It Blew the Fermentation Lock Right Off!

yea haha that will happen sometimes. For a 5 gallon batch I use a 6 gallon carboy just for space because it will rise in the earlier stage of fermentation

 

Don't worry. Clean the airlock and put it back in. If it happens again, rig up a blowoff tube. They're easy to rig up. Check Youtube for basic instructions. Easy and saves you from cleaning up the mess all day.

Good luck,
Jeff

 

You probably should have put it in the 6-gallon carboy. Presuming you are brewing 5-gallon batches, the fermenting beer needs some headspace - as much as gallon or more - to allow the krausen (the brownish foam on top) to form without overflowing. Basically what happened, the foaming up clogged the airlock, causing what in essence is a big popgun. This happens all the time to all of us, even with lots of headspace in the fermenter. Look up "blow-off tube" sometime and see how many threads pop up.
The good news is that you caught it fairly quickly, so you will not affect the beer in any noticeable way.
At this point, I would think that the biggest part of fermentation should be about done so you should be OK. Keep a close eye on the brew for the next couple days, them give it another week or so before checking gravity in prep for bottling.

 

Sometimes even a 6.5 gallon carboy is not enough if you have a very vigorous fermentation:

 

If you brew enough this will happen eventually. Violent fermentations are strong. I've had a few of these over the years.

I've even had a blow-off tube be pushed out from an extremely vigorous/violent fermentation of a belgian strong ale at high tyemperatures. Was very messy...

 

you know you're a homebrewer when.....you had to use a mop on a ceiling

 

One more time-if your airlock blows off or flows your fermentation temp is probably too high. Keeping it cool(with some exceptions) is the best thing you can do to make better beer

 

You don't need an airlock or even a blowoff tube during the vigorous fermentation period. Some of the best beers available are brewed in open tanks.

 

“You don't need an airlock or even a blowoff tube during the vigorous fermentation period. Some of the best beers available are brewed in open tanks.”

If you have any fruit flies (or any other flying insects) around then you can almost be assured that your beer will be infected if you don’t utilize an airlock.

I use 3-piece airlocks and a few times I have seen fruit flies in the water inside the airlock. How they ‘wiggled’ in is a mystery to me.

Cheers!

 

+1. Advising a newbie to do open fermentaions is nutz.

 

Does England have a fruit fly issue? I'm with JackH on this, open fermentations work great in some situations but if I tried it here I'd have more malt vinegar than I could use in 2 lifetimes. Even now in November I can't pour a beer into an open glass without attracting dozens of them within minutes. And I live in the country, many of my neighbors have livestock so the wind (and it always blows here) is full of shit particles from a variety of farm animals so I'd prefer to keep that out of my fermenters as well

 

No, we seem to get very little in the way of flies.If that's a problem then the best thing is to loosely cover the fermenter.
I get the impression that infection is a bigger issue for you; the obsession with sanitisation seems extreme. My first years of homebrewing were without the benefits of sanitising materials-they weren't available and later on I used sodium metabisulphite to rinse everything. Plus good old fashioned cleanliness and hygiene of course, but infections gave me a miss.
I', not suggesting for a minute that you don't continue with your sanitisation procedures but do wonder if it's overkill
Many breweries here use open tank fermenters in rooms open to the outside with no apparent difficulties as a result.

 

Loose covers don't keep fruit flies out.

 

Actually among homebrewers I'm not "obsessive" about sanitation, I am just very aware of the environment I live and brew in and take appropriate sanitation measures. Fruit flies are vectors for acetobacter and are impossible to control so I have to prevent them from ruining my beer-nothing does that better than a tightly sealed fermenter and a fluid filled airlock or blowoff hose.
I also realize that a very active fermentation really helps and might inhibit fruit flies, but what happens when fermentation slows down? In a commercial brewery there may be somebody there to notice it, I don't even look at my fermenter for a couple of weeks.

 

Some yeasts are known for having very vigorous fermentation and almost always need a blow-off. Wyeast 3068 - the German Wheat yeast, comes to mine, mostly because it is going crazy in my basement currently, and has done it every time I've used it.

Obsession with sanitation for a homebrewer seems like a good thing. I haven't had an infection yet, and I don't plan on lessening my (probably) extreme regiment of sanitation.

 

I've noticed the opposite with US-05. I use fermcap in the boil, yeast nutrient, pure O2 and pitch more than one pack into 1.080+ worts and get no blow off at all. I do usually ferment it at 65 or less so that could have something to do with it. But I almost always get blow off with liquid yeast. Even without doing a starter. Wondering if anyone else has similar experiance with US-05 or dry yeast in general?