Beer Through The Airlock.....about 1lt Violently

[Flipper79]

Hi all,

I put my latest effort down to ferment on Thursday, and upon inspection on Friday I found the airlock had popped open and spilled about a lt of beer through the airlock. I've never had this happen before, does anyone have a theory as to what might have caused it?

Details of the brew:

Muntons Pilsner 1.8kg can x 2
Brewcraft no.62 czech converter x 2
Morgans Wheat extract x 1kg
topped up to 45lts (60lt fermenter)
Brewcraft European Lager Yeast, brew was pitched onto the trub from the previous brew
Initial Temperature 21deg, immediatly crashed to 13deg.

 

[Ross]

I've never had this happen before, does anyone have a theory as to what might have caused it?

Brewcraft European Lager Yeast, brew was pitched onto the trub from the previous brew
Initial Temperature 21deg,

There's your answer....pitching on the previous yeast cake & at warm temps....the brew would have gone off like a rocket.

Cheers Ross

 

[Barramundi]

ive been on night shift for 3 nights , just came home to find my latest wheat beer has escaped the airlock , not as violently as that though...

 

[Jazzafish]

I get this from time to time... only if i put too much beer in a fermenter with a healthy dose of yeast. Last time the beer that fermented like this won a comp!

Basically it is a combination of a few things in your case. First thing is the hot start, will kick off hard and fast. From there there had to be a block in the air lock, which was forced out with the fermenting pressure. Can't make it out in the photo, but the krausen may have filled the headspace and blocked the air lock.

Either way the beer will be fine. Safer to replace the lid with foil or glad wrap and be careful not to let any of the slurry outside of the fermenter make its way back into the beer. But leaving it as is should be fine too.

 

[Flipper79]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

If you have a look at the 2nd photo you can see where I have cleaned up most of the krausen and replaced the airlock with a clean one.

I would have thought that a pitching temp of 21 and crashing to 13deg would have been acceptable. Normally my fridge can cool 45lts at about 1.5deg/hr.

Any how its bubbling away down stairs now so I guess I'll see what it tastes like in a few weeks.

 

[BungalowBill]

I havent had that problem, although it has brushed up against he lid and airlock but not come up the tube, the problem I have with one carboy is probably the seal , I picked one up thinking it was the right size ( I have 2 small lids too ) and it was for a larger lid, on finding this out once everything ws in the fermenter I just cut about an inch off so that it was a tight fit in the channel around the lid, the problem is that no air comes up the airlock, so I assume that as long as the yeast is producing CO2 it should be ok ,
any comments?

 

[Pollux]

I have had this with a toucan I did a few weeks back....

 

[mfdu]

well hellooo mr. hanky!

 

[spog]

well hellooo mr. hanky!

:lol: ..cheers...spog..........

 

[Bribie G]

All my toucans do that Mr Hanky thing, do the kit manufacturers sneak heading agents into the mix that we aren't supposed to know about?

2 days ago I did a partial mash brew with a bottle of Nottingham I had saved. There would have been about half a litre of yeast in a 1.25L pet. I revived it and it was fighting fit. Pitched at around 6pm and by midnight it was blooping away like crazy. Didn't spill out through the airlock but I can imagine what would have happened if I had used the whole cake