HELP - vigorous foam, popping lid~~

On Thu, 17 Jul 2003 02:25:23 GMT, "jack" wrote:

You should not panic. Although brewing at hot temperatures is a risky job there is no indication whatsoever that your beer has been contaminated. At least: not yet! It looks to me as if this is not the case either since the fermentation is still vigorous enough. A vigorous fermentation is quite normal at hot temperatures and it does not tell anything about the level of infection which might be in your beer yet. On the contrary: if your beer had been infected from the start then usually the fermentation is less vigorous. But: it may already be in there and then you will see a progressive influence from the infection at the end of the fermentation and when the beer is in the secondary. Any experienced homebrewer may identify a bad fermentation already before this fermentation is over by tasting the wort but therefore you need some experience indeed. Anyway, should you want good beer then from now be alert though. Don't leave your beer in the primary when the fermentation is over. From the moment that the last bubble passed the air lock then react as soon as possible and transfer everything into the secondary. When is it over, that fermentation? My rule of thumb is: as soon as there are no more bubbles leaving the air lock in a time interval of about five minutes. This point may be achieved very soon. In summer the fermentation can be over after a couple of days yet, so watch your step. And as soon as the wort is in the secondary cool it down to 4 .. 6 °C. You shouldn't keep on this style of brewing the whole year long. In the nothern hemisphere you may relax what about cooling from October to May but when the hot days are there then homebrewing is rather risky.

Regards

Norbert (from Flanders, Belgium)

You had a very active fermentation which is good. The problem is that your fermenter is too small. Give it another day with the lid off to let the bulk of the fermentation finish. Re-sanitize and replace it, and you should be golden. There will still be enough CO2 production to keep any nasties out.

I'd look into getting a larger fermenter. I use a 7-gallon carboy and haven't had a problem with over-flowing in a long time.

thanks for your help, I appreciate it. I thought you would answer this, since I saw all your help with the infected stem beer thread.

There is hope, because this is normal when the ferment first starts.