Had My First Ever Beersplosion Last Night

[ThereThere]

It was terrifying. I woke up in the middle of the night to a loud boom. I wasn't sure what happened at first, it sounded like someone shot a cannon or something. I figured SWMBO would not have been impressed if at 4:00am I told her that that noise was my beer exploding, so we went back to bed.

:rockin:

This morning I tried to put the top back without the airlock, but krausen was coming out the top, so I loosed it a bit to let some air out. At what point should I put the top and the airlock back on?

 

[worksnorth]

Well, this is probably a good indication that you should be going with a blow off tube. Allows much more gas out that way than if the airlock is in place.
The airlock can go back on when the krausen stops gushing out.
It'll be okay, keep an eye on it and put the airlock back on as soon as possible. : )

 

[bottlenose]

I'm not really sure if contamination is a concern when the yeast are this active, but I've always put a sanitized tea saucer upside down over the hole until it's safe to put an airlock back on.

 

[KuntzBrewing]

I had this happen, I just stuck some extra 3/8 id hose in place of my airlock and into a pitcher of water, much easy and no worries