air lock clogging

[Leaf's Reckless Son]

Help !

Just started a blackberry mead and the fermentation is going so strong that it's bubbling up and clogging the air lock. I'm changing the air lock every 10 minutes. Any suggestions? I've created a monster. Lol.

[Riverat]

I'd reccomend a bucket primary if you have one, anti foam drops if you can get them locally or beyond that I can't say a blow off tube is a good idea as a good chunk of your fruit may go "down the tube"

[Leaf's Reckless Son]

Thanks Riverat,

For now I've siphoned off some of the mead into a smaller bottle, so as to give more space. It's working. Maybe when things settle down in a day or two I'll pour that mead back in. I filled the carboy to the bottom of the neck to begin with.... guess I'll know to leave more room next time... although I don't like the idea of too much empty space at the top of the carboy. hmmm.

[Riverat]

Thus the great thing about buckets, you can start off with a greater voulume than will fit into your carboy and after primary you can still fill it with no headspace.

[Chevette Girl]

Yep, using a bucket or splitting the batch are probably your best options. Although a larger-diameter blow-off tube isn't a bad plan, at least it won't clog with fruit chunks the way a small airlock pipe will.

And you don't need to worry about headspace when your mead's in a foll-on fermentation stage, but once you rack to secondary you should make sure it's up to the neck so you don't have oxidation problems.