beer in Airlock

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Mr Bear

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Just done a woodfordes kit and airlock was bubbling within hours, and this morning i noticed that the airlock had some traces of beer in it and on the outside of the lid there was tiny pools of liquid. I put sanitiser in the lock to start with but wondered if this activity is normal or do i need to do something quickly to avoid trouble?
 
Sometimes this happens, I think it only ever happened once or twice to me and the beer was fine, it's just a pain in the rear cleaning and sanitising everything. What temp is the FV at?
 
its quite warm due to weather probably 25c where it is. As this is only coming up to 24hrs will it get worse and what do i have to clean?
 
...wondered if this activity is normal or do i need to do something quickly to avoid trouble?
No real trouble and the non-optimum occurence is already done. Make sure your airlock is refilled to the proper level if needed. Some use sanitizer like you, some use vodka. It's only if you spill it back into the beer that it matters. Moving the fermenter to the coolest place you can, based on your yeast's requirements, is what you would do now if possible.
It is normal to have beer come up through the airlock if the fermenting vessel isn't much bigger than the beer volume. That's even with proper wort temperature at the time you add the yeast and proper room temperature.
If you pitch the yeast at the high end of its specifications, or a little over, you'll get fast start times. That isn't ideal, generally.
I don't know if you're using glass or plastic (sounds like you're using glass), but having a fermenter that is substantially larger than the batch size will virtually eliminate the issue.
An example is using a 7.9 gallon fermenter for a 5 gallon batch (US measurements).
You can do the math, which is simple ratios, to reduce your batch size a bit if getting a different fermenter is not possible.
Good luck.
 
Thanks For that. I have a 25l plastic fv although markings only show 23l and i do think i might have filled too much. I have read elsewhere to remove airlock and crack lid a bit but not sure? cant believe the activity it is just constant but hopefully will calm down .
 
what do i have to clean?
Sorry, should've been more specific. Basically just clean everything on the outside i.e. airlock, lid and FV that has come into contact with the overflow
hopefully will calm down
It will calm down,no worries there, as @DavidDetroit says your FV is borderline in size, I've always bought the 30L FV's as I knew that the smaller ones like yours were at risk of this issue.
 
Also next time you use that fermenter you could use a blowoff tube (syphon tube from the lid into a half filled bottle of water) this way the bottle should catch most of the overflow. once the beer has calmed down you can go back to your airlock if preferred.
 
@Mr Bear
Blowoff tubes are fine but sometimes they can block with sticky yeast and the CO2 has nowhere to go, the lid bulges and eventually goes pop and creates a mess. I know, it has happened to me. So the alternative is to put the FV on a tray, just slightly crack the lid in one part to vent the gas, cover and that with an old towel or similar. Then allow the krausen to seep out of the unclipped section perhaps onto the tray. When it stops, clean up, and seal the FV if you have an airlock.
And if you have been brewing in the current heat wave its best to avoid doing that by planning ahead and looking at the weather forecast, unless you are using a speciality yeast which can cope with high temperatures without introducing off flavours.
 
Another angle (because heh, we're brewers, we all have a different suggestion right?). A 30 litre Speidel FV will give you more head space, the option to add a tap to rack from, and the airlocks are so big they neither block nor blow out, ever. lol Oh and they are super easy to clean as the plastic used resists stuff sticking to it nicely, and because they're not buckets they haven't been mistreated before you even get them (every bucket I ever had, even the best, had scratches inside from brand new). When I did use a bucket FV, I used a blow off tube and a 30 litre bucket, never had one block thanks to leaving plenty of headspace.
 
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