First Brew Errors

Hey guys,
Just brewed up my first beer last night (dry irish stout), and made a few errors, but I think everything is okay.
However, I came home today from class and the yeast, at least I think its yeast, had bubbled up into airlock at the top of my carboy. When I checked this morning, everything was fine, so it happened some time between then and now. I took the airlock and stopper out, cleaned it and sterilized it again, and put it back in the fermentor.
What happened? Is there anything I can do to prevent this? Should my beer be OK?

Thanks,
Chans

That is called Krausen. It is a normal part of an active fementation process. This settles down in the first day or two. Until then you will want to use a "blow-off tube" setup and not an airlock. You can search the forum on that.

For a simple blowoff use 4-6 feet of tubing with a similar diameter to the stem of your airlock. Put one end in the stopper and the other end submergd in a bucket of 1-2 pints of water. clip it to the side of the bucket or weight it down so the end is under water.

It will start bubling soon enough and the Krausen will "blow-off" into the water. After a day or two it will have settled enough to go back to an airlock.

Also, instead of water in the airlock, I use Vodka. not to drink, but just to help remain sterile. It's an overkill step. No punn intended.

good luck!

CHans3 said:

I took the airlock and stopper out, cleaned it and sterilized it again, and put it back in the fermentor.

Click to expand...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/sterilizing-vs-sanitizing-17824/

I always use blow-off tubes on my carboys during the first week of primary. I recommend using 1" ID thick wall vinyl as it fits tight within the neck of a carboy - and won't get clogged like skinny tubing fitted to a stopper can. Sanitize the tube, jam one end a couple of inches into the carboy neck, drop the other end in a gallon container half filled with sanitizer (I use leftover Star-San from my brew day sanitation bucket) and you'll have no worries.

I did a 92 point Honey Chocolate Stout last Sunday that lit off like a barn fire (they always do) and thumped and churned its way down to the target 20 points as of this morning. Put a heck of a froth in the catch bucket along the way. With any other venting solution I'd still be cleaning out one of my ferm fridges - and that ain't fun...

Cheers!

Like the others said, you need a blow-off tube.

Maybe it's my technique or beers or something but I usually don't need one. There have been times when it was very much needed though so I always keep an eye on the airlock at the beginning.

Looks like you avoided a mess this time but the krausen can get so thick that it clogs the holes in your airlock and the co2 can't escape anymore. Pressure builds up and eventually shoots the airlock out of the fermenter and creates a geyser of messy junk all over the place.