Overflowing Krausen - Is this a big deal?

[brewmate76]

Hello all,

I came home today to see that my primary fermenter's air lock was filled with foamy light brown liquid and foam was coming out of the airlock's top. There does not appear to be too much CO2 - there's just a ton of foam and it's getting pushed up through the airlock. I put a new airlock on and the new one got dirty pretty quickly too.

I'm brewing Cooper's Dark ale with the Cooper's dry yeast. The house temp is 75 F (a bit higher than I'd like). My other two batches did not produce nearly as much foam, but were fermented at much lower temps.

I decided to just leave the airlock as is and clean it up when this vigorous fermention cycle is completed. Do I have the right idea?

Will I start to get off-flavors at 75 F or is that still within the realm of acceptability?

 

[phatuna]

75 might be too high. check out this thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/primary-fermenter-temp-too-high-116255/

search "blow off" and you will find out how to deal with the Krausen issue. It is really normal but does require your attention.

Cheers and welcome!

 

[MacBruver]

Search for information here on how to set up a blowoff tube. Also look into using a swamp cooler to get your fermentation temperatures under control. If your ambient temperature is 75 degrees, your beer's temperature could be over 80F when the fermentation is very vigorous, which is not going to be good for your beer.

 

[BillTheSlink]

Blow off is quite normal, but must be dealt with. It can actually end up a big mess. Really, when you put wort into the fermenter a blow off tube, or some way to evacuate the blow off cleanly should be installed. Basically the easiest way is to take a clear hose that just barely fits the hole and shove it in and the other end placed bellow the water line in a bucket of water in a pail of water. Really, there isn't any need to remove the tube that i can see, as long as you keep the end submerged, but you would have to keep up with it, as water evaporates. If you ever do a wheat beer like I just did you'll really find out how massive blow off can be.

ps: Make sure your blow off hose is sanitized!

 

[brewmate76]

Thanks for the info,

I installed a blowoff tube last night when I got home from work. That has alleviated my problem - seems to be working really well. The fermentation is still proceeding at a vigorous pace - plenty of CO2 coming out of my hose and making bubbles in the water.

The temperature in the house this morning was 70 F. I did not make a "swamp setup" because I figure the damage has already been done (if any occurred) and the fermentation is probably already over half complete. If I brew another beer during the summer, though, I'll make sure to regulate the temperature better

 

[caver95]

I used the same yeast and had the same issue this weekend, I have it in a water bath with a towel wrapped around it and a fan blowing on it to keep it below 72 its about 69-71 degress.

 

[woollybugger2]

I love the smell of bubbles in the morning!

It smells like victory!