Too much, too soon?

[Philip]

Howdy. Sorry to be siging up just to ask a question, but I'm puzzled here.

This is my 8th batch of homebrew, all the others have gone fine. But now, less than 12 hours after pitching my yeast, I've got HUGE amounts of foam. It was leaking out up through my airlock, and dribbling down the side of my carboy. I took the airlock and stopper off, and now the foam is just slowly growing and piling up, it just keeps on coming.

what the heck happened?

If it ever calms down to where I can stick the stopper and airlock back on, I'm gonna ride it out and see if the beer will still be OK. But this is really weird, and I can't find any information about something similar happening, at least not so damn quick.

 

[Brewer_Steve]

Put the stopper back in but use your racking cane as a blowoff tube.
Do a search on this forum for more information.

 

[JesseRC]

Uh its called blow off. Yes is common for it to krausen and foam to spill out. Most folks do 1 of 3 things. THey use larger fermenter like 6.5 or 7 gallon fermenter for 5g batches, or they may also use a blow off tube. WHich is a tube that it attached to top lid or carboy neck then the other end goes into a jar of water/sanitizer. And lastly some folks use fermcaps, which is a foam inhibitor.

 

[Philip]

I've never needed a blow off tube before, but I have read about them. It is a 6 gallon carboy.

It just really threw me for a loop that it was doing this so damn fast. Usually it takes a few days for the top to get really thick.

So I'm guessing with a blow off tube in place, I won't need the airlock, right? sounds like a blow off tube is basically just a really big airlock.

 

[Yooper]

I've never needed a blow off tube before, but I have read about them. It is a 6 gallon carboy.

It just really threw me for a loop that it was doing this so damn fast. Usually it takes a few days for the top to get really thick.

So I'm guessing with a blow off tube in place, I won't need the airlock, right? sounds like a blow off tube is basically just a really big airlock.

Exactly! It's very common to need a blow off tube in a 6 gallon carboy.

One tip- keep an eye on the temperature of the fermenter. A vigorous fermentation can create tons of heat, bringing the temperature of the wort inside the fermenter up to 10 degrees higher than ambient air. If you have a stick-on thermometer, it can give you an idea of the actual temperature of the wort. A "hot" fermentation can cause some off-flavors, as well as even more vigorous activity in the fermenter. If it's too warm, you can stick it in a cooler place, or place the fermenter in a bin filled with water and a few frozen water bottles.

You can replace the blow off tube with an airlock when fermentation slows down, but you don't have to. You can just keep the blow off tube on it.

 

[Philip]

Got my tube rigged up, and it's making lovely noise.

The temperature is always something I worry about a tiny bit during the summer, especially since I live in Florida. I've got one of those stick-on thermometers, and I guess I'll just have to run the AC extra for the next week or two.

Next batch of beer is gonna be a saison, so I won't have to worry about the temp.