Beer coming up through air lock during fermentation

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wrangler83

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Im in my second day of fermentation and when I got home today I had some of my brew coming up through the air lock. The star san I had in the airlock was brown and some yeast appears to have come up through the whole in the lid. I think the air lock may have gotten clogged. I changed out the airlock but 30 minutes later it appears to be happening again. Should I leave it alone? Replace the air lock again? Crack the lid? I was just a little worried to have fermenting wart coming up and then sitting in the air lock. Any suggestions?
 
Sounds like healthy fermentation. You should hook up a blow off tube. Sanitize some tubing, one end goes in a container of sanitizer, the other end goes either into the bung or over the opening in the airlock (depending on what you're using). Unless you plan on always leaving a LOT of headspace in your primary, it's a good idea to use a blow-off as general practice for the first couple days of fermentation.
 
+1 for blow-off tube. Hopefully it's not your healthy yeast flowing out and mainly just the krausen foam, but blow-off tube for the first 48 hours is the way to go
 
This just happened to me for the first time today...a Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale clone and I only had about a gallon of headspace left in the carboy. I had to get rid of the airlock and remove the tubing from my auto siphon. Sprayed it with star-san and plugged it into my carboy, running the other end to a 1-liter bottle about 1/3 full of water.

My question: Is any of the krausen foam worth trying to hang onto? I could imagine feeding the tube into a sanitized growler with just enough sanitized water in it to fully submerge the tubing. When active fermentation stops, empty the growler back into the primary. Not worth the trouble?
 
i am having this same problem. in hour 30 or so after putting the wort into the fermenter. does it subside after another day or so? i am worried about it blowing while i'm asleep. i will certainly have a BO valve for my next brew though.
 
tyke said:
i am having this same problem. in hour 30 or so after putting the wort into the fermenter. does it subside after another day or so? i am worried about it blowing while i'm asleep. i will certainly have a BO valve for my next brew though.
Click to expand...

I think it depends a lot on the yeast and the beer. Generally after a few days you don't have to worry about a blow out. I generally watch it like a hawk for the first couple of days just to be safe. With some of my brews, especially the darker ones, I will change out the airlock two or three times during the first two days. After that things generally subside and the activity decreases a fair bit and then I leave it alone for another 2-4weeks.

If you are really worried about this one. One option if you have a bucket is to crack the lid open a little bit, put a towel underneath and let it go. It will likely be messy and yes there is a chance for infection, but I've done this before and it works well if you don't have a blow off tube.
 
the yeast seems pretty crazy. i have now been cleaning the BO valve every hour or so, as it has been very brown and bubbly, with some yeast/sediment/whatever present. i don't want to remove the lid and infect the beer (but with yeast this crazy i guess the chance of infection is pretty low). should i go to the HB store in the morning and get a BO valve, or can i let this one ride for now?
 
tyke said:
the yeast seems pretty crazy. i have now been cleaning the BO valve every hour or so, as it has been very brown and bubbly, with some yeast/sediment/whatever present. i don't want to remove the lid and infect the beer (but with yeast this crazy i guess the chance of infection is pretty low). should i go to the HB store in the morning and get a BO valve, or can i let this one ride for now?
Click to expand...

Are you using glass carboy or plastic bucket?

If glass, go to your local Lowe's or whatever. Buy a 4 ft section of 1 inch I.D. clear plastic tubing and a bucket. Fill the bucket with about a gallon of diluted Star San. The tubing will fit inside the neck of the carboy. Place the other end in the bucket of sanitizer. After high Krausen, take the tube out and replace with the air lock again.

I have not made a blow off tube for plastic buckets.
 
Funny thing. I went and checked on my 2.5 day two-hearted clone in my plastic fermenter. The lid was domed and the air lock full of krausen. I took the air lock off and cleaned and sanitized it. My 1 inch ID tubing fits inside the air lock perfectly. I quickly set up my bucket and now have a blow off tube for the plastic bucket. I worry about how effective it will be with the small diameter opening of the bucket grommet and the air lock. We shall see how well it works. It is burping pretty aggressively already.
 
After two days in the primary, my brew has blown off about 1/2 liter of krausen foam... Should I agitate the carboy to wet some of the foam inside and try to bring the volume back down a bit? At what point will the foam blow off begin affecting the final flavor of my beer? Thanks!
 
The foam is fine, let it keep going, that's a natural process. It should die down in another day or two.
 
MasterKBrewery said:
Funny thing. I went and checked on my 2.5 day two-hearted clone in my plastic fermenter. The lid was domed and the air lock full of krausen. I took the air lock off and cleaned and sanitized it. My 1 inch ID tubing fits inside the air lock perfectly. I quickly set up my bucket and now have a blow off tube for the plastic bucket. I worry about how effective it will be with the small diameter opening of the bucket grommet and the air lock. We shall see how well it works. It is burping pretty aggressively already.
Click to expand...

Got home from work. The setup worked flawlessly. It looks like the kraeusen is starting to settle down. I removed, cleaned and re-sanitized the whole setup. I put it back for now. If it stays clean, I will re-install the normal air lock set up this evening.

Side note - this one smells fantastic. The Wyeast British Ale II 1335 and all the hops are music to my nose. I cant wait to dry hop it and then eventually drink it. Really looking forward to this one.
 
tyke said:
plastic. now it's only bubbling every 10 seconds or so. what a funny process.
Click to expand...

Tyke,

That is the natural progression. The Krauesen (foam) peaks about 2-3 days out as the yeast does its thing. Then it begins to recede. After you are done you will have a ring of it on the side of your bucket. Sometimes they peak higher than you have space for and sometimes they dont.

Use the blowoff tube in the future and let it ride.
 
If you have a three piece airlock, a piece of tubing can fit over the inner tube on the airlock and be passed into a container with a starsan solution. I haven't had a krausen come close to blowing out, but as soon as I don't use one, I know it will.

EDIT: Exactly what you said at the top of this page, sorry about that...but it does work. You may find you need to clip the little cross plastic piece on the bottom of the airlock, but it should work just fine.
 
MasterKBrewery said:
Tyke,

That is the natural progression. The Krauesen (foam) peaks about 2-3 days out as the yeast does its thing. Then it begins to recede. After you are done you will have a ring of it on the side of your bucket. Sometimes they peak higher than you have space for and sometimes they dont.

Use the blowoff tube in the future and let it ride.
Click to expand...
that is what i have read and what i figured, but it being my first brew and it being MINE i was freaking out over it :)
 
so i hate to hijack this thread even more, but i'm already a bit below my TG after 72 hours. does this mean anything? should i bottle soon? does it need to ride anyway?
 
tyke said:
so i hate to hijack this thread even more, but i'm already a bit below my TG after 72 hours. does this mean anything? should i bottle soon? does it need to ride anyway?
Click to expand...

Do you mean final gravity(FG)? It's possible it could go below. Doesn't really matter what it is as long as its stable over a few days. If so, package it up.
 
twistr25 said:
Do you mean final gravity(FG)? It's possible it could go below. Doesn't really matter what it is as long as its stable over a few days. If so, package it up.
Click to expand...
yeah, final G, terminal G, whichever. cool, thanks!
 

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