Duvel - We have liftoff!! - what now?

[JGROSS]

Brewed up a AHS full boil batch of Duvel clone last night. Everything went smooth, nailed the 1.080 OG on the head. This is my 5th batch.

There is a lot of sugar in the recipe, 2lbs of corn syrup, 8lbs ex pale, 1lb candi sugar. Re-hydrateded two packets of Safbrew T-58 yeast.

Within three hours I had my first signs of bubbles through the airlock. As I was getting ready to head out the door for work this morning, I heard it. The airlock had launched and left a nice mark on the ceiling. The krausen was flowing out like one of those snake fireworks we used to have as kids. I cleaned it up as much as I could with my time constraints, put in the tub and had to leave for work.

I'm hoping it will continue to crank out enough CO2/krausen today to not allow any air in the open top. Do you think this will affect my beer at all?

What is my next move?

Thanks

 

[Hoosier]

did you cover the opening with anything?

 

[JGROSS]

did you cover the opening with anything?

I tried but the krausen was free flowing out the top of the carboy at a good rate. I don't have a blow off tube (stupid I know). And I was running late for work.

 

[Hoosier]

Should this ever happen again and you are faced with time constraints just spray the inside of a zip lock or other sandwich bag with star san and slap it over the top. Bacteria wont be able to get into the fermenter that way. It wont stop the flow but it will protect the beer well enough until you can deal with it.

There is a small chance that you could pick up a wild yeast or some other critter but it is pretty unlikely since the krausen is pushing everything out of the top still. Dont worry about it too much and just deal with it first chance you have. I am sure everything will be fine. Cheers!

 

[Hoosier]

I personally don’t use airlocks until fermentation starts to slow. I use a sanitized piece of foil loose on the top of my carboy. Much like folks do when making starters. Only after the krausen subsides do I add a carboy cap with an airlock. I do take some preventive measures with fermcap S and an appropriate amount of headspace. This way if things go a little crazy I dont have an airlock getting launched into space with a spray of krausen everywhere. It will just roll out of the top. Much easier to clean that way.