Too Much Air Lock Activity?

[silverbrew]

Hi there, first off what a great site!!!

I am a newbie at all this so bare with me, i bought a home brew kit and put down a Coopers Lager.

After a day the yeast and foam has rached the lid and is coming out the airlock. It smells divine but my issue is, is this normal for it to be going totally mad like that.

Reminds me of a beer volcano wouldnt that be nice!!! im just concerned that i might get an infection from the airlock as i keep topping it up and its full of foam and a bit of yeast. I am keeping it at 25 degrees.

The hydro reads 1030 and i put down the right amount of water 23Litres in total. When i put it down originally before the yeast it read 1050.

Many thanks

 

[reVoxAHB]

Hi there, first off what a great site!!!

I am a newbie at all this so bare with me, i bought a home brew kit and put down a Coopers Lager.

After a day the yeast and foam has rached the lid and is coming out the airlock. It smells divine but my issue is, is this normal for it to be going totally mad like that.

Reminds me of a beer volcano wouldnt that be nice!!! im just concerned that i might get an infection from the airlock as i keep topping it up and its full of foam and a bit of yeast. I am keeping it at 25 degrees.

The hydro reads 1030 and i put down the right amount of water 23Litres in total. When i put it down originally before the yeast it read 1050.

Many thanks

You want to construct a blowoff tube into a catch jar which you'll keep on there for 48 hours or so. Once activity settles (which is normal) you can go back to using your sanitised air lock.

reVox

 

[chappo1970]

Relax and have a beer. Let it go nuts when it calms down clean up the airlock and surrounds including a quick sanitise of the bits. Don't remove the lid! Your beer will be fine and should not get infected. What temp are you brewing at? I am guessing ambient?

Cheers

Chappo

 

[benno1973]

Relax and have a beer. Let it go nuts when it calms down clean up the airlock and surrounds including a quick sanitise of the bits. Don't remove the lid! Your beer will be fine and should not get infected. What temp are you brewing at? I am guessing ambient?

Cheers

Chappo

+1.

If there's enought pressure to be forcing stuff out the airlock, nothing will be going the other way. Just let it go until stuff stops coming out the airlock, remove the airlock, clean it, sanitise it, refill it and replace it.

 

[Neill]

drop the temp down to 20 degrees as quick as you can. it'll slow down a bit and the beer will taste a lot better

 

[Phoney]

I am keeping it at 25 degrees.

Drop it down to 20C if you can. Dont believe anything written in the instructions, 18-20C is what you want.



Welcome to the site

Have a read through these articles if you want to learn some tips on how to go from brewing good beer to awesome beer.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...o&showcat=4

 

[Renegade]

Its not really 'normal' for a kit yeast to do that, even at 25 degrees but it's not really anything to worry about.

Are you saying that your starting gravity was 1030, or it that what it reads after the 'volcano (Krausen?). If you started at 1030 youre going to have a very light alc % beer. EDIT - Sorry, forgot you mentioned 1050

You could just take the airlok out completely and put a folded towel over the hole if its pissing out foam still. Or a blow off tube as suggested - Basically a bit of hise, one end in the hole where your airlock would go, and the other end in a bucket. Or a glass of water if you still want to hear some bubbling noises

Everything will be fine, I reckon.

 

[muckey]

welcome to the site.

Just want to reinforce what others have said

clean up the mess once the ferment settles - yeast sometimes does that

temp control is one of the most important brewing lessons I have ever learned. 25 degrees is a bit on the warm side.

 

[benno1973]

Oh yeh, didn't read that you were fermenting at 25C. Don't worry about the volcano, but do drop the temp to 20C if possible.

 

[Renegade]

Dont believe anything written in the instructions, 18-20C is what you want.

+ 1 . I couldnt agree more. The kit instructions I have seen always suck. Other brewers here, and lots of reading, is what you need instead of mis-information. The most glaring are usually the ones about temperature, and about adding sugar to your kit beer.

 

[muckey]

The kit instructions I have seen always suck.

perfect for fixing wonky table legs though

 

[Scruffy]

First, don't worry!
Bung it in a sink/bath of freezing water, or wrap a (cold) wet towel round it, maybe also point fan at the towel - there are ways to get the temp down cheaply...

A starting of 1050, did you use table sugar?

 

[silverbrew]

First, don't worry!
Bung it in a sink/bath of freezing water, or wrap a (cold) wet towel round it, maybe also point fan at the towel - there are ways to get the temp down cheaply...

A starting of 1050, did you use table sugar?

No i used the Coopers brewing sugar that was supplied in the kit. other than that no extra sugar was used.

 

[silverbrew]

thaks for such a quick response from everyone i will drop the temp down to 20 degrees thanks.

Also is that the temp used on most beers?

 

[Renegade]

I think wheat beers like to brew a bit higher - as do belgian styles.

 

[chappo1970]

Generally rule of thumb.

Ales = 18-20C
Lagers = 10-12C

Cheers

Chappo