Foam coming out of my airlock!

[wgould]

Hey folks,

So, I came home from work today to find foam coming out of my airlock. Lots and lots of foam. The airlock is full of wort. I'm using an easy fermenter with a brewhouse pilsner. Any thoughts on why this happened and what I should do now? There's still foam coming out, but it's more manageable now. I'm less concerned with the mess than contaminating the beer. Should I take the air lock off an clean it? This picture is after I cleaned off the foam.

BeerFoamOverflow.jpg

[RubberToe]

Hi Wes, you should clean that up right away. If you can, find something to use as a blow off tube instead (sanitise it first). Airlocks have a tendency to get jammed up with krausen and can also get completely blocked which will cause your fermenter to explode beer all over the ceiling.

It's a pain in the ass and kind of a right of passage.

[mr x]

I'd probably try to sanitize the top well, and put in new clean airlock. Be careful not to let goo drop into the beer when you remove the airlock.

[GAM]

No problem. What yeast and temp?

Sandy

[Jimmy]

It should be fine. What did you have in the airlock for liquid?

Do you have another airlock? If so, I'd change the airlock out for a new one. If not, just clean that one out and fill with a starsan mixture (if you have it).

There are other ways to deal with this in the future - install a blowoff tube (google it if you're not sure what it is).

[wgould]

I don't have a spare airlock, the other one I have is in use on my secondary. There was just water in the first one air lock. Sounds like I should remove and clean it and fill it with star san this time?

[CorneliusAlphonse]

yeah you should be alright just removing, cleaning and replacing.

[GAM]

You lost less than you will in transfer. If you have positive pressure do nothing, but clean the exterior of your system.

The type of liquid in the lock dosn't matter but will be harder to clean if its its beer.

Sandy

[Keith]

Sanitize the lid, replace the air lock and fill that with Starsan, should be good to go. I was fortunate to have never experienced that so far. However Bottle bombs aren't fun to clean up. So I guess that was my right of passage haha.

[wgould]

I've taken the lid off the airlock and cleaned it with star san to make sure the holes weren't clogged. I also refilled the airlock with a bit more star san. The tank is bubbling like mad again through the air lock, so I'll likely have to repeat this process. The wort is angry!

[Keith]

Keep an eye on it, if the airlock starts to crust over, you could be in for a unpleasant surprise.

[LeafMan66_67]

Happened to me today. My 12 year old called to let me know it blew through the air lock and was hissing! S -04 chews through wort in a hurry. I replaced the cover On the wide mouth fermenters and added a blow off tube. As everyone said, clean 'er up, refill and watch to make sure if doesn't plug up.

[Keith]

Happened to me today. My 12 year old called to let me know it blew through the air lock and was hissing! S -04 chews through wort in a hurry. I replaced the cover On the wide mouth fermenters and added a blow off tube. As everyone said, clean 'er up, refill and watch to make sure if doesn't plug up.

Have you tried those clear buckets Dave sells? I have 10-11 liters head space in mine, krausen on 4 batches didn't even come close to the top.

[wgould]

Yeah Keith, I have a Festabrew ESB fermenting in one of those. No issues at all. I bought this Fast Fermenter from Dave on the weekend thinking it might be easier not having to switch to a secondary. Maybe it will be next time?

I decided to take the top off the fermenter and clean the entire airlock and lid. Got it all cleaned and sanitized, put it back on and it's bubbling over again. I don't have any tubing for a blow off. I'll have to try that the next round. Hopefully this batch still turns out. We'll see. My only solution for now to keep the froth at bay is to wrap the top in loose paper towel.

[Keith]

yea that's all you can do. As for moving to a secondary, just drop that all together and primary ferment. I brew, ferment and keg around day 10-12. I took the advise of the guys on here and removed that unnecessary step. May be a different story once I start brewing 25 gal batches, but right now it's far from it.

[wgould]

Thanks Keith, I think I'll try that process for the next beer. It sounds much easier and less of a chance to contaminate the beer. How long do you leave it in the keg before you drink it after day 10-12? I'm going to be kegging both batches and I've not done it before. From what I've read, it sounds like you apply more CO2 pressure for a period of time. Do you cold crash after fermentation?

[Keith]

Thanks Keith, I think I'll try that process for the next beer. It sounds much easier and less of a chance to contaminate the beer. How long do you leave it in the keg before you drink it after day 10-12? I'm going to be kegging both batches and I've not done it before. From what I've read, it sounds like you apply more CO2 pressure for a period of time. Do you cold crash after fermentation?

