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air lock blown off fermentor
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 9:00 pm
by hopsnhoses
Help! I am fermenting AHS IPA and today I noticed that the airlock was blown off and a small amount had spilled over. I sanitized the airlock and replaced it and within just a few minutes it had filled back up and starting to overflow. I have a thermometer in the cooler that it is in and the temp was at 72. I put 3 frozen water bottles in there to try and slow it down by cooling it off. Any other suggestions? Will I just have to wait it out until the temp drops or fermentation drops off? How about the temp? Will it make off flavors since it got to 72*? Any help is greatly appreciated. 6.5 gallon carboy fermenter by the way. OG was 1.064. And I added booster.
Re: air lock blown off fermentor
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 9:24 pm
by Beer-lord
Do you have a free and clean hose you can use as a blow off tube? You do want to get the temperature down closer to the mid 60's during the first few days of active fermentation so keep the frozen water bottles there overnight at least.
But while it's best to keep the airlock or blow off hose in during this time, honestly, the gases being produced right now are enough to not let any bad guys into the fermenter.
Re: air lock blown off fermentor
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 9:57 pm
by hopsnhoses
The airlock is all I have. I have cleaned it about 4 times already this evening. I will keep the ice bottles in there until it slows down. Thanks for the advice.
Re: air lock blown off fermentor
Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2014 7:59 am
by jimjohson
I only use airlocks, no room in the fermentation chamber for blow off tubes and buckets for 2 fermenters. I switched to the 3 piece air locks as they are easier to clean, I keep a couple extra air locks so I can just switch 'em out. +1 to the temps mentioned by beer-lord I keep my chamber @ 18.5 c (65.3 f) +/- .5 c (.9 f) . only over flow I get is from the lbk, 2.5gal just too much for it.