Krausen in my air lock

[johnboy1313]

I brewed a 5 gallon batch on Wednesday. It's kind of a hodge podge of ingredients I had lying around. I pitched a pack of Wyeast Yorkshire Ale yeast. I'm using a 6.5 gallon glass carboy and a fermentation chamber for the first time on both accounts. My fermentation chamber is just big enough for the carboy with the airlock. The bottom of the little freezer compartment prevents the airlock in the carboy from coming out. I built an eBay temp controller and finally got the temp to settle down after about 43 hours of fermenting. Long story short, I have the biggest krausen I have ever personally had. It has gotten into the airlock and there is a little residue on the outside of the airlock. It is still bubbling away. Should I get a different airlock prepared and quickly swap it out or just let it be? Thanks, John

 

[BainbridgeBrewer]

You might think about switching it to a blow off hose.

 

[Azurecybe]

+1 on the blowoff. This yeast is a major top-cropper. Expect a giant, billowy and long lasting krausen.

 

[johnboy1313]

I may be able to fit a blow off tube in there, but I have no room for a blow off vessel of any kind. I sanitized the outside of the mouth of the carboy, pulled the dirty airlock out, and stuck another one in. I'll keep my eye on it. Thanks for the tips guys, I'll see what I can put together.

 

[2brew1cup]

I would try to make room. Otherwise you have to babysit it.

 

[erikhild59]

I blew an airlock 2 days ago . What a mess! Like a dog puked on the ceiling in my wifes dining room! Smelled like fresh bread in there after though. Seriously though, get a blowoff rigged up, save yourself the cleaning and the risk to your precious brew! Don't make my mistake! (I put mine on after that by theway)

 

[Accidic]

I did the same sort of thing. I call it frankenbeer (I'm sure that's not original given it's obviousness so sure me). Mine had similar issue but with a double bubble airlock it merely contaminated and reduced the vodka slightly. Since it was still high alcohol I just add a dash more to be safe and let it go.

 

[Accidic]

Oh, and those storage boxes like you get at wm allow you to catch overflow as well as give you something to move your bucket or carboy with. I use hd ones from lowes good for 175lbs of weight with a cut up "funnoodle both wrapped around and at the end to stabilize my glass carboy and it works great. I have nothing against blowoffs mind you. I just don't tend to need them unless I'm primarying with very little headspace.

 

[Azurecybe]

Those fake milk crates also hold 30 12oz bottles or 20 22oz bombers. I bought 8 of them for good measure

 

[Accidic]

Can you post a pic or link of the type of crate you mean? The crate I have I just don't see how you could for that much in it so I figure I'm thinking of the wrong kind of crate.

 

[Azurecybe]

Ill post a pic when I get a chance. They are not listed on the walmart site but iirc were only about 4 bucks.

 

[Accidic]

K, cause I was thinking about the plastic ones before as they're fairly sturdy and easy to move but the one I currently have I got nowhere near that kind of volume @30 12oz's. Works well for wine though as I don't have any wine boxes.