Airlock

Your going to want to get a blow-off tube on that ASAP, before the airlock clogs and the lid on the bucket blows off. The fermentation is going strong so don't worry about the risk of infection when you take the airlock off to put a blow-off tube on it.

EDIT: I would just take the airlock off, clean it up and put the mail piece back on, and rig a blow-off tube to the airlock. Then just run the tube into a growler or something filled (1/2 way) with sanitizer; and keep an eye on it.

 

This the down side of not using a carboy with a blow-off tube for a big beer.

I can speak from past experience that all of the sugars in the krausen will eventually clog up your airlock. Luckily I pulled my airlock before the top exploded off but as I took off my airlock, there was definitely a pressure release from inside. I suggest periodically taking the airlock off, cleaning it, and replacing it.

 

If you can shove a sanitized piece of tubing into the hole for the airlock (with or without the grommet) and put the other end of the tubing into a container of water, then you will better off, with much less chance of clogging and pressure buildup.

 

I don't think the tubing will have a large enough diameter. I think that is likely to get clogged as well.

 

I'm sticking with my original advice:

"I suggest periodically taking the airlock off, cleaning it, and replacing it."

 

I agree that larger is better for a blow-off tube. As I don't ferment in a bucket, I don't have a good feel for the diameter of the hole in the OP's bucket. I will say, though, that I have used 3/8" ID tubing for a blow-off tube many times without any problem. I, too, would be leery of using anything smaller.

 

You would probably be alright to just take off the airlock until things calm down. As long as stuff is coming out of the bucket, nothing is going to get in.

 

One other suggestion. If you lift the lid of the bucket you might find that you can scrape a lot of the krausen off to the side away from the hole in the top to help prevent it from clogging.

 

Very vigorous fermentation! The only other thing I'll say is that if you want to use this tubing for siphoning again, then clean it as soon as you can after using it for your blow off. Otherwise the crud on the inside will be hard to remove. OTOH, tubing is cheap so it is probably not a big deal.

 

It looks OK to me.

 

Options (many presented to you:

1) Keep airlock on and pray.
2) Add a blow off tube
3) Remove it all (I'd suggest covering the hole with sanitized tin foil to keep something from dropping in, especially fruit flies)
4) Crack the lid and put it back on without clipping it fully back into place. Similar in philosophy to #3

 

That's fine.

 

I am guilty of frequently filling my fermentation bucket too high. When my airlock clogs I put a coffee cup over the hole for a couple of days then I put the airlock back in. I also tie a towel around the top of my bucket so if the lid blows the top stays in place.

 

A few days ago my Dubbel got a bit too vigorous and I used kjyost’s solution number 3: I just placed a square of tin foil that I weighed down with steel nuts at the four corners.

I don’t know if the OP would consider purchasing another plastic bucket but I use 7.9 gallon buckets to ferment my beers. The ‘extra’ 1.4 gallons of headspace helps out (but as you can see it still wasn’t enough for my dubbel).

Cheers!