Ahhh Explosion!

So my wort has been fermenting for about 24 hours now and i came home and the airlock from the carboy was blown off and theres a tiny bit of beer on my ceiling (its a low ceiling). Can i sanitize the carboy and put it back on? is there to much fermentation going on? Can i save the beer? is it still good?

RDWHAHB....
Sanitize the airlock and reinstall it if you do not have the means to put on a blowoff tube instead. The beer will likely be just fine.

First... you made a HUGE mistake. You're supposed to take pictures of the aftermath and post them! Get with the program!

Back to your question... Set up a blow-off tube for the time being until the ferment settles down. If you don't have that ability, then clean the airlock, refill it and put it back on. Your beer is just fine.

Thanks guys i was in a state of panic, i didnt want my first homebrew to be ruined. Why does this happen though is the yeast really hungry and just eating alot or what?

One word - Pressure.

Fermentation produces co2. It has to go somewhere and in this case it shot your airlock off so it could escape.
Like the other guys said get a proper sized stopper with a blow off tube. Stick that tube in waterand once the ferm has gone down, then sanitize and replace the airlock. You will be fine. And like cat said pictures of beer on ceilings ar a must in cases like this.

StuMay said:

Thanks guys i was in a state of panic, i didnt want my first homebrew to be ruined. Why does this happen though is the yeast really hungry and just eating alot or what?

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lot of variables as to why it happens . temp , yeast activity type of yeast I have had some high gravity brews not do it and then some low ones that do.


I expect it ever time though with Saison beers lots of yeast 80° temps ..... And the gratuitous pic

as long as im not alone and if i had a camera i would take pics but i dont =( thanks for the help guys i appreciate it. Now the only thing i have to worry about is the cleanup and the smell

i like springer's over flow catching system. is it patented?

RDWHAH........dang it! someone always says it before it do. just like "that's what she said"

I rig a blow-off tube for the first couple of days with every batch to avoid this very situation. Especially when fermenting wort with lots of hops, the kreusen contains lots of stuff that can clog an airlock. A piece of hose into a bucket with some sanitizer will catch any overflow and act as an airlock as well. After a couple of days of fermentation, there is little risk of a blowoff, and then you can replace the blowoff tube with a regular airlock. Just be sure that the bucket for the blowoff tube is below the level of your fermenter. Blowoff tubes give peace of mind (and I enjoy seeing all those bubbles during the initial strong fermentation; so does my toddler).

For help, just do a search for blow off and you should get good results.

oldschool said:

RDWHAH........dang it! someone always says it before it do. just like "that's what she said"

Click to expand...

TWSS .

Woo hoo! I commiserate with you, my friend. Got my first blowout this past week. It is a nice porter, and I monitored it very well for the first 3 days....lag time <12 hrs, fermentation going strong for days, I figured, "well, it won't blow off now!"....I checked it today, 6 days later, and the entire top of the carboy is encrusted in dried foamsugarcrap.

New airlock and I'm good to go....guess it goes to show, just cuz it's fermenting nice NOW, doesn't mean it will continue to ferment nice!

The first batch of our raspberry belgian did this because the seeds from the raspberrys clogged the airlock. Unfortunately it got infected and ruined a ~$70 batch :-( Re-brewed it, fermented with a blowoff, and it turned out to be the best thing I have ever brewed. Worth it even with the extra time and money for a spoiled batch. I now use blowoffs exclusively. I typically use a gallon milk jug filled with star-san, and thread the hose through the handle to keep it submerged. Sometimes the star-san gets some wort in it from blowoff, and I'll change it out, although I doubt any nasties could live in it.