[color=blue]
> Ouch! That sucks... but I'm curious, why was the lid blown off the
> bucket, if the airlock allows gas to escape and not accumulate too much
> pressure inside the bucket? (wanna make sure the same thing doesn't
> happen to my stout, hah, my parents would not be happy...)[/color]

The lids blow off because the airlocks get clogged with "stuff" -
hop residue and other stuff in the foam. That's why some folks use a
large piece of tube inserted into water (a blowoff hose) for the early
part of the primary and then go to an airlock later. Others ferment
the early part with the lid off or loosely on, then tighten down after
a couple days. Another solution is to use a bigger fermenter than your
amount of beer, ie., a 7 gallon buck for 5 gallons of beer, a 6.5 gallon
carboy for 5 gallons of beer, etc. (and cross your fingers).

Derric