Holy airlock, Batman!

[EinGutesBier]

So, I set my carboy up with a twin bubble airlock filled with whiskey (it's all I have) last night around 7 pm. There wasn't much activity and around 2am there was the very least beginnings of a formation of krausen. After waking up at 10, lo and behold, my twin bubble is full of foam and the top is who-knows-where. Safe to say, my mind is blown. I've never had to rig up a blow off tube, but I did just that and everything is ok.

Could the cause of this be the fact that this beer has far more fermentables in it than any other I've made? I don't know. I assume it should be okay, but part of me worries that the airlock explosion, and neglect due to sleep, will be a sanitation problem. I guess we'll see. : /

 

[cheezydemon]

No Problem! The reason it blew is that Co2 was flying out of there. Germs don't swim upstream, in fact quite the contrary.

The reasons range from higher temps, to more aggressive yeast, to a large starter or yeast cake. It is a good thing, but temps tend to run high with vigorous fermentation. You may want to cool it down.

 

[McKBrew]

I wouldn't worry about it at all. The CO2 coming out of the beer will keep any potential nasty stuff from coming in. It seems like many of us find out the way you did about using a blow-off tube.

 

[EinGutesBier]

Thanks for the reassurance, guys. I'm not too worried about the fermentation temp, since it's a Belgian wheat yeast. I want all of those fruity esters! : D Unless even for a Belgian yeast, it's too warm.