Foaming out the air lock...

[mikeljcarr]

Brewing a Strong Ale and about 20 hours into fermentation it's foamed up so much it's running out the airlock in the top of my carboy. Should I be concerned; anything I should do?

 

[kh54s10]

Install a blow off tube immediately!
If you don't have one put your carboy in something to catch the blow off and cover the mouth with a piece of sanitized foil.

 

[nepatsfan1]

Since there are a lot of sugars to convert on a strong I would recommend making a blow off assembly to avoid the airlock from launching like an Apollo rocket.

 

[unionrdr]

I use a blow off tube from the start,running that into a half gallon vodka jug 1/3 full of water with a splash of starsan. It takes 3 or 4 days on average for initial fermentation to be completed before it slows down. Then I re-install a clean airlock filled to the line with cheap vodka.

 

[ETCS]

I've had a carboy turn into old faithful in my closet....what a mess. Definitely a blow-off tube.

 

[jonmohno]

At least you have a warning,instead of a mess.No choice now, you dont want to keep that junk in your airlock,plus it would be harder to clean if you did.
Although i use some coopers yeast once , put a blow off on with half jar sanitized water,next day i had a big puddle of it anyway. Good thing i had it in a tub.Dont use too small a jar. I even used half gallon jar with 1/3 sanitized water.Sometimes you could need a blow-off for your blow-off.

 

[Ziggybrew]

For future brews: Automatically just use blow-off assemblies for heavy beers. If you didn't need it, no biggie. If you did, biggie.
I am about to start using Fermcap-S because I've lost a lot of beer to the blow-off bucket. Especially with Imperial Stouts or Belgian Triples and such.

Just a side note: don't freak out over an open fermenter. Many old European breweries and some famous American breweries use open fermentation with no problems. Lids and airlocks are just an added precaution and a boon for the marketing folks. I still use them too anyway.

 

[mikeljcarr]

Thanks guys. I was away today and told my wife to put on the foil until I got home. She said it had slowed, so she didn't do it. Came home to a blown off air lock. I'v converted one of my air locks to a blow off tube with a 5/8" hose into a big pot, 1/3 full of water. It's bubbling like mad, but no kruesen (sp?) is coming out the tube.

Hopefully the batch didn't get contaminated.

Any other precautions I should take?

 

[Ziggybrew]

You're good. All of that CO2 will zap & kill anything that floats in the little hole (but it can't with a steady flow of CO2 coming out the hole). Sounds like a fun beer. Ya gotta love yeast violence.