Airlock Bubbling

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

stewills

Member
Joined
18/8/04
Messages
22
Reaction score
0
hi all!

i just put in my second brew.... i changed the airlock and it is bubbling like anything.. in fact, the brew has been bubbling so much that the beer is going into the airlock... is that normal? is it also normal that the beer is pouring out to the lid of the fermenter (from the airlock)?

let me know!!! thanks !
 
stewills,

not a 'normal' event but quite likey to happen with some types of beers, wheat beers being one.

i might be worth swapping the airlock for a blow off tube. this will sound very unclean however it might fix a few problems that can happen, and whilst the beer is brewing this strong you should be safe.

if you have a two-piece air lock, take it out, clean the air lock and around the grommet using alcohol wipes, one-shot, sling shot or something similar. sanatise some 12.5mm (i think thats the right size) tubing and fit it to the base of the air lock. put the air lock base back into the grommet and put the hose/tube into a bucket of water, the 1.7kg malt tins work well. this will form your air lock and it can creep out of the fermenter to its hearts content.

if you got the s-bend type, do the same but you will have to the tube into grommet instead.

failing that, you might need to look at taking the lid of the fermenter and as it dies back clean and sanatise the lid and put it and the air lock back into place :)
 
hi all!

sorry, i don't think i expressed myself properly. What happened was that it looks frothy in the airlock....then the second thing is that the airlock is bubbling so often or much i should say that the beer or liquid is coming out of the airlock and falling onto the lid of the fermenter and around the grommet (where the airlock is stuck onto). Is that safe? and is it normal?

i think some of you think that my beer is falling out of the fermenter lid which is not right...

sorry !
 
The amount of froth that forms on top of beer while it is fermenting depends on many factors. The type of yeast, ferment temperature, quantity of yeast pitched, ingredients etc.

I know of a brewer doing an RIS, the airlock blocked, the fermenetr base bulged a bit, he removed the airlock and the build up of pressure sparyed RIS over his ceiling, which he then cleaned.

Some combinations grow huge foam heads.

As mentioned earlier, fit a tube to allow this to escape. Clean up with iodine, bleach, alcohol etc.

Make sure your ferment is around 20-22 degrees.

If this is an ongoing issue, you may like to use a 30 litre fermenter to do your 23 litre batches.
 
Hehehehehe some beers foam so much the foam fills the 'well' in the lid and pours down like a beers shower down the sides of the fermenter :)

Just wipe up the beer occasionally and wipe the lid with a clean cloth soaked with sanitiser

Jovial Monk
 
Thats the reason I gave up on airlocks. Now I simply loosen the lid. Some spills down the sides. Easy to clean up. No sanitation problems.
 
Now my brew is not bubbling after cleaning the airlock when the fermenting subsided a bit.... it has only been three days that i put the brew on so i don't think the fermenting process is over... is that okay?


thanks everybody for the replies!
 
What temperature did you ferment at? If it's too high, the yeast can finish in 3 days, but you will likely have off flavours.
 
the temp i had it from thursday night to friday night was 24-25 and now it is sitting at around 22....
 
the air lock might not be in place quite right, check you gravity and see if it keeps droping. if its around 1.010 or so, then it could be done and then its bottling time :)

* disclaimer the final gravity might be different for you beer check it, if its the same for two days then it should be complete
 
I had a volcano once. Bits of krausen spitting a foot into the air with a kind of pulsing rhythm. I was in awe, a bit like watching a violent act of nature.

I found that one of my racking tubes fitted neat and snug over the top of my s-bend airlock and made an easy blow-off tube into a bucket of water.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top