I just came home to find my fermenter w/ the lid off and yeast all over the wall. My lady friend called me at work and said the fermenter was making a weird noise, so I told her to clean and sanitize the air lock for me(she is a sweetheart). When I got home I found the lid to the fermenter (which is a royal pain to pry off) off to the side w/ yeast every where. Never had this happen! A little buzzed, I hope I didn't infect my brew. By the way It was a BSGA w/ white labs 575.

Welcome to the club! I wish i could say it was a highly elite club, but if it were, people like me wouldn't be a part of it in the first place. What i did take from it, though, was that when fermenting a full batch (little headspace) and i expect the ferment to be violent, i'm definitely going to use a blow off tube instead of an airlock.

FWIW.

I must admit to being a member of that club. For me it was a mix of hops and kreuzen that clogged the airlock.
I have seen it just before explosion and the lid of the bucket was rounding like a beach ball. PITA to clean.

Sanitize plastic cup ... place over hole ... save relationship.

Bummer about the explosion, but sounds like you have a pretty good girl there. Hang on to that one!

Blow-off hoses are good. I learned that when I did a Hefe last summer in a carboy with very little headspace. it was oozing foamy crap out of the top of the airlock like crazy.

Yup. Mine was a belgian trippel (11% abv) that i stepped up the starter a few time to a final of ~1/2gal slurry.

It sux when it happens. It sux even harder when it happens at 2am while you're sleeping. It's exponentially cooler, though, when it sprays 15 feet up the wall of your vaulted loft apartment.

Sometimes you gotta laugh about these things.

That has NEVER and I mean NEVER happened to me.

BTW I also have some ocean front property in North Dakota I'll sell you real cheap if you believe the above line.

Drill out the hole in your lid with a 1.25 hole saw. That will take the same stopper with airlock that you use on your carboy, or a large bore blow off tube (1.25 OD poly hose) which is too big to clog, use that until fermentation slows down.

In closing I have 2 words for you

Foam Control

Fred

I'm having similar reactions on the starter I have going for tonight's batch of wit (WLP400) - I pitched it yesterday at noon and have cleaned out the airlock three times already. Pretty healthy yeast, I reckon . . .

Remove the airlock and cover with a piece of foil until activity decreases

Fred

Agreed, foil is what I use on all primaries now, just taped over the grommeted hole.
After a stuffed airlock, lid explosion, and gunk on the basement ceiling (and everything in a 4-foot radius), I had to find something other than an airlock.

I use a blowoff tube in a big 2qt jar of sanitizer on all my primaries now. I only fill the jar about 1/3 of the way up. My last brew (a wheat) actually overflowed the jar with foam after one day. I'd never seen that before.

I'm gonna have to re-paint the wall I think. This stuff will not come off.

i had a wit (clogged with orange peel) explode inside a closet containing nice clothes. yeast on the ceiling, everywhere. thought i got it all, but months later i pulled out my tux for a wedding and found it covered in mold. nice.

i cannot recommend foam control enough. since i began using this stuff, i don't even use a blow-off. krausen never gets over an inch or two, while the head on the finished beer is unaffected (even improved).

I've been looking at the foam control, which one do you guys use? I've seen a powder and a liquid version.

Ah yes, the Brew Spooge. Loverly stuff. I highly recommend it. I've got liquid stuff from Northern Brewer. I use it in starters, in the boil, then in the carboy.
I think it actually helps the foam and head retention in the final beer.

Thanks, I'll check into the foam control stuff.

I use the "Five star defoamer 105" liquid silicon. I add drops at boil and before pitching yeast. IMHO it prevents boil overs 100% but won't completely prevent a blow-out. There is no real substitute for headspace. Learned the hard way I'm afraid. Now I practice a modified variation of open fermentation and it seems to help.

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_21_187_399&
products_id=10388&osCsid=4712346caeed0a6c7fea783c316fcfcb

I use a small fan to prevent boilovers, blowing right on the wort. Only had 1 boilover since, and that was in the final minute right after adding an ounce or more of hops, and I think the fan was pointed away (totally my fault).

But the fermentation foam control would definitely be helpful, especially for certain yeasts.

I'll disagree with the 100%, but it will stop most of them. On the other hand if you are boiling with your gas valve wide open and you dump in a large bunch of hops and choose to turn your back and walk away, under these extreme conditions you MAY get a boil over.

The stuff works great.

Fred

Yep, I can see how that would do it. I've learned not to stray too far from a boiling kettle even under average conditions.

I always like to ask when I see one of these posts about explosive fermentation if temperature control was being used. I think the answer is always no.
A blow off tube or foam control certainly can be used to prevent the foam from clogging the airlock and allowing pressure to build, but I always believe that temperature control should be used to make better beer.

I have had a few blow off my airlocks. They are very fun when your thumb is trying to keep the hole sealed but the immense pressure is still shooting hoppy foam out like a volcano and your thumb over the hole is really only making things worse, like having your thumb on the end of a garden hose while you are in a frantic stumbling dash to get it into the shower at 3 am!

I think I have had 3 or 4 actual volcanoes, and they all were some of my best beers. I know I won ribbons with a couple. And one was my wheatwine last year which right now is totally awesome.

Don't worry about contamination too much when you have stuff shooting out of the fermenter, it is tough for anything bad to find its way in.

I would say that temp. probally had sumpin to do with the problem. I started fermentation around 67-68ish and after 24-36 hours it went up to about 73ish. I have had some brews bubble or blow the airlock out, but I was suprised to see the whole lid fly off. The major factor was head space. I knew it would be a problem when I poured it in, I guess I was just to lazy to do anything about it.

happened here too i was dry hopping with a yeast called turbo yeast it all came out good

I've had one fermentation back up into the airlock but fortunately I've never had the full explosion.

Regarding the issue of boil overs, I've found that a watched pot may seem like it will never boil but an unwatched pot will always boil over. Especially after adding hops.

"but an unwatched pot will always boil over."

That is a very true statement.

I have thankfully never had a fermenter spew its contents on my ceiling... but now I am scared. I put 20 liters of a 1.051 OG brew in a 30+ liter bucket. This always works very well and is plenty of headspace for most brews... however I am using WY3787 and that is no normal yeast. I always use a glass carboy with a massive blow off tube with this yeast. This time I figured with a low OG and 10+ liters of headspace I would be fine. Things were looking good for the first 2 days. This morning I woke up to the sound of a struggling airlock. I shot out of bed ran downstairs and quickly sanitized a clear plastic cup. Took off the airlock and set the cup upside down over the hole. Just goes to show that when you think you're taking a SAFE shortcut, think again. Wish me luck guys.