Is my top gonna blow?! look at pic and please help

Hey guys, I need some quick advice here.. Brewed a Honey Oatmeal Stout last night. This morning the the vodka was bubbling nicely. I checked it just now, and my Ale Pale is bulging and the airlock is now making a high squeal (like a leaky balloon) instead of the nice bubbly sound. Also the vodka has turned brown which suggests the krausen has come up through the airlock. If you look at the pic below you can see the lid bulging. Am i gonna blow my top? what would you do in this situation?

Thanks!

If I had to guess I'd bet there was a chunk o' something blocking the bottom of your airlock.

If it was me, I'd slowly pull off the airlock and clean it out, or just burp the lid.

I would get a blow off hose in there. Hops plugs up the holes on the airlock to easily. I had a lid blow on me once.....once!

I usually hacksaw that little cross piece at the bottom of my 3 piece airlocks...

Makes it easier for a blowoff tube to work..

The first thing I would do is quit reading and posting on HBT and put a damn blow off on that there fermenter, otherwise your next pic will be of your ceiling

I do not advocate the waste of the beer but if you leave it alone I think the explosion would be epic.... webcam.

guys?! thanks! really.. thank you..

If you can set up a blowoff that would be good but if you don't have the materials right now just take the airlock out and clean it and replace it. It worked for me.
Anthony

The tube from your racking cane will fit right in that little grommet. No need to cut up anything... except maybe the tube.

Did you get the blow off tube hooked up ok? If you can't just take the lid off the pail (slowly, so you don't get a face full) and loosely set it on there until the fermentation settles down.

Also, do your best to get it in the 65 degree range. I have a feeling that baby is HOT!

Shortly after this post i adjusted the airlock a little and it started bubbling again. Just to be safe, I put a small trash bag loosely over the bucket and poked a hole for the airlock. about 2 hours later, I heard a loud POP! The top didn't blow off completely, but the inside of the bag was covered in foam so the bag was a life saver. At this point I took the airlock and sawed the cross piece off. when i went to put it back in I was starting to see this..



I cleaned that up and put the airlock back in. I dont know what i was thinking but, all the foam started coming out of the airlock. Soooo, I wanted to use the "blow-off" method Revvy suggested, but didnt think i had the right sized tubing. That was until i realized my siphon tube was the right fit. I ran it into a jug of sanitized water and now everything is under control (it makes cool noises too!).



Yooper you mentioned it might be hot. Its room temp which is about 75 and the bucket reads 77. I take it fermentation generates heat? Is there any disadvantage to letting it ferment at this temperature?

Thanks everyone for your comments!

fretsforlife said:

Yooper you mentioned it might be hot. Its room temp which is about 75 and the bucket reads 77. I take it fermentation generates heat? Is there any disadvantage to letting it ferment at this temperature?

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At 75-77 F you're going to end up with more off flavors than you would at a cooler temperature. For some styles of beer that would be considered a good thing (some Belgian styles).

Check this:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/off-flavor-first-3-batches-damn-88835/

bashe said:

I do not advocate the waste of the beer but if you leave it alone I think the explosion would be epic.... webcam.

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Hummm. Cheap Home Depot bucket and lid, some cheap juice, and yeast + webcam -video camara

CiscoKid said:

At 75-77 F you're going to end up with more off flavors than you would at a cooler temperature. For some styles of beer that would be considered a good thing (some Belgian styles).

Check this:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/off-flavor-first-3-batches-damn-88835/

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Hey thanks for this link! I read it all and have a better idea of how temperature is a big deal. Ive since filled the blue tub (that my fermenter is sitting on) with water and am changing out the ice bottles. Now that I have my temp. stabilized, its slowly bubbling instead of sounding like a boil. It fermented at around 77-80 degrees before I cooled it down. I hope this doesn't throw the flavor off too much. Im just glad its its a strong tasting beer to begin with.

It is ALIVE!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOPTriLG5cU&NR=1]YouTube - YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN trailer[/ame]

bashe said:

I do not advocate the waste of the beer but if you leave it alone I think the explosion would be epic.... webcam.

