First Brew In The Fermenter...Problem?

A friend and I just started our first brew ever yesterday. Everything seemed to go well, although I'm sure there must be ways to cut corners because it took quite a while. Probably because we steeped all the specialty grains separately haha.

Anyways, after corking it, sometime during the night the brew expanded and bubbled out through the airlock making a big mess (see pic below).



Is this ok or not? What should we do? Thanks guys.

That's not a mess. A mess is when your airlock blows clean off, and the brew decorates your ceiling like some early Jackson Pollock painting!

You're alright, this is nothing serious. If it looks as though the foam (that's called krausen by the way, and is normal!) has fallen and is sinking into the brew, just clean and sanitize your airlock and put it back on the carboy. If you think it's going to blow again, replace the airlock with a blow-off tube...just a tube from the stopper leading down to a jar of sanitizer next to the carboy.

If you're using a 5 gallon carboy, consider using a 6 gallon (or a 7 gallon bucket) next time, to allow adequate headroom. Meanwhile, relax. Don't worry, your beer is fine!

just backing up blindlemon.
Your photo is the reason you shouldn't ferment 5 gallons of beer in a 5gallon carboy. However many have blow-off like that with 6.5 gallon carboys. A week ago my 7gallon bucket blew beer on the ceiling. usually 5 gallon carboys are used for secondary only.

Just re-sanitize the airlock, and stopper, and re-insert.