My beer blew up. Help fixing the recipe?

[Wolfofstars]

I'm fairly new to brewing and recently made my first little deviation from a pre-made kit. I combined a True Brew Amber kit with 2 cups of raspberries to add a little fruit flavor. My wort bubbled up so much it clogged the air lock and the resulting pressure blew the stopper out of the fermenter. Beer everywhere. My best guess is that the extra sugar from the raspberries put things over the top. I want to retry the batch but first I need to figure out how to fix what went wrong. Is it as simple as adding less water to give my wort more space to bubble? Or do I need a different yeast to accommodate the extra sugar? Help and suggestions please!

 

[Shaneoco1981]

Nothing went wrong. Sometimes, it happens. That's why I always use a blowoff tube for the first week, then switch to an airlock.

 

[kh54s10]

+1

Nothing wrong here. Get and use a blow off tube at the beginning of every fermentation. You never know when the yeast are going to go wild. I have made very similar recipes using the same yeast and one will blow off and the other will not.

You can also use Fermcap-s to control the foam. Even using the Fermcap I have had the occasional blow off. So using the blow off tube is the safest bet.

 

[Wolfofstars]

Thanks for the help. I've used or even heard of a blow off tube. Would you mind explaining it to me so I know what I'm looking for when I head to the home brew shop?

 

[Revvy]

Some beers just need a blowoff. Doesn't mean you did anything wrong. I've blown the lids on three beers. And they all turned out fine.

 

[Wolfofstars]

So the beer isn't toast after it blows up? This is the first time it's happened for me so I wasn't sure what to think. I was concerned that I would have lost all the yeast or let bacteria in. I cleaned it up and put the air lock back in place as soon as I discovered the mess. But I've got little white clusters stuff floating on top of the wort and I'm not sure if it's yeast or something nasty. Any tips on how to tell? Should I still try bottling it?

 

[Revvy]

It happens all the time....It means you have active fermentation...Just to clean the mess, resantiize the lid and put on a blowoff tube.

we've all had complete bucket blowoffs, where the lid flies off, and our beers survive. Your beer is protected by a layer of co2.

Watch these videos of one of my beers...that came out fine. Next time clean up your mess and rig up a blowoff tube.






The beer turned out fine.

 

[krazydave]

You may have let bacteria in, but it's doubtful. With that much activity going on, your beer is pretty well protected by a blanket of co2.

A blowoff tube is just a tube that you run from your fermenter into jar of liquid. Most people just put sanitizer in the jar. This let's the yeast come out the top if it needs to and gives less chance of clogging and becoming explosive.

 

[homebrewdad]

+1 to nothing at all is wrong - crazy fermentations tell you that the yeast are happy, nothing more.

 

[Wolfofstars]

Thanks for the help everyone. And for the videos especially Revvy.

 

[MikeWI]

A blow off tube is simply a plastic tube that makes an air-tight seal on the top of your fermenter and then runs to a container with a bit of sanitizer in the bottom. Make sure the end of the tube is below the sanitizer level and that there's enough space in the container for excessive blow off. I use a plastic gallon milk jug for my blow off destination, but anything will do. If you have any questions you could ask your local homebrew store, or do a forum search here.

Your brew is mostly like fine since the blow off pushes stuff out of your fermenter, not in. I've had the airlock blow out of one of my batches and that's my favorite to date. I'd let if finish fermenting and watch for signs of infection (another forum search). When you go to take a sample to check gravity, try it. If it's going bad, it will taste bad. If it tastes good, just go ahead and bottle normally.

Good luck!

Mike

 

[Eckythump]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnFTK1EhD24

The beer turned out fine.

That is one crazy fermentation; it looks like it's boiling!

 

[jbaysurfer]

I use blowoff tubes for the entire primary most of the time. Only if I'm doing a secondary, or need to move the carboy from my fermentation chamber do I even bother switching to an airlock.

A blowoff tube in a jar of sanitizer IS an airlock after all.