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My air lock has bubbles from the beer in it..
If my airlock has bubbles in it from the beer. I can tell this because its a different color and have a small bit on the top of the lid. This is a 6.5 gallon bucket by the way. Should I be worried. Its bubbling pretty aggressively. Im doing an imperial nut brown ale. Its currently 69 degrees in the house. Im using a three piece airlock I don't wont it to blow I'm Currently at 24hrs. Any recommendations.
Thanks in Advance
P.S. This is my first time. So be gentle with me and also if this is normal than i just need some reassurance.
Okay from reading other post. I went ahead and took off the airlock (and put plastic wrap over the hole). Cleaned it and put it back on. When i took of the airlock i got and immediate hiss from the gas inside. I hope this did the trick. Now i know about the tube system and jar. If any one has any input please feel free to share.
Thanks
How big is your batch and how big is your primary fermentor, bucket or carboy? Sounds to me like you might want to switch over to a blow off setup because you have a lot of activity going on in there and the Kraeusen is rising up and needs a place to go - out your airlock.
I've never had an airlock blow off, but i always had plenty of room for activity. I will admit, once i went with a blow off setup for my primary, i probably wont go back to an airlock--just use those for secondary.
If you have a carboy cap and a hose you should be table to get this blow off set up. Basically you just need a good seal on the carboy or bucket with a hose inserted and you put the other end of the hose in a jug with a little water.
The batch is 5 GAL. And its in a 6.5 GAL bucket. Unfortunately its too late to go to the local home improvement shop to get tubing or a male/male connector to put on the bucket. (ive also been drinking so it wouldn't be wise to travel. 
Ill just keep an eye on it till mourning and if need be clean it again and at 9:00 oclock go and get the above materials.
If you're using a 3 piece airlock the easiest way to make a blow off tube is to get a piece of 5/8" ID tubing, pull off the cap and bubbler piece on the airlock and stick the tubing on the stem. It might help to run the tubing under some hot water for a minute to soften it up.
Also something you may want to check is the opening of your airlocks. Sometimes there's an "X" shaped piece of plastic in the opening on the stem which can help clog it if you're krausen is starting to build up into your airlock. I've only noticed it on the 3 piece airlocks and not the S-shaped ones.
And welcome to the forum!
well releasing the airlock and letting out some of the gas should at least keep the airlock from blowing off tonight...
You might even be fine with the rest of the fermentation by just using the airlock - i never really came close in a 6.5 gal bucket with a 5 gal batch.
Well Ive come up with a quick fix.. I cleaned out an old jug and sanitized it. And with the hose that i was using for my auto siphon. I took that and inserted it into the three piece airlock. (the portion that protrudes into the housing and the cone goes over. Its working i can hear the air escaping into the jug and i did a water test to make sure the air wasn't going back in. (where i inserted the hose into the three piece air lock.) The water did not find a crack between the hose and the female end of the three piece. So for tonight i should be good till the gas dies down. Then ill be switching over to the carboy for the secondary. And after i re-sanitize the airlock i should be good. Thanks to both of you for your help and FirePitbrew for the idea for a quick fix.
Not to give you any concern about this batch, but I have had several airlock or smaller blow-off tube projectiles flying around my spare bathroom (winter fermentation room). I really thought after the first three piece blew off, going to a blow-off tube would cure the problem, but I ended up with a plugged stopper and a really spectacular ceiling "paint" job over New Years. Woke several members of the household up, but not me. I finally caved and got some 1" diameter tubing, which fits nice and tight inside any of the carboys I use for primary (no plastic buckets for me). I can still bubble it into a bucket of water, and no matter how much blow-off I get, no plugged tubes and no projectiles. I should be cured of that for the foreseeable future....
Good work on the fix, that's how I'd handle it too.
I am sure this batch will be fine.
I wouldn't stress about getting it out of the primary sooner than necessary. Leave it be for a goood 10 days before racking it over. Many of us don't do secondaries anymore any way. But with the first few batches its never a bad idea, until you really understand your fermentation process.
I moved to blow off hoses after my 3rd batch had a stuck airlock, and when I came downstars the bucket had almost doubled in size. I had sealed it with an instant gasket maker, so it was air tight. (yea, that's right I hate glass,)
I would suggest using a blowoff tube for all primary fermentation, or you might have beer dripping off your ceiling when you get home one day. for secondary fermentation. (don't really do it much anymore). Id use the airlock, but stick to the blow off tubes for primary.
Lemme guess- SafAle -04 yeast?
Why are we not using secondaries any more? Are you keg conditioning so secondary is really in the keg? or is there something else that I am missing all together?
Sorry to hijack the thread.
ID
Irondavy wrote:
Why are we not using secondaries any more?
Personally I don't feel the need to use a secondary unless I'm bulk aging a high alcohol beer or adding something like fruit, spices, dry hops, etc. I leave my beer in primary for 3-4 weeks and it gives it plenty of time to ferment, allow the yeast to clean up after itself and for the beer to clear.
To me, racking to secondary is unnecessary work that introduces the risk of oxidation and infection (though minimal if your practices are sound) plus I always lose a bit of beer during transfer. My solution? Let it sit then rack to the keg or bottling bucket. Less work sounds good to me.
FirePitBrew wrote:
Irondavy wrote:
Why are we not using secondaries any more?
Personally I don't feel the need to use a secondary unless I'm bulk aging a high alcohol beer or adding something like fruit, spices, dry hops, etc. I leave my beer in primary for 3-4 weeks and it gives it plenty of time to ferment, allow the yeast to clean up after itself and for the beer to clear.
To me, racking to secondary is unnecessary work that introduces the risk of oxidation and infection (though minimal if your practices are sound) plus I always lose a bit of beer during transfer. My solution? Let it sit then rack to the keg or bottling bucket. Less work sounds good to me.
I agree about not needing 2ndaries. Oxidation won't be a problem when syphoning to secondary if your syphon tubing is all the way to the bottom of the secondary container while it is transfering. if it's too short and splashes you will get oxidation.
As far as airlocks, I try to remember when buying then to cut off the botton of the airlick just enough to get rid of the x the bottom. it curves in and forms an x and that is what gets plugged so easily. Had it happen 2 weeks ago when I used an airlock I forgot to cut it off of. the blowoff tube works well but I have since gone with Fermcap and an airlock. Fermcap keeps the krausen to about 2 or 3 inches during fermentation. Seems to extend fermentation time a little though.
DC
Irondavy wrote:
Why are we not using secondaries any more? Are you keg conditioning so secondary is really in the keg? or is there something else that I am missing all together?
I actually got out of doing secondaries after my 4th or 5th batch. I just didn't really see the need for it. All of my beers are around 1.060-1.075, and I like to use yeast that settles well.
If I dry hop, I throw a hop bag on the end of the hose to take care of the floaties. Alot of people are worried about leaving the beer on the yeast for extended periods of time. I mean some people rack to secondary after 4 days, that just seems silly to me. Why take it off the yeast when it's not even done fermenting yet? I think this logic stems from 20 years ago when there was alot of problems with contaminated yeast, and racking early was a matter of good beer, and undrinkable beer.
I'm a big believer in saving time, I leave it on primary for at least 2 weeks, some times I bottle it right away, sometimes I leave it for another 2 weeks, i've never had a problem with leaving it on the yeast for an extended period of time.
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