Wort Bubbling through Airlock

[Cactus]

Hi, Ive just put down a Coopers Real Ale with 1kg of dextrose, 500g of Malt in the last 24 hours and I have a problem. My fermenter bubbles through the airlock and the wort is coming out onto the top of the lid. I havent overfilled the fermenter but the temp is 28deg C. Does anyone know whats going on here?

Im worried about infection as a result of this and have taken the lid off to clean the wort out of the airlock twice. The wort has a big head on it with small brown specks in it. These specks I think are undissolved malt. I took a sample and tasted it and it tasted sweet (not bad like Ive heard infection tastes like).

[Shaun]

This is very common with coppers kits.

There is a couple of fixes.

1. Run a tube from the airlock hole into a bucket half full of water insuring the end of the tube stays in the water. Any over bubbling will then bubble into the bucket.

2. Use different yeast, coppers yeasts are very aggressive and commonly corse over bubbling.

3. Leave it be, it is very unlikely for any thing to get in while bubbling out. Top up air lock when it stops over bubbling.

4. Get a 30 litre fermenter instead of a 25l one.

5. This needs to be done if bubbling over or not reduce the temp 28 deg is to hot.

[Oliver]

Hi Cactus,

Your beer should be fine, although might have some unusual tastes due to the high temp during fermentation. The brown flecks you describe do not indicate a problem. You'll find them in most beers as they ferment.

28C is pretty warm to ferment the beer at (although almost within the recommended range in the instructions, but don't listen to that ). Ideally, 18C-20C is a good range. It'll take longer to ferment, but the result will be better.

If the starting temp was too high, add less boiling water next time. There have been various threads on keeping fermenting wort cool, so do a search and you should come up with some suggestions. The old wet towel wrapped around the fermenter is a good one.

Cheers,

Oliver

[thehipone]

Just another heads up,

The Chimay yeast is ferocious in this regard too. My 1.080OG Maudite experiment is trying to climb out of the Cooper's fermenter, and the batch volume is only 20L! It hasn't made it yet, but I'm watching...