Okay so brewed on wednesday, a wheat beer, I noticed yesterday it was bubbling like crazy out of the airlock, almost forcefully. more then I have ever seen it before. Then I went to check on it today and some beer actually had mad its way through the air lock and all over the top of the fermentor. I dont think this is good. what does this mean and how can a salvage my brew.
I can't imagine that it's anything more than Krausen. I would clean the airlock and replace it. Shouldn't affect your brew if sanitary practices are followed in the placement of the airlock.
Its no biggy and happens occasionally. Either do what naterock said or set up a blow off tube. If your using a 3 piece airlock you can just put some 1\2" ID tubing over the inner stem of the airlock and run that into a bucket or growler (usually how i do it) filled with some sanitizer solution. Edit: some beers just get crazy and do this but if your not giving the beer enough headspace in the carboy then this will happen all the time and I'd recommend getting a bigger vessel to ferment in.
You should always start with a blowoff tube and then go to the airlock after about a week. It is normal.
That happened to me once as well. I just took out the airlock, cleaned it, re-sanatized everything, and replaced it. My fermentation was so active that I would have had to do this about 3 or 4 times so what I did instead was just take the lid off of my fermenting bucket and rest it on top. What that did was allow for the CO2 to escape without creating so much force to where more krausen reached the airlock or even blew the airlock out. Not the best practice, but the beer turned out fine.
Hasn't happened to me yet but it's pretty common, I will definitely be using a blowoff tube for my next brew since it's a saison.
