Fermenting Problem

[ElecLadyLand13]

Today while watching the Sabres vs. Rangers game (Go SABERS!!) and doing homework, I hear bang. I looked around to see if everything was ok and I realized it had come from my closet. first thing i think of is "Oh God the Beer!" I opened the door and foam is shooting out of the air lock about 4-8". So i ran and sanitized the racking tube and the hose and start syphoning out some of the beer to allow for room for expansion in the container. I think i saved it but if not thats ok too. I used a normal amount of yeast (cooper's double size packet) and the amount of malt the recipe called for and filled up to the 5 gallon mark. Any ideas why? probably something really dumb... thanks

[danno]

some malts and some yeasts are prone to vigorous fermentation, which is only a bad thing because of the mess they make. your beer is fine...

if you have one of those stick on thermometers, make sure you're not fermenting too warm(ly). lots of blowoff can be a signal of too high of fermentation temps... (if you don't have one, add it to your list of stuff to buy with your next batch...)

[wortchillergoal]

A number of factors coyld lead to this situation. First though, your beer has most likely sufferedno harm and will turn out fine. We all have had beer shoot out of the airlock. Some have had the lid blown off their plastic fermenter.

What style beer and what was the opening gravity? At what tempature is the fermenter sitting? What size abd type of container are you using for your fermenter?

When I do a high gravity beer, I use a blow off tube instead of an airlock for the first few days. That is a tube that fits in side the neck of the carboy or hole in a plastic fermenter top. You place the other end in a vessel that is filled with a sani soultion. This allows the junk produced from fermentation to blow out of the fermenter.

You beer will be fine. Go Sabers. Number 19, Tim Connoly, is from the Syr area. We all want the Cup to come home.

[ElecLadyLand13]

Well, The recipe called for a lot of malt than waht im used too. Most of the time i do about 5 lbs of malt but this time the recipe called for 7. It was very interesting. Ill have to give that blow off thing a try. I think i can make one
ill have to give it a try. Can i do that instead of an airlock every time? I dont have the Original gravity, i kind of forgot to do it....

[wortchillergoal]

Originally posted by ElecLadyLand13
Well, The recipe called for a lot of malt than waht im used too. Most of the time i do about 5 lbs of malt but this time the recipe called for 7. It was very interesting. Ill have to give that blow off thing a try. I think i can make one
ill have to give it a try. Can i do that instead of an airlock every time? I dont have the Original gravity, i kind of forgot to do it....

Yes, you can use the blowoff tube at any time. It makes most sense when the fermentation will be the most active.

[BrewDog]

If it's 7 lbs of DME, that's an SG of about 1.061. If it's LME, it's around 1.050. That'll leave you with either roughly a 5% or 6% ABV brew. Totally within normal range. Nothing to worry about.

I often will start my primary with a blowoff tube, just in case. Most of the time it's unnecessary, but every now and then I'm glad I did.

[ElecLadyLand13]

Thanks guys... im definitely going to make a blow off container this weekend so i dont run into that problem again.