Yeast in my airlock...

[Gorrog]

Uh oh... what's going on?

[Tweek]

you just have an active ferment. Pull it out, rinse it with sanitizer or vodka, fill it again and stick it back in. no big deal.

[Gorrog]

Active ferment all right... I just had an explosion! HA!

[BrewDog]

How's the temperature? You should be below 70 F.
Keep the fermenter cool or else you will get off flavors.

[Gorrog]

yeah, fortunately it was in my newly built fermentation cooler, so the explosion was contained. And I am keeping it at about 65-68 degrees :)...

Thanks for the tip!

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by Gorrog
yeah, fortunately it was in my newly built fermentation cooler

What kind of cooler did you construct? I'd like to see pictures if you've got them.

[fretlessman71]

Another thought is if you're having that active of a fermentation, you might consider using a blowoff tube instead until it calms down some...

[Gorrog]

Hey, thanks for the blowoff tube tip, that will come in handy because the explosions were a heck of a deal to clean up!

And the fermentation cooler that I built can be found here (thanks to tonyc)

http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF

One thing that I would recommend for this though, if you decide to build it. Make sure that you use a cutting tool that cuts cleanly and in exact squares. You don't use screws in building this, only glue, so if the seal is not fairly flush, you will lose a lot of energy. I am actually going to have to go back and recut mine at a later date.

I don't have any pictures of mine handy, but if I get some later on I will get them for you!

[Grog]

Originally posted by Gorrog
One thing that I would recommend for this though, if you decide to build it. Make sure that you use a cutting tool that cuts cleanly and in exact squares. You don't use screws in building this, only glue, so if the seal is not fairly flush, you will lose a lot of energy. I am actually going to have to go back and recut mine at a later date.

I don't have any pictures of mine handy, but if I get some later on I will get them for you!

One way to save some of that energy you are losing (until you have an opportunity to re-cut) is to spray some Great Stuff spray foam insulation wherever you have a gap. They make a minimally expanding one that should probably do the trick quite nicely. The stuff expands to twice it's normal size, so use it cautiously. It should help for all joints but the lid.

[HogieWan]

I plan on making one out of wood (plywood walls filled with foam insulation), but that's low on the list right now.