But a little hint, first. Sometimes that airlock is clogged at the bottom, inside the bucket. If you just walk over and pull it out, you may get a face full of beer. Carefully pull it off, and then clean it sanitize it and put it back on. If it happens again, then sanitize a piece of tubing (like you have for your siphoning) and stuff that in the airlock hole and put the other end in a jug filled with water. That is called a "blow off tube" and you may need one if the krausen keeps sneaking up on you like that.
You could also take it out, sanitize a piece of tubing, and insert on end of the tubing into the rubber bung in your buckey, and the other into a jar or water. This will allow the gas the escape, without letting contaminants in. It is called a blowoff tube
Thanks. I just took it off and cleaned it and stuck it back in. The airlock is bubbling like crazy! I may try to ride this one out and get a blowoff tube for the next one. I figured this 7g bucket would be big enough, but I may have over filled it when I added water to the 2.5 gallon wort.
If I wanted to make a blow off tube, do I need to worry about the tubing being food grade? Or can I just go to Lowe's and pick up whatever clear, vinyl tubing they have?
lowes tubing will work. if you have some already to siphon with it will probably fit over the post inside the airlock, if you run some hot water over the hose it will slip on easier.
dont sweat all the fixes.....just get a bigger bucket....i use the 7.9 gal bucket its for making 6 gal kit wines 5gal of beer has plenty of room for active fermentation
* Congratz..on the beer.
* check your airlock. Some of them have a little cross bar on there which can make them get clogged. Just dremmle it of break of with plyers
* 5/16" inside diameter tubing will slip over the base piece of your airlock works great for blowoffs.
* fermcap-s, baby gas-x, or generic will help with boil overs and blowoffs.
I just attach a blow off tube to every batch now for primary fermentation.
I love the sound it makes...I have to hide the container of water so the kids don't dump it....every time I brew a batch my wife thinks the kids have gas.