First Brew......helllppp!

[AzDog]

Wow BribieG....mine isnt spewing that much, only a little bit, but I have to say after seeing that picture I feel alot more confident! :huh:

Thanks everyone for your help...fingers crossed it will still taste alright.

 

[Pennywise]

Its not the 2 piece unfortunately, so I guess if I can't get this airlock clean I will just buy a new one..... they aren't expensive so I'm not too worried

Thanx for the advice

Just soak it in some napi-san & hot water, leave it overnight, she'll come good.

 

[lydiaraven]

Just soak it in some napi-san & hot water, leave it overnight, she'll come good.

Thanks for that, I shall do this! For the moment I have pulled out the 2 piece airlock I did have packed away, sanitised it and put it in place instead of the ol gooseneck one. It has tamed the frothing a bit but not too much. I figure I will just keep topping the water up as I previously stated. Not too stressed as I do my brewing in the laundry so if I wake up and find it has frothed over like that photo it won't take too much cleaning

One of my first experiences with frothing in the airlock was with a stout, and my husband and I threw it out, thinking it had gone bad. We didn't know any better as we were new to the game, but now after reading stuff on here I am kicking myself, as it was probably fine.

Do the darker beers tend to have this problem? I have experienced this with every dark beer I have made.....

 

[cdbrown]

Too many variables - there are some yeasts which require a lot of headspace for the krausen - like the Wyeast 3068 - or if the brew is warmer then the ferment will be rapid creating the same effect. Lots of fermentables, high pitching rates....

 

[Bribie G]

I've just started a dark ale which is doing the same thing...... I'm just retopping the airlock with water as the foam blows it out. I'm too scared to remove it and clean the airlock so will it be ok to just keep retopping the airlock as is?

To clean up a frothover:

When it looks like it's settled down,

Get a good quality roll of paper kitchen towel, tear off a three or four sheet length and fold it into a big triangle. Remove the fermenter lid and place the paper 'lid' onto the open fermenter, weigh it down with a wooden spoon or something if you are worried about it blowing away. It's now safe to go away and clean up the lid and airlock at your leisure. At this stage the airlock should clean nicely by whooshing hot tap water through it or use the napisan method. Clean up the lid with dishwashing detergent and rinse off (carefully) with a kettle of boiling water, then reassemble, the airspace will soon be purged with CO2 coming off the brew.

Edit: you can even keep the airlock off during the early stages of the brew and just put a (sanitised) crown seal over the top of the grommet, for example if you want to napisan your airlock overnight. There's enough CO2 coming off the brew to create positive pressure so it's most unlikely that bugs or spores will fight their way against the gas flow into your ale. If they do then give them a medal

 

[lydiaraven]

Thanks guys

The dark ale I have on at the moment is the Cooper's Dark Ale, I used the yeast that came with it (so I dont know what one that is), temp I do not know what it is as the gauge is stuffed hahahaha. I'm not heating it, and it is brewing in the laundry, which isn't warm. The overall temps where we live are pretty mild at the moment so I am guessing it's brewing at a pretty low temp. I brewed a cerveza just before this dark ale with all the same conditions and didn't have any over-frothing.

As for the stout I mentioned before, we brewed that in uralla during winter time with a waterbed mattess heater wrapped around the vat, which worked wonders for all the other beers except for the dark ones (which all frothed like they had rabies).

I'm nicknaming this dark ale "Cujo" hahahahaha. :icon_cheers:

 

[AzDog]

ok guys....i have managed to get the temp down to 20 degrees, it stopped foaming out the top, so I removed the airlock, cleaned and sanitised it, put some more cooled boiled water in it and put it back in.

Now it is bubbling away properly at 20 degrees.....i just hope the brew is going to be alright with all my messing around!

 

[Scruffy]

That wasn't so bad was it?

You'll be telling your grand kids about this!

 

[King Brown]

Yes this is also fine - however you may find cleaning the airlock mighty hard after sitting there with krausen in it for a week or so...

if its a 2 piece then no issues at all.

I picked up a airlock brush on the weekend, like a bottle brush but small enough to fit inside an airlock, from my lhbs. Check out your lhbs (local home brew store) to see if you can find one.

