First brew - Airlock issue

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BlackSheep92

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Hi guys,

First off thanks a million for all of the help and advice so far. I'd be in a literal panic without this site and it's members.

Now, I am fermenting my first ever attempt at a home brew, an IPA. Everything with the brew went well, minus the OG reading. Racked to a Carboy, 24 hrs later fermentation kicked off in a major way.

Noted a good amount of krausen in the Carboy, neck and airlock. The following day it actually blew the bung and airlock off. I'm concerned about contamination.

Any experience or advice with this? So far it's happened 2-3 times. I realize I should have utilized a blowoff tube now.

It's a brewers best IPA kit. About 4 days in. Bubbling slowed as predicted, just hoping I didn't get atmospheric air contamination or God knows what else exposed to the brew.

Thanks.
 
As long as it is pushing out there is not much chance for anything to get in. If it is still going, get that blow off tube on there. If it is calmed down, clean up your airlock, put some fresh vodka or water in it. Relax and wait. I would say have a homebrew, but you said it's you first batch, so go buy some bottles and empty them for your future brews.
 
Ive had that happen before but my carboy had so much pressure that it blew the top cap off of the airlock and sent kaursen to the ceiling and all the walls..it was a total mess but the beer ended up fine...now i use a blow off tube for all my beers...lesson learned
 
It happens to everybody at least once. I usually put in a blowoff tube the first 3-5 days until I find out what fermentation to going to do. Remember; for thousands of years man fermented in open top containers using wild yeast. Don't fear nature. The reason we seal containers and try to keep out wild yeast and bacteria is so when we make great beer we can reproduce it.
 
To all, thank u for all of ur help. Looks like it'll turn out. Bottled today and all looks, smells and tastes well. Thanks to each of u again.
 
This happened to me last night. I transferred to the carboy and sealed it up. Checked on it about six hours later and the airlock itself had filled with beer and it was running out over the top. I took the airlock off and covered it up to prevent anything from getting in while the pressure subsided. It kept flowing over so I figured it was overfull, so I extracted a small amount and sealed it back up. It hasn't given me any problems since.
 
Best bet is usually to use a blowoff tube. If you use a 3-piece airlock the nice thing is you can take the top and "dome" piece out and just put a blowoff tube on the piece that's left in the center.

Now, I use ale pails and haven't had any issues with airlocks although my last over-full witbier fermented in the low 80's did get some krausen in the airlock, but luckily no mess.
 
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