panic question about early fermentation

[GalenSevinne]

I brewed up a barleywine (OG 1.090) yesterday and it is really humming right now. It is in a Ale Pail and I have been keeping the fermenter temps in the mid to upper 50's via an iced down swamp cooler and the ambient is about 65. Bubbbles were oozing out of the airlock so thinking it might be clogged, I removed it, rinsed it out, resanitized it and put it back in. Right away wort is starting to bubble through it again. I am worried the pressure might build and the lid might blow.

Any ideas here or will the airlock be enough to release the pressure as long as it doesn't get clogged? This is my 4th brew and never seen anything like this before. Anything else I could do to release pressure? Or should I just get drunk, watch the Series and not worry about it?

 

[Revvy]

If you have krausen coming through your airlock, which is not surprising on a big beer like a barelywine, then you need to put on a blow off tube instead..heck I would have done that the minute you had to clean out the airlcok the first time.

Here's what I do with a 3 piece airlock,

The tube is the one that came with my bottling wand, with a tiny slit in it. I also saw/break off the little chriss/cross at the bottom of the shank, which helps keep goop from getting stuck.

The picture is just for illustation only, you actually want the container of sanitizer to sit below the fermenter.

 

[GalenSevinne]

cool ...you're the man. i set it up like illustrated but it is bubbly like nutz in the beaker with the sanitizer. It looks a lot safer though.

 

[dantodd]

cool ...you're the man. i set it up like illustrated but it is bubbly like nutz in the beaker with the sanitizer. It looks a lot safer though.

Yes it is much safer but be sure to NOT set it up as illustrated.

As Revvy said the bottle of sanitizer needs to be below the level of beer in the bucket. The way it is set up now you could get a siphon started and pull all the sanitizer into your beer.

 

[PseudoChef]

You can also just take the entire lid off the bucket and just rest it on top. With such a vigorous fermentation, nothing of worry is going to get in your brew during the fermentation. Once things start to slow down, you can clamp it back on if you want.

For future batches, I would suggest getting some Fermcap-S or Defoamer. You'll never have to worry about a blow off or clogged airlock again.

 

[GalenSevinne]

Yes it is much safer but be sure to NOT set it up as illustrated.

As Revvy said the bottle of sanitizer needs to be below the level of beer in the bucket. The way it is set up now you could get a siphon started and pull all the sanitizer into your beer.

Below the beer or below the airlock? I have it below the airlock now. My bottle of sanitizer is on the floor sitting next to the fermenter also on the floor.

 

[HighPlainsDrifter]

That should be fine. You just don't want it above the surface of the beer because that could start a siphon.