It seems I am missing good opportunities for pictures lately. I excuse myself because I’d rather avert crisis altogether than document an unfolding crisis in pictures.

What crisis? It seems the Bold Holiday Ale, my first foray into beer other than the pilsner-styled beers I’ve been working on, is determined to expose me in every way to the difficulties that I see discussed on forums around the Internet. From a boil over during cooking to a narrowly avoided tragedy with a blocked airlock, this has been a learning experience.

Before I get into the blocked airlock saga though, I want to hypothesize something. Every single batch of beer I’ve ever made has seemed to have a far shorter ferment cycle than is directed in the instructions. I can verify that the fermentation has worked by using the hydrometer which typically has shown that 3/4 of the fermentation takes place in about half the predicted time. I think this is due to how I transfer the wort from the brewing pot to the fermenter. Basically, I pour the contents from one to the other without trying to be too “nice” about it. I don’t siphon the contents at all. In this process, I think that the wort gets very highly oxygenated, resulting in an environment that produces far more yeast than normal (lots of oxygen plus tons of sugar equals yeast reproductive heaven). With more yeast in the mixture, the mixture converts more rapidly to alcohol. At least, that’s the theory.

To the blocked airlock. The Holiday Ale had a super high sugar content which indicated that the activity of the yeast would be pretty high. I understood this to be the case, but didn’t really “get it”. Within 18 hours (when I woke up Sunday morning) there was foam coming out of the airlock and a good amount of the foam had reformed into liquid and pooled on the lid of the fermenter. The airlock water was brown. Shortly thereafter I noticed a change in the way bubbles were coming through the airlock - the bubbles seemed to be having trouble getting through. I took the airlock out of the grommet in the lid to put a hose in for a makeshift blow off setup and the pressure that I released blew little bits of foam and hops and other stuff several feet up the wall. I don’t know what would have happened had I left the airlock in. but it probably wouldn’t have been good.

So note to self - when expecting a really active ferment cycle (ie, when the gravity of the brew is above 50 or 60) I am going to start things out with a blow-off set up and then switch to an airlock when the really active ferment is over. Also, when removing potentially blocked airlocks, remove them slowly so as to not get beer spray all over.

The pilsner-style beer is getting bottled on Thursday - it has clarified well and I’m looking forward to trying it out to see how its character differs from previous beers I’ve made. It should be ready to drink (though not aged to perfection) by Thanksgiving!