Just a word of advice there. Do not move an actively fermenting carboy/bucket/ete.
I brewed a 1.108 barley wine Saturday am. Pitched 1/2 of a Wyeast Burton IPA Blend yeast cake and saw signs of active fermentation by early evening. Sat evening through Sunday evening it was happily bubbling away, sitting at 66F in a closest in my house that stays extra cold when our AC is running. Sunday night I pitched 1/2 of a US05 yeast cake to help the Burton ferment more fully (advice from a few knowledgeable professional and home brewers). Again, fermentation was nice and steady around 11pm when I went to be. I woke up at 6am and was worried to see the temperature spiked to 76F overnight. I guess the outside temps were low enough that our AC didn't kick on much during the night, allowing the fermentors temp to climb.
So, I moved the fermentor from my closet to my fermentation fridge in my son's closet to get the temps back down into the 60's. But when I got the carboy in the fridge it went nuts. It basically erupted like a bottle of soda with a mentos dropped in it. The blow off and bug blew out. I tried to put it back and it blew out 2 more times in a matter of seconds. Foam, krausen, yeast, beer, flowing all inside my ferm fridge and out onto the carpet. I forgot to mention I was trying to quietly move the carboy as my 2yr old son slept only 6 feet behind me in his crib. So now there's yeast blown all over the fridge and inside my sons closest, foam is flowing out all over the carpet, under the fridge, pretty much everywhere. I'm yelling to my wife for her to bring towels in to stop the never ending flow. At this point my son is standing in his crib watching me, saying "Check daddy's beer?". He likes to check on my fermentors with me. I'm yelling and cursing, he's now laughing. My wife is dripping wet from her shower trying to get towels for me, but also deciding which I can use. I'm holding the bung in the carboy with all my strength to stop the eruption to no avail since the foam is now pouring from the blowoff tube, into my blowoff jug, and right out over the top. I felt like Lucy in the chocolate factory... just not able to keep up or control the situation.....
Anywho, I'm heading home from work soon to check on the carboy. Hoping the temps are way back down into the 60's. Knowing in a few days I'll have to move that minifridge and REALLY clean the carpet well. Maybe I'll laugh at the whole situation afterwards.
The moral, never move a highly active fermentor.
(Thanks for letting me rant)
I brewed a 1.108 barley wine Saturday am. Pitched 1/2 of a Wyeast Burton IPA Blend yeast cake and saw signs of active fermentation by early evening. Sat evening through Sunday evening it was happily bubbling away, sitting at 66F in a closest in my house that stays extra cold when our AC is running. Sunday night I pitched 1/2 of a US05 yeast cake to help the Burton ferment more fully (advice from a few knowledgeable professional and home brewers). Again, fermentation was nice and steady around 11pm when I went to be. I woke up at 6am and was worried to see the temperature spiked to 76F overnight. I guess the outside temps were low enough that our AC didn't kick on much during the night, allowing the fermentors temp to climb.
So, I moved the fermentor from my closet to my fermentation fridge in my son's closet to get the temps back down into the 60's. But when I got the carboy in the fridge it went nuts. It basically erupted like a bottle of soda with a mentos dropped in it. The blow off and bug blew out. I tried to put it back and it blew out 2 more times in a matter of seconds. Foam, krausen, yeast, beer, flowing all inside my ferm fridge and out onto the carpet. I forgot to mention I was trying to quietly move the carboy as my 2yr old son slept only 6 feet behind me in his crib. So now there's yeast blown all over the fridge and inside my sons closest, foam is flowing out all over the carpet, under the fridge, pretty much everywhere. I'm yelling to my wife for her to bring towels in to stop the never ending flow. At this point my son is standing in his crib watching me, saying "Check daddy's beer?". He likes to check on my fermentors with me. I'm yelling and cursing, he's now laughing. My wife is dripping wet from her shower trying to get towels for me, but also deciding which I can use. I'm holding the bung in the carboy with all my strength to stop the eruption to no avail since the foam is now pouring from the blowoff tube, into my blowoff jug, and right out over the top. I felt like Lucy in the chocolate factory... just not able to keep up or control the situation.....
Anywho, I'm heading home from work soon to check on the carboy. Hoping the temps are way back down into the 60's. Knowing in a few days I'll have to move that minifridge and REALLY clean the carpet well. Maybe I'll laugh at the whole situation afterwards.
The moral, never move a highly active fermentor.
(Thanks for letting me rant)