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THAT post fXXXing KILLED ME!!!!!!!!

This is why i never had a blow off:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/primary-bucket-quebec-style-100428/

That looks really familiar, Let me guess, Russian Imperial Stout?

RedIrocZ-28 said:

That looks really familiar, Let me guess, Russian Imperial Stout?

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Its actually an Irish Stout with added honey and flaked oats..

Iowa Harry! Exactly.. It took some getting used to. The apartment would be all quiet and then all of a sudden a roaring sound from the pantry, Id be half way to my gun before I remembered the monster was just my brew..

Stef, if I have anymore problems from here on out, I'll reach for a Hefty® looks like it could work!!

At least you caught yours... I woke up the next morning and heard a loud poof. Then I got retrieve the lid , resterilize, hook up a blow off tube (same way as you did with racking tube) and of coruse clean the whole closet. Since it was a linen closet I also got to do the laundry.

the blowoff tube like you did in the pics didnt work at all for me. The krausen was so thick it clogged up the tube and blew.

BeerPressure said:

the blowoff tube like you did in the pics didnt work at all for me. The krausen was so thick it clogged up the tube and blew.

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Damn man, really? That must have been some realllly thick foam! I hope I dont get any more blow-offs, I bought some wider gauge tubing this past week in case this ever happens again.

Well, I just racked this one to secondary last night. It had a final gravity of 1.024 @ 68º (starting was 1.064 @ 80º). The bad news was that Snailsongs was right. There was no distinct honey or oatmeal flavor in the beer at all. He explained why here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/need-help-honey-oatmeal-stout-103783/

The good news was that the sample tasted like a fantastic stout! Due to the pound of honey, I could taste a little extra alcohol, but it wasnt overpowering or anything like that. I know that once it ages in the secondary and after its been carbed and chilled, it will only get better.

here is a pic of the krausen that blew my top!

The good thing about the ale pail is that when you do get a blowover, it will blow the top off of the fermentor. With a carboy, you're usually not so lucky. One of the reasons I will probably never use a glass carboy for primary. Ale pails have their downsides as well.

My very first batch had a blowover. It was at about 68 degrees with a < 1.060 OG. Sometimes the yeast just picks up stronger and faster and blows things up. I came home from work and it had blown the top off. It's worth noting that if your fermenting is strong enough to blow the lid off, it's releasing a significant amount of CO2. So if your lid blows of and 'exposes' the beer, it's probably not the end of the world. Never a good thing when your beer/wort is exposed for a long period of time, but I would think that during a vigorous primary fermentation is one of the best times for it to occur. My batch's blowoff was all dry so it had been exposed for hours before I found it. The batch turned out great and tastes like the other two batches of the same recipe.

Dougan said:

The good thing about the ale pail is that when you do get a blowover, it will blow the top off of the fermentor. With a carboy, you're usually not so lucky. One of the reasons I will probably never use a glass carboy for primary.

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not to start one of these debates but unless you have a stress crack, etc... in your glass carboy the weakest point will be something related to your airlock and not the glass itself.

lmg95 said:

not to start one of these debates but unless you have a stress crack, etc... in your glass carboy the weakest point will be something related to your airlock and not the glass itself.

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True. I've never used a glass carboy... my better bottles do enough for me at this point that I haven't tried one yet. I'm sure if they cracked every time you had a potential blowover they probably wouldn't be so widely used.

If anybody is ever in this predicament again please, please, please, put a camera in front of it and film. When done post it on youtube for all to enjoy........while you clean up!!

Yeah I hear what you're saying. My glass carboy is starting to get very minute stress fractures right around the neck area. I've seen a couple threads around here where that'll happen. I guess I'll stick to the bucket for the heavy duty fermentation and just use the glass for secondary. Ooor I could just go with what gartj suggested.. :cross:

bashe said:

I do not advocate the waste of the beer but if you leave it alone I think the explosion would be epic.... webcam.

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now that would be a viral video....


any volunteers????