Whenever I brew a stout, I ALWAYS seem to get a massive head of krausen.
The very first stout I brewed, the head forced it's way out of the airlock (quite surprised it never blew off....). This ended up in the bath for a while.
The next stout was the same coopers kit and the same thing happened, I thought the first time was due to it being excessively warm.
My first 'Extract' stout and this time I planned ahead. I fitted a tube to the airlock (a dry airlock) and had this in a bottle of water. The airlock was blown off as it got blocked. Stout covered the walls, floor and ceiling.
The last stout I brewed was fermented in my Better Bottle and I had been able to fit a blow-off tube so avoided any problems.
The only problem with the Better Bottle is that if I fill to 40 pints, I have very very little head space. Filling to 35 pints gives me enough for a normal head.
I plan on using my 30 litre fermenter (the outer bucket of my Mash Tun). Now while this will have about 7 litres of head space, I have no idea whether or not this will be enough. I really would prefer not to risk the wrath of SWMBO so want to know how you guys cope with the 'heavier beers' that produce BIG Krausen heads.
If I cut a hole big enough for a grommet and attach an airlock to it, I won't be able to fit a blow off tube. If I cut a hole for a blow-off tube I won't be able to fit an airlock.
I suppose I could have a hole for a blow off tube and either use that as my airlock or just transfer to the Better Bottle once things have quietend down....
Vigorous Fermenting