I brewed a black ipa this past Monday. Followed the recipe perfectly. I just bought one of those plastic fastferments and used that. After a day it started to bubble. But Thursday it built so much pressure, the lid popped off and made a large mess. I cleaned everything up and put the lid and the airlock back on. It hasn't started bubbling yet and it's Saturday. Is the beer ruined or is the yeast died? Has this happened to anyone else? How can I prevent this in the future? Thanks
It's probably finished fermenting. Have you taken a gravity reading with a hydrometer? How you can prevent a blowoff in the future: - Make sure your fermenter has adequate headspace - Control fermentation temperature
The beer is probably okay and the yeast are unaffected by blowing your lid. It's been five days . . . that's common to finish active fermentation. If you replaced the lid promptly (minimize oxygen exposure) and kept everything sanitized (at least in the primary) the beer should be just fine. Even though you see no signs of active fermentation, the yeast are in the conditioning phase which is vital to a good beer. Give it at least another week and if possible raise the temp a degree or three . . . you want to keep those yeasties in the ballgame. From your description the airlock got plugged resulting in a blown lid. Search this Forum or Google Images for "blowoff tube" to see how to handle this in the future.
Besides the two biggie items that VikeMan mentioned, you should anticipate when you will have the right conditions for this type of highly-active fermentation. I don't know how to best connect a blow-off tube to your particular airlock (Google blow-off tube or search for videos on YouTube), but anytime a recipe has a predicted OG of 1.070 (give or take a few points), a blow-off tube is a great idea to prevent what happened to you.
Your fermentor has a screw-cap?. If it is so , your fermentor is leaking through this cap.You need to use teflon . At the beginning fermentation is too strong that a little leak doesn`t make any difference but when it starts to wind down you don`t get air-lock activity due this leaking ,nevertheless fermentation is still going.
I appreciate the replies. I toke the top off and put Teflon tapes on the threads. The beer had a odd smell almost a fruity smell. I'm going to let it continue doing its thing for a few more days then see what happens. I'm suppose to dry hop it for another 14 days after fermentation.
The fruity smell is probably a combination of hops and yeast. Most homebrewers have probably had the top of the fermenter blow off. I tie a towel around my bucket so if it does blow off there is not as much of a mess. I also have a towel that my bucket sits on. Have fun!
I've only ever had one blowoff. It was fermenting too hot and I didn't use a blowoff tube. I pretty much use one for early fermentation, especially big beers, and switch to a airlock when it calms down. Haven't had one since.
