Help! Bubbler blew off!!!

[Nickrp83]

Ok so my dad and i have been brewing for about a year now, and have about 6 batches under our belt. All have been amazing. Just found out about AHP (very helpful place!) in Fullerton and went in to get a malt kit from them this weekend. We brewed on Sunday, and my dad checked it last night was bubbling away as usual. Well today he was home from work sick and well apparently the cork blew off sometime between last night and now. he is cleaning it off the walls as we speak. he put the cork back on and the lid started to swell as if it was going to blow again. We are thinking removing the cap from the bubbler as the three small holes on it may not be enough to let the gases escape quickly enough.
Got the usual kit but with one defense, we got some sort of yeast nutrient call Fermax (5tsp) and added it in per the directions that was the only real difference. Could that have caused our little explosion?
My main questions is, is the batch ruined? should we even continue or just toss the batch? suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
 

[jward]

Your beer is likely fine. I recommend trying a blowoff tube. It's an alternative to the bubbler/airlock. Search the forum for blowoff tube. There a different ways the can be easily implemented. I usually the kind where one removed the cap and inner piece from the 3 piece style airlock and add a hose. This more or less turns the airlock into a hose barb that fits nicely into a cork/stopper. The other end goes into a container with a water sanitizer mix. The blowoff tube will move a higher volume and resist clogging better. Once the main fermentation is done with the heavy CO2 output you can switch back to a conventional bubbler.

[lexuschris]

+1

Some yeast strains are more vigorous than others. Also, some fermentations just seem to take off better. When you see that pressure start to build, or if you notice lots of froth coming up into the airlock (making the sanitizer dirty), then its a good idea to go ahead and put the blowoff tube on.

As John said, if you have some extra beverage tubing lying around (3'-4' should work), just slip it over the inner stem (of a 3-piece airlock) and let the tubing arch over into a bucket of sanitizer. When it calms down in a few days, do replace the 3 piece airlock as before.

After the top blew, with all that gas going out of the open hole, most likely nothing was going in there. Your beer should be just fine.

Good luck!
--LexusChris

[dhempy]

At one point we've all had that happen .. I've had several beers turn out just fine when the airlock blew off. In fact, I cannot think of a beer that DIDN'T turn out fine when the airlock blew.

Dan

[grico]

+4

I have had a airlock blow off twice in as many days. Shattered the airlock both times, and the growler the blow off tube was being run into the second time. Always keep spares. Beer came out great though. Just lost 1.5gallons.