I rocked 6 kegs (20F @ 27PSI til it stopped carbonating), bled the pressure, then put it on tap. I poured a cpl samples off yesterday which came out perfect in the glass and warm. I got a head cold now so didn't try it tonight.

However if I'm not low on beer, I'll normally hook it up at serving pressure and visit in a week or 2, or I'll keg, hook it at 30 psi for 24 hours, bleed pressure and set to serving psi.

Ideally set it and forget it is the best thing.

As for cold crashing I don't do that. Unfortunately don't have the space for a chamber right now, but I don't have any issues. After a few days in the keg cold, the first cpl pints are cloudy and the rest come out fine.

[saosborne]

hey wes for next time the first thing you should do is replace the brewhouse yeast that comes with the kits. havent done one in a while but i think they are still using the coopers yeast with most of their kits. buy some us-05 with the next kit. i cant remember the yeast having any terrible flavors (coopers) but the shit almost always makes a mess. you may also want to ferment at a lower temp that might help with a less vigorous ferment

[wgould]

hey wes for next time the first thing you should do is replace the brewhouse yeast that comes with the kits. havent done one in a while but i think they are still using the coopers yeast with most of their kits. buy some us-05 with the next kit. i cant remember the yeast having any terrible flavors (coopers) but the shit almost always makes a mess. you may also want to ferment at a lower temp that might help with a less vigorous ferment

It was indeed coopers yeast that came with the brewhouse kit. I'll pick up some of the other yeast you mentioned next time. I'm fermenting this batch in my furnace room which might have contributed to the problem. It tends to get a bit warmer in there than the rest of the house. Ideally, I'd love to do this in the garage, but I don't want to have to keep the heat on out there.

[darciandjenn]

Does the Pilsner kit come with an ale yeast? Next time, I'd throw in two packs of dry lager yeast and ferment it cooler (in your garage maybe). Basically no risk of this kind of mess with lager yeast. If you ferment it warm with ale yeast, it's going to taste more like an ale and won't have that great crisp pilsner quality. I guess it depends on what you're going for, though!

How hot is your furnace room?

[saosborne]

i missed the part about it being a pilsner. furnace room would most likley be too warm. you might try a swamp cooler. get a garbage can and put the whole fast ferment in it with the stand, fill the can with water drape some wet towels over the exposed portion and put a fan on it. should drop the temp of the wort. you could add ice to cool it further probably wont do much for your current batch's flavor but with a lagering yeast you will see a difference in the flavor. the coopers that came with the kit is a ale yeast ferments best between 20-26*C (according to the yeast chart) not a lagering yeast. my guess is its included with the kit because it ferments at room temp with room to withstand the temp increase during active fermentation without too many off flavors at the higher temps. basically a set it and forget it solution until you end up cleaning beer off the ceiling.

[wgould]

Does the Pilsner kit come with an ale yeast? Next time, I'd throw in two packs of dry lager yeast and ferment it cooler (in your garage maybe). Basically no risk of this kind of mess with lager yeast. If you ferment it warm with ale yeast, it's going to taste more like an ale and won't have that great crisp pilsner quality. I guess it depends on what you're going for, though!

How hot is your furnace room?

The furnace room is probably 25 or 26. Would most beers be ok fermenting in an unheated garage this time of year? If so, that's probably the ticket.

[Jimmy]

What's the temp of the unheated garage? Each yeast normally has the recommended fermentation temp on the package, but I typically ferment my ales at about 68*F. Lager fermentation is typically done at 45-55*F.

[darciandjenn]

It depends on the temp but I'd say no. Lager ferments quite a bit cooler than ale yeast does, so it might be ok for a lager yeast, but probably not an ale yeast. That being said, 25-26 seems awfully high to me. I try to keep my ales between 18-20. Remember that fermentation will also add a degree or 2 so you're really fermenting at 27-28 which is pretty darn high. I've been obsessing about fermentation temperatures lately as way to improve on the BestCase kits, so I'm sorry if I seem fixated on this!

All that business aside, it'll still end up as beer.

[GuingesRock]

^ nice. Also, it's only the first few days of active fermentation (maybe 3-4 days, bit longer for lagers) where fermentation temperature control is most critical.