes the krauesen out of the bucket, it will go through the tube into the sanitizer solution. it's just a big airlock, essentially.

What's your fermentation temperature?

blowoff tube

yowzers! lol. it'll be fine. santize that bucket lid and throw it back on there when fermentation starts to settle down. should be only a day or so.

Wrathbone said:

What's your fermentation temperature?

Click to expand...

+1
post whoring

Where are the pics? We always enjoy seeing the messes that rookies have to clean up

Get yourself a blowoff tube.

Cooper's Ale = Blow Off Tube every time I have used it!!!!

Evan! said:

haha, all I could think of when i saw the title was Al Gore in that southpark episode. Oh mah gawd, I am sooo serial!

Click to expand...

haha, that episode is too good.

Policeman #1: Well, see, the problem is, if we fill the cave with hot, molten lead, it will kill those boys too.

Al Gore: They're already dead, didn't you listen to me? They got attacked by Manbearpig and Manbearpig leaves no one alive, I'm super serial! And nobody'll listen to me. I'm serial!

Firefighter: Do you want me to get the ex-vice president out of here?

Policeman #2: No, I feel kinda bad for him. I don't think he has any friends.

DeathBrewer said:

Policeman #1: Well, see, the problem is, if we fill the cave with hot, molten lead, it will kill those boys too.

Al Gore: They're already dead, didn't you listen to me? They got attacked by Manbearpig and Manbearpig leaves no one alive, I'm super serial! And nobody'll listen to me. I'm serial!

Firefighter: Do you want me to get the ex-vice president out of here?

Policeman #2: No, I feel kinda bad for him. I don't think he has any friends.

Click to expand...

HAHA I love south park

Fermentation temp was around 74. I should've taken pictures, but I was so distraught, I wasn't thinking clearly. It's one of those buckets that you really have to push down to lock the top on, so there was clearly a good deal of pressure in there.

I've been doing this for almost 2 years and never had anything happen like that. It did calm down by midafternoon, so I snugged it back up. Now it's bubbling like mad but not hurling projectiles across the room...

berickso said:

Fermentation temp was around 74. I should've taken pictures, but I was so distraught, I wasn't thinking clearly. It's one of those buckets that you really have to push down to lock the top on, so there was clearly a good deal of pressure in there.

I've been doing this for almost 2 years and never had anything happen like that. It did calm down by midafternoon, so I snugged it back up. Now it's bubbling like mad but not hurling projectiles across the room...

Click to expand...

Tack some of this on to your next order.

Voila, no more blowoffs.

Unless the style indicates a fermentation temperature that high, you would probably end up with better beer and far less explosions if you kept that temperature down below 70 with ales.

ohiobrewtus said:

Where are the pics? We always enjoy seeing the messes that rookies have to clean up

Get yourself a blowoff tube.

Click to expand...

How many guys saw the title to this thread and opened it first!