My first brew is foaming a LOT. Please help!

What went wrong? Was this supposed to happen? Should I throw it out? What do I do now?

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Chazthetic
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Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:05 pm

My first brew is foaming a LOT. Please help!

Post by Chazthetic »

A friend and I just started into the world of brewing, and we got a kit with ingredients from our local supplier. We brewed our wort exactly as the instructions said yesterday and I wasn't expecting my activity today. Well, I was wrong and it's foaming a crazy amount!!

it's actually to the point where it's foaming up and out of the airlock we bought with it! should I be worried? is it time to panic yet?

Thanks.
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billvelek
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Nothing to worry about ... except ...

Post by billvelek »

It is normal for a beer to foam up the first day or so of fermentation. If you are using a carboy that is filled almost to capacity with beer, the foam has no where to go but out of the carboy; sometimes if you leave a lot of empty headspace in a carboy ... (e.g., 5 gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon carboy, or just don't fill a 5 gallon carboy all the way) ... you will sometimes get only a little to spill over. At any rate, everything is fine ... except ... your airlock could become clogged (they usually do), and the pressure will build up to the point of popping it off (usually hitting the ceiling). One solution is to get a long length of large diameter plastic tubing (the size that will fit tightly into the neck of the carboy), sanitize it, stick one end tightly in the carboy top, bend it over (curve) without kinking it, and put the other end into a container of water (bucket, pitcher, or whatever). The foam and CO2 will travel through the hose and bubble up through the water in your container. If you can't get hold of the large tubing, sterilize a small glass or jar and invert it over the mouth of the carboy in place of the airlock, and put the carboy on a tray or something, and just let the foam spill out under the glass and down the side. It makes a mess, but it's better than having your airlock shoot off when you aren't home. When foaming subsides, replace the glass with a sanitized airlock.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
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Chazthetic
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:05 pm

Post by Chazthetic »

Thank you so much.

after I made this post, i went and did some more reading and between that and your reply, my mind is settled. Thanks for the help, now to work the fix.
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