Just to give a little intro, i have been homebrewing beer for some time now,
but the banana wine was my first batch of wine. Since my carboys were in
use for my beer batch, I picked up a 1 1/2 gallon fermenter (plastic) from
my homebrew store. About 16 hours after pitching the yeast, I noticed some
activity in the airlock. Then about 2 hours later I look over at it, and
the head had clogged up the airlock. I quickly got some isodopher (however
you spell it) setup to sanitize and washed, then sanitized the lid and
airlock. then it did it again, then just now when i woke up. I did a 1
gallon batch, but the people at the homebrew store said that the bucket
would be big enough. I asked about this. is there anything that i can do
with wine to keep the head down?

Thanks,
Joe

You just have to use a proper sized container. Maybe you can fined a food
safe 2 gal. bucket at a general store. You do not need a tight fitting lid
or an airlock during the heavy activity time. Just cover it with some cloth
so bugs cannot get in and dust is kept out. This makes it easier to stir
which is good at this stage.

An alternative would be to use a yeast that is noted as being low foaming
but this may not be the optimal yeast for what you are trying to accomplish
and it may boil over anyway.

Ray

"Joe" > wrote in message
...
> Just to give a little intro, i have been homebrewing beer for some time
now,
> but the banana wine was my first batch of wine. Since my carboys were in
> use for my beer batch, I picked up a 1 1/2 gallon fermenter (plastic) from
> my homebrew store. About 16 hours after pitching the yeast, I noticed
some
> activity in the airlock. Then about 2 hours later I look over at it, and
> the head had clogged up the airlock. I quickly got some isodopher
(however
> you spell it) setup to sanitize and washed, then sanitized the lid and
> airlock. then it did it again, then just now when i woke up. I did a 1
> gallon batch, but the people at the homebrew store said that the bucket
> would be big enough. I asked about this. is there anything that i can do
> with wine to keep the head down?
>
> Thanks,
> Joe
>
>

--
G'day Joe,
In situations where I expect these problems, I only start
with half or three quarters of the water, and top it up later as the brew
settles. Its saved a lot of clean-ups.

China
Wingham
NSW


p.s. Life's a beach!
God help us seashells.