Another noob, with another story/question

[kyle8888]

Hey Guys, been lurking the forums for awhile and joined up now that my first official noob brew is in the fermenter. I decided to keep it simple for my first batch and am going with a generic amber ale extract.

Everything went relatively well for being the first time. Had a little trouble getting the siphon started to transfer from the plastic bucket to glass carboy. Topped off the airlock with some vodka ~ 7pm and it was bubbling away by the time I went to bed.

Of course I had dreams about brewing beer (which I won't go in to), and went to "check on it" first thing this morning. It appears the fermentation was going so well it blew my airlock off like a beer propelled missile. There was a decent amount of foam billowing out of the top of the carboy as well. I cleaned up the airlock and beer doo doo splatter off the wall. I didn't have any star-san pre mixed so I soaked the airlock in vodka for a little while and put it back on. From reading some posts on here it's obvious I should just let it do its thing, but hopefully it's not contaminated.

Any thoughts on what to improve on next time? I'm thinking the whole blow off tube setup might be better, as well as not filling the carboy up as much. I boiled 3 gallons and set aside in the plastic container, plus another 3 for the wort. I'm guessing it was a little more than 5 gallons after all the evaporation.

 

[TheBaconator]

Always leave adequate headspace in the fermenter. About 25% is good for most beers but Belgians and wheat beers will need %33 or so. This is going to fix most of your problems here, but a blow off hose is easy to do and will also resolve these issues. Just sanitize a hose and put it in the opening on your fermenter and put the other end into a two liter bottle half full of sanitizer.

 

[Taypo]

How big is the carboy? If its a 5 gallon, I'd get a bigger one. If its a 6.5, thats a pretty impressive fermentation overnight. Definitely get a blowoff.

 

[kyle8888]

How big is the carboy? If its a 5 gallon, I'd get a bigger one. If its a 6.5, thats a pretty impressive fermentation overnight. Definitely get a blowoff.

It's a glass 6.5. I think I'll be stopping by HD to get some vinyl tubing tonight!

 

[kh54s10]

I always set up a blow off tube to start. I also use FermcapS. Even with that I had 2 that blew anyway!

 

[daksin]

Yup, blowoff tubes are the way to go. I always start with one and switch to an airlock after I take my first gravity reading (usually after a couple of weeks).