Fermentation issue - Airlock overflow [duplicate]

Question

I'm brewing my first batch ever, we did our best but something is going on in the fermentation and I'm not sure what it is.

Here is a 30 sec video of the issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHd8HJSzZfM&

Basically there is a lot of foam and the airlock is overflowed by it. Data: - The initial density of this batch was 1050, even though we tried to make it less, our initial malt/water ratio during the maceration phase was a bit off so the density was huge. - The yeast we used was a 11gr Golden Ale (0.3 oz) - The amount of wort is around 20lts (5.2 gallons)

We were worried a bit about the high density and the yeast being very little, but a brewer friend of mine told me it would just delay the fermentation because the yeast will have to multiply more before it starts fermenting. And it did, fermentation took close to 48hs to start.

Thanks for any input you might give :) hopefully we will save the batch.

Answer 1

In case it helps anyone, the solution was a blow-off hose like this: http://www.thisisdrivel.com/beer/brews/images/whim090516_001.jpg

Answer 2

This is usually caused when there is a lot of wort volume for the size of the fermentor combined with a very active fermentation. It isn't anything to worry about just make sure you have a blow off hose like you said.

To avoid problems like this in the future, reduce your batch size or increase the carboy size.

Actually adding to that 11gr seems like a lot of yeast, which could have contributed to the blow up.

Answer 3

You might also want to check your fermenting temperature. Pitching when the wort is hotter than the optimal temperature for the yeast can lead to higher than expected fermentation rates and resultant overflow.