Yeast eat sugar and poop out CO2, that makes a ton of bubbles which foam up on you, its called krausen. Some beers have more, some less. It is very common to have happen what you describe, especially in homebrewing where what people ferment in rarely have enough headspace. I believe industry standard is around 25% headspace to allow for the krausen. Also, in homebrewing, many folks do not have temp control, as the yeast get going they create their own heat, an exothermic reaction, that causes them to get even more energetic resulting more CO2 creation and more bubbles in a shorter time frame, meaning the bubbles have less time to dissipate and so the krausen can rise higher. Temp control puts a certain amount of check on that.
Hopefully my rambling explanation makes sense as to explain what is going on. The good news is that you don't need a fancy glycol system or a larger fermenter to tackle the blow off. Instead of using an airlock, jam a piece of vinyl hose into the airlock bung and put the exit end into a glass of water. Just like an airlock this creates a one way valve. But, it gives you a lot more capacity for the krausen to escape, decreasing the risk of blockages, which can create a major mess as pressure builds and something blows.