Uncontrollable blowoff - let it ride?

It'll be fine. I had the top blow off a plastic fermenter in my living room once. Lid gasket ended up on the opposite side of the room. Krausen on the ceiling. You get the picture. Open fermented over night foam dumping onto the floor and I was worried about it but it turned out to be an awesome scotch ale.

 

you can always harvest the krausen. this is a great time to test your on the fly brewing skills. if you have a few hours get a wort ready for fermentation and add the collected krausen. it will take off in a matter of hours. maybe 2. if you don't have much time consider a simple DME wort.

you can have your very own Burton Union System with a bit of planning.

as for what do do, let it ride. when the krausen dies put a cap on it. many breweries practiced open fermentation. it's really not as a big a deal as it's made out to be, but those brewers did take care of the surrounding environment which you likely have not. if krausen is going out there isn't too much risk of anything else going in. keep you pets and children away. don't let it get sloppy or you will have real bugs, ants.
Cheers.

 

Given the time of the year I would suggest that you just let it ride.

If it was during a warmer time of the year where flying insects (e.g., fruit fly season) was more of a concern I would have strongly suggested that you insert a blow off tube.

Cheers!

P.S. Next time consider adding some Fermcap to the wort in the fermenter. It does a fabulous job mitigating krausen and it has no flavor impacts to the beer.

 

How is this beer going to be sour? Surette is just brett.

 

If it were me, I'd clean it up and attach a blow-off tube (just for peace of mind). Fermcap-S can be your friend in these situations.

 

I suppose I should ask which Surette.

 

TBH I havent had the beer since learning I am allergic to brett, and haven't had it since the first run in 375ml bottles. I don't remember it being sour, but it looks like it is. My bad!

 

How do you think I figured it out? At first I thought it was pedio, I seemed to have reactions from sour beers only. I finally had a reaction from on of my home brewed brett beers. But there is enough good beer out there I can do without.

 

The fact that fermentation was that vigorous, I wouldn't be too worried at all!! Unless you had it in a filthy room with crap in the air!

 

Why?

Cheers!

 

I too learned the same thing when I made a Graf beer. Fermentation was nuts for 2 full days and krausen was constantly coming through the blow off tube and blew the the stopper off repeatedly. That was nuts.

 

Use a defoamer in the fermenter. Whirlfoc wouldn't prevent this.

 

Wouldn't the whirlfloc just help with clarity, not krausen?