Gaaah!

[MadMarty911]

Did my first batch last night, started bubbling a few hours later. Unfortunately this morning before I left for work the fermentor bubbled over!! Do I just have the wife clean it up and resanatize or should I have her remove some wort to make room?

 

[BronxBrew]

Blow off tube ! Always use one for the first few days.

 

[MadMarty911]

How? The pail only has a hole for the airlock!

 

[Slainte-brew]

Take out the inside parts of you three piece and connect a hose over the inside tube, then insert airlock bottom. Place end of hose in some sort of container with water.

 

[MadMarty911]

Ah thank you!!!! Wife'll be happy that it'll be an easy job

 

[MadMarty911]

So I have the blowoff tube installed etc but since that I've had probably 3 ish liters come out into the other bucket. Wtf? Or is that normal?

 

[twistr25]

Depending on the yeast strain, but could be perfectly normal. You just have a very active fermentation going. Should calm down within the next day or so. Then you'll want to clean up your airlock and re-install it how it's supposed to be.

 

[SledgeH]

No tthat it matters now, but what size is your fermentor vs the size of your batch? 5 gal in a 6.5 gal bucket?

 

[KingKlong]

Buy an extra airlock for a quick swap when the blowoff is no longer needed. That way you can switch them and not be rushed at cleanup.

 

[MadMarty911]

Ikmactually not sure how big the pail is. Just followed the instructions on adding water etc on the brew house red ale instructions. Was about a 1.5-2" amount of room left. First batch ever, and learned a lot already!!
Thanks to all so far for the kind helping hand! I'm sure there's tons of the same stupid questions on here!

 

[MadMarty911]

Turns out I didn't lose 3 liters. Wife forgot that there was sanitized water in the cooler, a little foam came and colored the water.

 

[twistr25]

That sounds a little more normal. It still should slow down over the next 24 hours and you can switch back to the airlock and it'll be just fine.

 

[kh54s10]

I use a qt jar about 1/3 filled with Starsan solution. Once it really overflowed into the pot that it was in. I don't know how much but I still got 50 bottles and it was a really good beer.

 

[SledgeH]

You might want to look into a larger pail for your next batch. 1"-2" of space will be taken up easily by krausen, you're going to run into this for pretty much EVERY batch you make. Invest $12 for a 6 or 6.5gal bucket. It will make your life easier.