Something you can do if to prevent *excitable* brews in the future is make a blow off tube ie, connect a silicone tube through the hole in the lid that you would put the airlock in, and place the other end of the tube in a jug of water. then when your beer gets out of control the krausen just ends up in the jug

 

[lydiaraven]

My dark ale has settled down also..... I have had to clean and sanitise the 2 piece airlock I had replaced the first one with... what I did was pull it out of the grommet carefully, and then stuck a face washer (a clean one that had been doused in boiling water from the kettle) over the grommet and opening while I had the airlock soaking. I had the gooseneck one in there also soaking. In the end both came out clean as, I put the 2 piece back in the grommet and for the better part the frothing has settled down, the water in the airlock has gone a little murky tonight from a bit of froth, so I will probably just repeat the process tomorrow

I can tell you, the beer aromas in my laundry have got me thirsty hahahahahaha. :icon_drunk:

 

[lydiaraven]

I picked up a airlock brush on the weekend, like a bottle brush but small enough to fit inside an airlock, from my lhbs. Check out your lhbs (local home brew store) to see if you can find one.

Something you can do if to prevent *excitable* brews in the future is make a blow off tube ie, connect a silicone tube through the hole in the lid that you would put the airlock in, and place the other end of the tube in a jug of water. then when your beer gets out of control the krausen just ends up in the jug

Is that safe? I mean does it prevent nasties from getting into your brew? Sounds like a great solution, but I haven't ever used anything but the conventional airlocks, so I wouldn't know

 

[Pennywise]

Is that safe? I mean does it prevent nasties from getting into your brew? Sounds like a great solution, but I haven't ever used anything but the conventional airlocks, so I wouldn't know

Perfectly safe, in fact it's quite common to use one of these if using a demijon. You just gotta use a solution of no-rinse sanitiser in the jar in case some of the liquid gets sucked back up the tube (which really should only happen if the wort is still cooling, and to get up that whole tube it'd have to have started out quite warm me thinks).

 

[chappo1970]

Perfectly safe, in fact it's quite common to use one of these if using a demijon. You just gotta use a solution of no-rinse sanitiser in the jar in case some of the liquid gets sucked back up the tube (which really should only happen if the wort is still cooling, and to get up that whole tube it'd have to have started out quite warm me thinks).

+1

Don't use airlock anymore as I ferment in 25lt Cubes, I can fit 3 brews at one time in the fermenter fridge where previously I could only fit 2 of the barrel type. I just have a hole drilled in the cap which I put a grommet and a piece of vinyl tubing to a 2lt coke bottle filled with starsan. Easy, cheap and practical.

Chap Chap

 

[Sydneybrewer]

gday

i know your pain, my first brew was a Coopers Lager that i brewed at around 25 degrees and i too had foam spewing out of the airlock.
the first 2 days though no airlock activity, then day 3.... it actually tasted alright tho, my mates said they loved the cidery aftertaste to it

 

[Bribie G]

+1

Don't use airlock anymore as I ferment in 25lt Cubes, I can fit 3 brews at one time in the fermenter fridge where previously I could only fit 2 of the barrel type. I just have a hole drilled in the cap which I put a grommet and a piece of vinyl tubing to a 2lt coke bottle filled with starsan. Easy, cheap and practical.

Chap Chap

:icon_offtopic: If using a cube as a primary fermenter do you have any problems cleaning them afterwards? Is Napisan up to the job? I'm thinking of doing something similar with summer coming on and just doing keg sized brews, so cubes would be an ideal size. Also going to do an experiment with an 'overgravity' brew and split it between 2 kegs but that's on another thread.

 

[Effect]

I don't even use a air lock.

Just crack the lid (of the cube) just a little to let the carbon dioxide out. never had an infection, but that is because I have been using either dried yeast or a good sized starter both with a large amount of anal cleaning and sanitation.

BribieG: as far as cleaning the cube after fermentation, you have to be quick, if you let any bits dry they are a bugger to clean. Just boiling water and then startsan does the trick. If you have any bits that are stuck, just chuck in some water and about a cup of rice (you have lots of rice spare yeah? ) and a few quick shakes will dislodge anything.

It's not ideal to ferment in cubes, but sometimes I find it easier for me. As living in an apartment, and don't have a dedicated brew area, everything has to be stored away, so just opening up the lid on the NC cube and pouring in a pack of dried yeast is so much easier than farting around the apartment building getting fermenters and cleaning em out etc.

 

[Bribie G]

I've occasionally done secondary / cold crash in a cube and for the first couple of days just open the lid a 'crack' then seal it up tight when there's no more gas being generated. That rice is a great idea, and also the idea of cubing then pitching in the same vessel, provided it's cooled down fairly quickly and pitched ASAP. Good advice. :icon_cheers:

 

[Sydneybrewer]

:icon_offtopic: ok this is going to sound really dumb... but what is a cube? p.s forgive my noobness

 

[Pennywise]

It's just one of those plastic jerry cans you get from bunnings or the like, the ones you put water in when you go camping. Must be food grade.

 

[Sydneybrewer]

oh ok thanks that simple ay, have been wondering for ages but too scared of butters to ask.