AirLock Problems

[DTMHomeBrewer]

I have a "Brewers Best" beer brewing kit. It came with a 3 piece air lock. I put the wart in my fermenter, and just after 24 hours I saw the air lock working. The problem is the airlock filed with beer, not sure what happened to the water that was there, then the beer started foaming as gas was released. A lot of foam was coming out of the airlock. I cleaned what I could but didn't want to remove the air lock. I went to work and when I came back the lid bust off and beer splattered on my walls. (freshly painted walls too haha)

We put the lid back on, and cleaned/sanitized the airlock again, and just a hour later its spewing foam again.

2 questions:
1 - Did the lid bursting off do anything that might ruin the beer
2 - is there anything I can do to settle things a bit so it stops spewing foam? I don't want to have the lid burst off again.

 

[Nurmey]

Good news! You have really good fermentation and no, your beer is not ruined. You need a blow off tube. Your racking cane tubing should fit in the grommet hole of your lid. Put one end in the grommet hole and the other end in a container of water. This will allow the blow off some place to go without letting anything back in.

Welcome to HBT!

 

[DTMHomeBrewer]

wow that was a fast response! thanks so much for the help, and for being welcoming!

 

[EvilTOJ]

Yep, Nurmey's right, you just need a blowoff tube and you're golden. We all get beer geysers sometimes.

 

[eljefebrewing]

I've got kind of the opposite problem, if indeed it is a problem. I would just RDWHAHB, but I haven't got any homebrew yet! I just brewed my first batch today (yay! I'm certifiable!)

Whereas the OP's airlock was burping, mine is glugging. I filled it up with some of my leftover Star San solution to the little line. About 10 minutes later, the level of solution in the airlock had gone about halfway down. I'm not too worried about it, but kind of perplexed. I pulled off the airlock cap and added more solution, to bring the level back to the line. When I peeked into the closet a few hours later, I noticed the liquid level had gone back down halfway again. It seems to be stable at that level... hasn't completely gone away, anyhow.

The lid surrounding the rubber stopper is dry, so it seems the liquid from the airlock is going into my fermenter. Just curious if anyone has seen this happen before. It is brand new equipment, and I didn't see anything wrong with it when assembling.

 

[Picobrew]

I've got kind of the opposite problem, if indeed it is a problem. I would just RDWHAHB, but I haven't got any homebrew yet! I just brewed my first batch today (yay! I'm certifiable!)

Whereas the OP's airlock was burping, mine is glugging. I filled it up with some of my leftover Star San solution to the little line. About 10 minutes later, the level of solution in the airlock had gone about halfway down. I'm not too worried about it, but kind of perplexed. I pulled off the airlock cap and added more solution, to bring the level back to the line. When I peeked into the closet a few hours later, I noticed the liquid level had gone back down halfway again. It seems to be stable at that level... hasn't completely gone away, anyhow.

The lid surrounding the rubber stopper is dry, so it seems the liquid from the airlock is going into my fermenter. Just curious if anyone has seen this happen before. It is brand new equipment, and I didn't see anything wrong with it when assembling.

What kind of fermenter do you have? If you have a better bottle, the wobbliness of the sides can cause this if it gets bumped or moved around.

The other cause for this would be if your wort was quite hot when you pitched/airlocked or if there was dramatic temperature drop after pitching. As it cools it will suck air in (I believe?).

 

[eljefebrewing]

I've got the plastic bucket setup from William's. I pitched at 68 degrees. Temp should have been pretty steady after that.

 

[HoppyDaze]

Im having a related problem right now. I just brewed a batch and my stopper will not stop popping out of my carboy! I had the same problem when I made a wine batch in the carboy. Im using my six gallon glass carboy. When I put the stopper in wet it just pops out immediately. But when I dry the stopper and the neck of the carboy it is really hard to get in and when I finally do get it in it just pops back out in like 15 minutes. I know it sounds like I have the wrong size stopper but I have used the same one several times. Should I shave it down with a razor blade?

 

[HotbreakHotel]

I've had the rubber-type stoppers keep popping out when they're still wet. Just keep gently pressing it back in every now and then and after a while after it dries it will stay. I wouldn't shave it down because it's probably already the right size.