My 1st beer - Airlock over-flow -HELP!

[CTBlack06Evo]

Hey guys,

So, I just brewed my fist beer 3 days ago, and jumped straight in with a 15 gal setup all-grain. I did a lot of reading before hand and spoke with someone who was able to give me some really good advise. Here's what happened though: I finished my beer and pitched the yeast into my fermentors, and now it is starting to foam out of the airlock over the sides of the carboy.

Of course, I had to leave on a trip this morning and had no time to do anything with it. My girlfriend is home and can help me out, what can I do to resolve this?I've taken some pics over the past couple of days, but don't have any of the "spill over". Thanks everyone!

Approx 20Hrs after brewing:

1.5days after brewing:

2 days after brewing:

3 days after brewing:
No pics, but overflowing...

 

[malkore]

That's what happens when yo put 5 gal in a 5 gal carboy...you need at least 6 gal carboy to handle the headspace from krausen.

YOu need to get like a 1" diameter clear hose and stuff it into the neck of the carboy, ant the other end into a bucket of sanitizer...until active fermentation dies down.
its called a blow-off hose.

 

[Kaz]

They look like 6 gallon Better Bottles to me...but either way. You can pull the messed up airlock, clean and re-sanitize it....while you do that, cover the carboy opening with sanitized foil. Just put the clean airlock back in after spraying around some star san on the opening. I would recommend the blow off....here is what I use on my buckets...uses a piece of cheap tubing from Lowes...

 

[rich8932]

I've also taken the transfer tube I use and stuffed it into the bung hole and put the bung back onto the carboy. Of course you'll still want that tube ending in sanitizer solution. What ever tube you end up using will likely only be used for a blowoff in the future because that foam will eventually dry and it's hard to clean out...or at least that has been my experience.

 

[FL_ABG_brewer77]

My advice is to replace your bubble airlock with a blow off tube, you can get this at your local home brew shop. Place one end in the top of your carboy place the other end in a small bucket of sanitizer, this will keep any air from getting into the carboy. I almost never use a airlock anymore as I've always had good fermentations and when I have I've always had a big mess to clean up and as someone else mentioned get a 6 or 6.5 gal carboy for your primary and use the 5 gal for secondary fermenations

 

[CTBlack06Evo]

Thanks for the advise guys. The carboys are actually 6gals, but my boiloff wasn't what I had predicted, so I netted 11gal of beer instead of 10. Gravity reading were actually perfect though luckily...

Would it make since to just use a blow off tube Everytime vs an airlock, or is there a benefit to using the airlock? Seems like blow off is an easy way to prevent a mess Everytime and should work the same.

 

[frazier]

A lot of us do that - set up the blowoff tube right at the start, and leave it there throughout.

I like to swap the airlock back in when the kraeusen dies down, but there is no need to do this. Suit yourself, no worries!

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Seems like blowoffs are the topic of the day...I posted mine this morning, just posted to another thread about overflowing fermenters, and now this one. The yeastie beasties are feelin froggy today

I made this at 6 a.m. to collect the yeast after blowing off all the bitter gunky crap into a bucket of StarSan

I never use an airlock until fermentation has slowed to a crawl anymore after having a overflow of my own and reading exploding bucket/ carboy stories around here from clogged airlocks. I will say bigger than 3/8" tubing is better as it will clog just like an airlock. Use big ass tubing that is a tight fit into the whole mouth of your carboy and run that into a bucket. jug of StarSan or whatever sanitizer you use.

BTW, you have a keeper if your girlfriend is dealing with this while you are MIA