New experience

[ragadas]

So, I brewed a Stout yesterday that is similar in recipe to this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/oblivion-russian-imperial-stout-368395/
OG was 1.096 and I double pitched Nottingham dry yeast in a 1 pint starter. The krausen started building very early and within a couple hours the 3/8" blow off tube wouldn't handle the pressure with the krausen moving through the line. Panic time!
I ended up sanitizing a length of garden hose (~3') and taper wrapped electrical tape to build the diameter up to the size of the stopper hole, then again threw the whole thing back into the sanitizer for a bit. Ran the blow off tube into a 3 gallon stainless pot that I mixed the sanitizer in (with the sanitizer still in it). I get up this morning and about 1.5 gallons of my beer is in the stainless pot just from the krausen blowing off and fermentation is still very active.
Any ideas at this point? Let it run and keg whatever is left?

 

[flars]

The only option is to let it go until the most active part of the fermentation is over. When the fermentation slows, and krausen is no longer being pushed out, an air lock can be reinstalled.

Did your wort get to warm during the fermentation, resulting in a to active fermentation? Was the fermentor over filled, lacking a gallon and a half to two gallons of head space for the krausen?

 

[djfriesen]

Had this happen on a Winter Warmer I brewed about a month and a half ago (OG 1.098, IIRC). It popped the seal on by bucket lid (I had a 6.5 gallon batch in a 30l pail, so more than a gallon of headspace), and splattered kraeusen all over the wall of my bathtub. I basically had to leave the lid cracked and make sure I snapped it back into place once the fermentation started to slow back down. I had heard Notty was a monster, but this was my first time using it, and it went way beyond even that.

I'd just let it ride and keg what's left at the end. Active fermentation like that tends to keep anything from migrating into your beer, as the pressure tend to push everything out. Just make sure your blowoff is set up correctly when the fermentation slows.

 

[ragadas]

Things are back under control now. Fermentation has slowed, but I lost about 1.5 to 2 gallons.
I think too warm a temp was the culprit...it was about 70°.
I think I'm going to figure out some sort of a controlled fermentation chamber where I can crash the fermentation if I need to.