Fermenter explosion?

Dougan said:

Hey all. First time poster and first time brewer... Did a bunch of research and then bought a DIY kit from a local brew shop. Probably your standard sort of kit, with a 7 gallon bucket with a lid and an airlock as well as a bunch of bottling supplies and a bottling bucket. Also had pre-portioned kits of ingredients there which I thought was a good idea for a first-timer. I picked some sort of cream ale kit.

Anyway, did all of the brewing work yesterday and made the wort. Everything went good (had a little bit of boilover but not nearly as bad as the horror stories I read about) yesterday and I threw it in the fermentor w/ the airlock and went to sleep. This morning I woke up to the airlock happily bubbling away.

However, when I got back to work I found that the lid had been forced open and there was some wort outside of the bucket. The airlock was also filled with wort and a shelf 6" above the airlock was sticky. I figure that it foamed up high enough to fill up the airlock and then it went downhill from there. I doubt I used any of the wrong ingredient quantities because they were part of a kit.

So, the two obvious questions are (1) Why did this happen? and (2) Has this compromised my beer? I understand that there are sanitation concerns, of course. But I put the lid back on and cleaned out the airlock and it seems to be bubbling away again.

Thanks in advance,
Scott

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Dougan said:

Thanks for the welcome! And thanks for easing my nerve on this. I'm hoping it turns out delicious.

Here's how I see things going. This batch turns out so great, that I keep on brewing. I get tips and feedback from my friends who will be more than excited to be a part of any sort of free beer situation. I eventually (5-7 years) leave my job to start my own microbrewery, with limited success, because I still won't know quite what I'm doing. My wife will leave me and she'll say it's because I threw my life away, but I'll always think it was because she couldn't stand the smell of hops. I'll post here all day long and be like with all of you guys until a couple years later (now about 7-10 years from now) you hear that I have a restraining order on that ex-girlfriend because I keep calling her to tell her I threw away all of my hops. You flip through the channels and see me on Dateline sporting a beard and mullet, and shortly drop off of the grid. Years later (15-40 years now) you will run into me on the street and I will tell you how much my life has turned around since I got out of rehab, but really, I will just have been the same old guy I was, just with too much pride to admit that I really miss you guys.

Anyway, that said, Thanks again for the welcome, and pre-emptively: I miss you all!

And a P.S.: Thanks for moving my post to the correct forum. I must have missed seeing the "BEGINNER" there. I always yell at people for posting in the wrong forum and appreciate someone being a better man/woman than I.:rockin:

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duskb said:

I asked the same question last month with a hef that got away from me. Seems to be aging well in the bottles now...nice flavor (slight bannana flavor but what the hell I like banannas).

Enjoy and welcome. : )

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Dougan said:

Here's how I see things going. This batch turns out so great, that I keep on brewing. I get tips and feedback from my friends who will be more than excited to be a part of any sort of free beer situation. I eventually (5-7 years) leave my job to start my own microbrewery, with limited success, because I still won't know quite what I'm doing. My wife will leave me and she'll say it's because I threw my life away, but I'll always think it was because she couldn't stand the smell of hops. I'll post here all day long and be like with all of you guys until a couple years later (now about 7-10 years from now) you hear that I have a restraining order on that ex-girlfriend because I keep calling her to tell her I threw away all of my hops. You flip through the channels and see me on Dateline sporting a beard and mullet, and shortly drop off of the grid. Years later (15-40 years now) you will run into me on the street and I will tell you how much my life has turned around since I got out of rehab, but really, I will just have been the same old guy I was, just with too much pride to admit that I really miss you guys.

Anyway, that said, Thanks again for the welcome, and pre-emptively: I miss you all!

And a P.S.: Thanks for moving my post to the correct forum. I must have missed seeing the "BEGINNER" there. I always yell at people for posting in the wrong forum and appreciate someone being a better man/woman than I.:rockin:

Click to expand...