Fermentation out of control!!

[mjaquillard]

Wow, this one really took off on me. Yeast was pitched yesterday around 8pm. Checked it this morning at 10am, and saw the krausen was getting pretty high, but not to the airlock. Around noon, checked on it and it was indeed into the airlock. I pulled the airlock and the krausen took about 5 seconds to start pouring out the top of the carboy.

Wiped the excess off, cleaned off the air lock and put it back in. About an hour later, the air lock was plugged with krausen to the point that ALOT of pressure built up and krausen sprayed all over me when I removed it (yummy )

I'm sure it will be fine, and for now I guess I'm just gonna let it ferment w/o an airlock until I can safely put it back on. Any suggestions besides that? Unfortunately, no blow tube...

I've never seen any of my beers ferment nearly this rapidly. When I put the airlock back on, it literaly takes 3 seconds to start bubbling again. It's a SN porter clone, sitting at about 67 degrees right now.

 

[AllHoppedUp]

In a pinch I've used a standard 3/8 hose as a blow off before. Put the hose into your stopper - kind of a tight fit but you can do it - and then put the stopper in the carboy. Other end of hose in a bucket of sanitizer.

I'm guessing that your extreme fermentation is probably due to a combination of factors that could include a high OG and a really healthy starter. I made an imperial stout one time that plugged up the airlock in the middle of the night and the pressure got so high that it blew the lid completely off my primary bucket. It hit the ceiling and blew beer all over my basement hobby room. It was loud - at first I thought maybe the cat had knocked something big over.

 

[abracadabra]

When you get an extremely high amount of activity you can cool the wort down to slow it up a little.