Blow-Off for Imperial Stout

Hey there- I just started my second ever brew- an Imperial Stout. OG is 1.092, and I'm brewing a 5 gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon glass carboy- for my first brew (IPA) I simply used an airlock, but with the high gravity brew, I'm anticipating a lot of blow-off.

But, since this is my first high gravity brew, I don't really know what to expect- basically, I need to know what size container to use on the receiving end of my blow off tube. I really don't want it to fill up and overflow all over the floor.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers!

I use a large cup and change it when it gets full. I've seen pictures of people who use a gallon bottle or bucket or something. Anything that can collect the blow off is fine.

how long do you think it would take to fill up a plastic container- about a quart in size, maybe a little more.

I won't be able to constantly monitor it, as I'll be at work a lot of the time- so I just need something that can go a good 6 hours without overflowing

You can go big if you feel you need to. For the sake of convenience I'll typically just grab another fermenting bucket, toss in a gallon of water and StarSan and run a hose into that.

The big issue is krausen clogging the hose, which can still happen with a blowoff hose.

I've been doing weekly brews on Thursday nights or Fridays which allows me the weekend when I'm kicking around the house to keep an eye on it and make sure everything is as it should be.

I always put the blowoff tube inside of a Belgian 750ml bottle half full of Starsan solution and then put that inside of a small bucket. I also cut a ziplock bag and fit it over the tube where it goes into the Belgian bottle to catch any splatter that may occur. It just catches in the ziplock and drips into the bucket if it happens.

I just use a regular beer growler filled with starsan.

I use 1 gallon water jug

Anything thats close and wont tip over will do just fine. All you need to do is keep it sumbmerged it doesn't matter how much starsan vodka etc... you use

I'm 24 hours into the fermentation and still no blow off- how long typically for big beers does it take to get volatile?

Just making sure I'm not experiencing a slowed fermentation. Probably just paranoid.

Here is my ultra low buck blow off tube set up:



Only when the grains/krausen get really high in this 6 gal pyrex carboy do I have a problem. The old wine jug is filled with a heavy mix of water and starsan. Never given me an infection yet, and handles 99% of brews.


BTW thats Death Brewers Vienna Smash on the left, and my (hopefully) final rendition of 999 pilsner on the right.