Fermentation Gone Wild!

Lately I have been monitoring the fermentation progress with the free wort that I got from Surly this past weekend. You can usually notice the fermentation process within 24 hours, but this one didn't become active until yesterday evening (48 hours later). Since then it has been fermenting like crazy!

Fermenation in beer is the process of the yeast converting the glucose (sugar) into alcohol and carbon dioxide (C02). As the fermentation process takes course, the C02 needs to escape the fermentation vessel or your risk having it explode! That is where an airlock comes into place.

An airlock is a small device attached to the fermentation vessel that is filled with water to create a water trap. The airlock allows the C02 to escape through the water without exposing the fermenting wort to outside air. This prevents outside contamination from outside bacteria and wild yeasts.

As you can see in the above picture, the fermentation process on this wort is very active. In fact it was too active. One problem with rapid fermentation is that it can produce bubbles that eventually creep up the vessel and clog the airlock. That is what happened repeatedly when I check on it last night before bed. I then decided to take the airlock off and this is what happened:

The C02 bubbles were out of control! It was like I was in the middle of a high school chemistry experiment gone wrong. I tried cleaning the airlock twice but it got clogged with bubbles again within minutes. So I had to solve this dilemma as I didn't want to leave it off and risk exposure (and a basement full of beer bubbles). I also didn't want to leave the airlock on with it getting clogged and risk it being shot off like a champagne cork or having the vessel explode!

I then remembered the fermentation vessels at Surly Brewing Company. Next to each tank was a garbage can sized plastic bucket filled with water with a tube leading into it from the vessel. This is called a blow off tube. The C02 escapes the fermentation vessel through the tube and is blown into the bucket, again without exposing the beer to outside air. The one thing I remembered about Surly's blow off tubes is that the buckets were bubbling like it was a hot tub!

I then decided that I would need to hone my MacGyver skills and create my own blow off tube. I happened to have a rubber tube laying around that I use for siphoning in an out of the fermentation vessels. I then grabbed a pitcher and filled it with sanitized water and was set. Here is the blow off tube in action:

24 hours later, the pitcher is bubbling, and fermentation is still very active. I guarantee that if I wouldn't have done anything last night I would of had a heck of a mess to clean up.

Crisis averted!