Carboy airlock is spewing foam ,,,advice please --quick.

I checked th SG this morning of my first batch of wine. I started the whole process with 5 gal of squeezed strained juice from my own Buffalo grapes (no skins no seeds). I used the Campden tabs, yeast food and pectin stuff as directed. This morning I got a SG of 1.030 at a temp of 77 degrees. (Strange to me as the air temp in the room was 73 degrees ??) Anyhow based on the book directions for actions at 1.030 SG I siphoned (racked ??) the liquid into a 5 gallon glass jug and put in the airlock. I posted earlier to this group about a slow start up on the yeast innocualtion. I way over did the yeast and got a boiling ferment started real early Sunday morning. I guess that makes it 3 full days to go from 1.112 to 1.030. The darn thing is literally fizzing out gas and foam from the airlock jar. Sort of like a shook bottle of pop. Leaving the airlock in place, I took the carboy outside and put it in a

20 gal tub and sprayed it with the hose from my well (water usually around 57 degrees) and it sitting out there right now about half submerged in the water. (still spewing away). Can someone advise me in what I should do now ?? I don't see any information in the books or "how to's" about foaming airlocks. Would really appreciate some guidance here.
Reply to
Kentucky
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I would get a clean bung and airlock ready to go - pull the dirty one out, put the clean one in, and clean the other one. If you don't have a spare, just pull it out and clean it, refill it and put it back. If you're concerned about bugs, lay a clean cloth over the top of the carboy, while you're cleaning the bung and airlock out. Darlene

Reply to
Dar V

Take the airlock off and just cover it with a tupperware container until it settles down. Or a clean cloth like Dar said. You do not want the airlock getting plugged up.

The reason the must is a higher temp than the roomis that the yeast generate heat as part of thier metabolism.

Reply to
Droopy

I will go with the cloth and tupperware bowl until things settle down a bit (belt and suspenders if you would) Thank you all for the quick help.

Reply to
Kentucky

Another option is a blow-off tube... works if you have a 3-piece style airlock on your carboy. Just remove the inner piece of the airlock and fit a sanitized section of tubing over the inner tube section. Run the other end into some sanitizer solution in a container. (2 L pop bottle works well.) Then just return the airlock to the original configuration when the fermentation is less violent. Only problem is that you'll lose a little wine this way, but that's hard to avoid at this point.

I once came home to a ceiling-high beer geyser shooting out of the tiny air vent holes in the airlock. Luckily it didn't blow the whole bung.

Travis

Kentucky wrote:

Reply to
trav77

Another option is a blow-off tube... works if you have a 3-piece style airlock on your carboy. Just remove the inner piece of the airlock and fit a sanitized section of tubing over the inner tube section. Run the other end into some sanitizer solution in a container. (2 L pop bottle works well.) Then just return the airlock to the original configuration when the fermentation is less violent. Only problem is that you'll lose a little wine this way, but that's hard to avoid at this point.

I once came home to a ceiling-high beer geyser shooting out of the tiny air vent holes in the airlock. Luckily it didn't blow the whole bung.

Travis

Kentucky wrote:

Reply to
trav77

Thanks to you all. This is the most helpful and responsive group I have ever joined. As of this morning the drama continues. I loosed the string that secured the cloth over the neck of the carboy. It popped like a champange cork. Foam had collected and hardened under the cloth and sealed the jug. I changed out a clean cloth and retied it. I also placed a tupperware bowl loosely over the cloth. Next time I think I will go with the blow off tube idea. The bubbling is quieting down a little and I feel pretty good about my chances of actually getting something that a person would want to drink. Should I just go with trial and error to get back to the airlock installation on this ferment ? Is there a SG that I should be shooting for before the changeover ? I think the alcohol level is up around 10% based on the starting SG

1.114 and the present 1.030 SG. Will this help protect the must from "bad bugs" ? Thanks again.
Reply to
Kentucky

I once had a nice porter fizzing wildly out of an airlock. I knew I had to release the pressure. I basically touched the stopper with my thumb when they whole airlock blew out of the top of the carboy.

After the thought "CRAP!!!" went throught my head, the geyser started. Beer shooting 6 fct in the air out of the top of the carboy. It blew 3 gallons of beer out before it stopped.

It is nothign I would ever want happen again.....but looking back it was pretty funny.

Reply to
Droopy

Travis, just tried your blow-off tube idea on the one gallon jugs I just racked. The fresh pomace from the crush for the 5 gal batch (only used the juice) was hung overnight over a bucket yielding 1.5 gallons of drippings. I fermented this batch (again juice only) separately from the big batch. Sure enough when I racked to the 1 gal jugs they misbehaved just like the big batch. I used your idea and it worked great !!!! I had a bit of a time getting the tubing I had on hand to stretch over the airlock inner tube. I did get it on good and tight and rigged it up per your suggestion. The foam is just bubbling up in the 2 liter pop bottle through the sterile solution I put in the pop bottle. Thanks again for your great suggestion.

Reply to
Kentucky

Kentucky;

Personally I would have waited till the sg was down closer to 1.000 (at least under 1.010). Thus had I seen this message earlier I would have suggested putting the wine back into the primary with a larger headspace to accomodate the activity.

Looks to me that you are around 11% already headed towards 16% (if the yeast doesn't keel over first).

As long as the strong yeast activity continues you should be OK, but get the wine protected as soon as the activity dies off.

Steve

Reply to
Steve Waller

Pour the must into a food quality pail, cover with a clean towel and let it settle down in that. Stir twice a day. When the foaming calms down rack it into your carboy.

Reply to
Tom

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