over active airlock with pic need help!

Hi guys back again with another problem lol. This time its my airlock. My airlock seems to be pushing out a ton of co2 along with seems to be the hops and everything else inside my brew. A little back story I'am brewing my first beer which is an Irish red ale I posted yesterday with some problems and received a number of great answers that left me feeling well. But, now this is happening and I'am freaking out again. Should it be this over active? I put a blow off tube because it seemed the air lock wasn't getting enough co2 out and it was getting clogged with gunk.
So what do I do now? is this normal? can it be contaminated?
any help I would greatly appreciate.
Iam posting a pic of it with this thread.
thanks

Its fine, you did the right thing. Usually a lot of is will start off with blow off tubes until fermentation slows, then install air lock.

Good call on the blow off tube. What you are most likely seeing is yeast/krausen coming out of the tube.

should I be worrying about to much of the yeast/Krausen coming out would it ruin the taste of my brew??

It should be fine.

al0311 said:

should I be worrying about to much of the yeast/Krausen coming out would it ruin the taste of my brew??

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Nope, it's just a happy fermentation. The yeast are going to town in there.

I wouldn't worry. Krausen coming out of a blow off tube wouldn't ruin the taste of your brew, be more worried about something coming in (but the blow off tube, and later the airlock will keep that from happening).

Just a great fermentation. Keep an eye on the tube that it doesn't get blocked, or it will get explosive. Otherwise, the beer will be fine!

okay. yeah I put the blow off tube into a bucket of sanitized water. The blow off tube is the siphon tube that I use I cleaned them both. Fingers crossed nothing more happens

If it's actually clogged though, you need to switch out the tube, or clean out the one you have and re-sanitize. Else you might be cleaning krausen off your ceiling when the entire plug shoots off the top of the carboy.

What temp did you pitch the yeast at? This happened to me on my first 2 batches as I pitched the yeast into the wort at to high a temp.

The airlock might have a restriction in the bottom
This is the most likely place to get clogging, so if it has then removing it and using tube only might be a good idea

Looks good! Just a question: is that a 5 gallon carboy? If so, next time you may want to go with a larger carboy or bucket for your primary fermentation, to contain the blow-off a bit better.

idahobrew said:

What temp did you pitch the yeast at? This happened to me on my first 2 batches as I pitched the yeast into the wort at to high a temp.

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This^^.

It's probably way too warm. You need to cool it down somehow.

good call with the blow off. You are quick on your feet!

Geez I remember the 1st time I went into the basement the next morning and had a krausen fountain coming outta that sucker lol. Its fine but as stated, control your temperature in a swamp cooler, an irish red shouldnt be fermented on the hot side. Even in a swamp cooler you're going to get blow off in a 5gal carboy, its perfectly normal. Also, I DONT attach the blow off to the air lock, I go right into the stopper with it, the airlock has a narrower inlet on the bottom usually that clogs faster. Dont be afraid to pull out the airlock and blow off tube, theres a nice CO2 cushion protecting your beer right now.

hey guys thanks for all the help. I got home today and it seems to be calming down compared to what it was yesterday. Today is a much colder day than it has been this week so far so I think it might have to do with that. But, yes I have been removing the tube and sanitizing it and the airlock and removing all the krasuas (I think that's how it is spelled) from the tube. It is still very active but starting to calm down.yes its a 5 gallon glass carboy and yes I might of pitched the yeast a little high I think it was about 75-77 degrees


My question now is will all the hops receded to the bottom of the carboy?

I never use an airlock anymore. I always use a bow off tube.

I would recommend, and others might as well, getting the 6 gallon carboy for your primary, and saving the 5 gallon for your "secondary" clearing vessel.

As for the Krausen, not hops, is a combination of wort protein, yeast and hop residue that sits at the top of your brew while fermenting. That will fall back in time for the most part. I assume that answers your question to "will the hops fall back"

Check out Fermcap-S. I get it at Northern Brewer. Really helps with boil overs and blow off in 5 gallon carboys.

Don223 said:

Check out Fermcap-S. I get it at Northern Brewer. Really helps with boil overs and blow off in 5 gallon carboys.

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+1 to that, I'm surprised that more people don't use this. Works well in the boil also to prevent boil overs.

I just made an Irish Red too and used WLP004 Irish Ale yeast. It's known for taking off quickly and very active fermentation. Mine was in a 6 gallon better bottle in a temp controlled ferm chamber at 65F and it pushed up through the airlock in less than 24 hours. Some yeasts are just like that. To parrot some other posters, a blow-off tube and/or an anti-foaming agent like Fermcap S can help avoid messes.

yeah I'am definitively going to look into these fermcaps for my next batch. Has anybody that used these had any off tastes????

al0311 said:

yeah I'am definitively going to look into these fermcaps for my next batch. Has anybody that used these had any off tastes????

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I use it all the time and its never caused any off flavors for me. Fermcap is heavier than beer so once the yeast slows down it'll fall to the bottom of the fermenter with the trub. Also, if your lhbs doesn't know what fermcap-s is, ask for foam control.

Tombstone0 said:

I use it all the time and its never caused any off flavors for me. Fermcap is heavier than beer so once the yeast slows down it'll fall to the bottom of the fermenter with the trub. Also, if your lhbs doesn't know what fermcap-s is, ask for foam control.

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+1, and it doesn't impact head retention either.

i got fermcap because the previous beer we brewed was fermenting at my buddy's house. he went away on business for a few days and had a blowoff when nobody was there to check on it. the beer turned out fine but i use it in every batch now and have yet to have another blowoff