Primary over-flow, beer ruined?

[eurc51]

I went down in the basement this morning to check on my wee heavy on its second day in the primary. The foam from the fermentation had risen up through the bottle neck and into the airlock. The airlock still seemed to be working. Although the water in the airlock was the color of my beer, it was still bubbling. The cap on the airlock had some dried foam on it, but it was still letting the CO2 out.

So, is my beer ruined? Is there anything I should do, or just wait for the foam to subside?

Thanks as always,

E

 

[Chad]

I went down in the basement this morning to check on my wee heavy on its second day in the primary. The foam from the fermentation had risen up through the bottle neck and into the airlock. The airlock still seemed to be working. Although the water in the airlock was the color of my beer, it was still bubbling. The cap on the airlock had some dried foam on it, but it was still letting the CO2 out.

So, is my beer ruined? Is there anything I should do, or just wait for the foam to subside?

Thanks as always,

E

It's fine. You just have an active fermentation. Clean and refill the airlock or rig up a blowoff tube. See the discussion in response to a similar question for an illustrated lesson in quickie blowoff tubes.

Take care,
Chad

 

[videoman]

Agree with Chad... my oatmeal stout went nuts this weekend and continued to spew foam for about 12 hours... keep an airlock in sanitizer, and swap them out periodically till the foam stops... you'll be good to go.

 

[TheJadedDog]

You'll be fine, you're just having an active fermentation. Remove the airlock, clean, sanitize, and replace (no need to worry about the time the fermenter is open during the process, the CO2 will keep any nasties out of your beer). Congrats on having a nice healthy ferment.