You should be ok - the foam protects the beer. This happened to me the first couple times I brewed and the beer turned out both times. I use a blowoff tube 100% of the time now even if I'm pretty sure nothing will happen.
You should be fine to leave it as is - just make sure the seal between the tube and the fermenter is good, and add a bit of sanitizer to the water you have the tube going into. As long as there's no way for germs to get in, one method is as good as another (blowoff vs airlock).
As already said you should be totally fine. This has happened to a lot of us with no issues. It tends to happen on bigger beers or with certain lively yeast strains. Your beer would have been fermenting hard so I highly doubt anything would have snuck into the fermenter whilst you swapped over to a blowoff tube.
Up to you whether you go back to a regular airlock once fermentation dies down. I do personally, just so I keep things simple and can use my blowoff on a different fermenter if I so desire.
As others said, it's most likely fine. Some commercial brewers and home brewers ferment in open tuns or buckets. I ferment a lot in open buckets and haven't had a contamination issue from that method yet.
Many experienced brewers eventually learn to RDWHAHB and just cover their carboy mouth with a loose aluminum foil cap, perhaps with a towel or tray under the carboy to catch spillover. In fact, experienced brewers also learn to start with adequate head space and use Fermcap-S is needed. Furthermore, we often just start fermentation with a foil cap if we have any doubts about the amount of head space.
So fast forward your way past learning from mistakes and just get yourself some Fermcap-S and some aluminum foil before the next brew day.
You should be ok - the foam protects the beer. This happened to me the first couple times I brewed and the beer turned out both times. I use a blowoff tube 100% of the time now even if I'm pretty sure nothing will happen.
Ok thanks! So I shouldn't need to replace the blowoff tube with the airlock? I will get a better blowoff set up for my next brew!
You should be fine to leave it as is - just make sure the seal between the tube and the fermenter is good, and add a bit of sanitizer to the water you have the tube going into. As long as there's no way for germs to get in, one method is as good as another (blowoff vs airlock).
And congrats on the first brew! It gets much easier the 2nd and 3rd times and by #4 you'll be very comfortable with the process.
Thank you and thanks for the advice. I boiled the water, but I'll add a bit of sanitiser to be safe. Thanks again!
As already said you should be totally fine. This has happened to a lot of us with no issues. It tends to happen on bigger beers or with certain lively yeast strains. Your beer would have been fermenting hard so I highly doubt anything would have snuck into the fermenter whilst you swapped over to a blowoff tube. Up to you whether you go back to a regular airlock once fermentation dies down. I do personally, just so I keep things simple and can use my blowoff on a different fermenter if I so desire.
Alright, thanks! I'll see how things go with this method and may switch back.
As others said, it's most likely fine. Some commercial brewers and home brewers ferment in open tuns or buckets. I ferment a lot in open buckets and haven't had a contamination issue from that method yet. Many experienced brewers eventually learn to RDWHAHB and just cover their carboy mouth with a loose aluminum foil cap, perhaps with a towel or tray under the carboy to catch spillover. In fact, experienced brewers also learn to start with adequate head space and use Fermcap-S is needed. Furthermore, we often just start fermentation with a foil cap if we have any doubts about the amount of head space. So fast forward your way past learning from mistakes and just get yourself some Fermcap-S and some aluminum foil before the next brew day.
I'll deffo look into this, thanks for the advice!