Blow off tube popped out twice - help

first time using a glass carboy. put it in around 10 pm woke up the next day to the thing laying on the ground? put it back in and it got bubbling good and some foam blew through. then it popped out again. put it back in and its bubbling.

is this common? how screwed am i? im not gonna dump because i read the stickies about not dumping

any help is appreciated.

How far into the carboy are you pushing the tube? I would wipe the inside of the bunghole and the outside of the tube with a sanitized cloth/towel before pushing it back in. Push it in deep enough that it goes through the neck and into the tapered section... About 3" past the lip of the bunghole... Or is that the sphincter?

I used that method when using the 5 gallon glass carboy as the primary for a batch of mead I made... Tube stayed in perfectly, actually taking a decent effort to pull it out... You might not have the right OD tubing if it's coming out too easily... Where did you get it?

How are you sealing the bllowoff tube to the mouth of the car boy? The LHBW has plastic caps that fit over the carboy mouth and provise a fitting to receive a tube or an airlock. Perhaps post a picture?

i got the tube from my lhbs. the carboy is a glass spring water bottle so i dont know if its got an extra obstruction down in the bung (hehe) but i will try that idea thanks.

as far as infection do i have just have to wait or is there anything to look out for?

thanks again

See, I used an actual glass carboy I got from the LHBS, so the tubing properly matched the opening... It should be a snug fit... If the tube goes in easily, then either tape it in, get a carboy with the right size opening, or get some different OD tubing (to closer match the bunghole)...

How long has it been fermenting? Just soak a washcloth in starsan and drape it over the opening. Let that sit, but keep the washcloth damp with starsan, for a couple days then try the blowoff. You'll be fine.

If it's not in there tight enough it could pop out. My tube is pretty secure but I haven't had any explosive amount of bubbling going on. If there's that much pressure which caused the tube to blow out I would imagine air born yeast wont have a chance getting in to the carboy. However did you sanitize the blow off tube before you put it back? I would think if you did that then you shouldn't have a problem. Of course the other end of the blow off tube is in a bucket of water to create an airlock right?

Damn we must of all saw this at the same time. LOL There were no posts when i started to reply.

i went with the dual advice of a.) wiping the tube and bung with the sanitized rag. went it alot further this time. think that was the initial mistake. its down a few inches now. b.) i also taped the tube to the carboy. that will help me sleep better.

thanks for the advice.

Nice...

When my mead actually started fermenting, it was ACTIVE! LOTS of bubbles into the bucket. I could hear it in my bedroom, through a wall and mostly shut door... Even over all the other background noise. Loved it... I think I might have slept better when that was going on actually... Hmmmmm

Oh, dirtyjerz... You need to type faster there...

middie8 said:

i went with the dual advice of a.) wiping the tube and bung with the sanitized rag. went it alot further this time. think that was the initial mistake. its down a few inches now. b.) i also taped the tube to the carboy. that will help me sleep better.

thanks for the advice.

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I would untape the tube from the carboy. Its better to have that thing blow off than have pressure build up too much in the carboy until.....

iron_city_ap said:

I would untape the tube from the carboy. Its better to have that thing blow off than have pressure build up too much in the carboy until.....

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I don't see how that could possibly happen... With the other end of the tube in a blow-off bucket (or whatever with sanitizer in it) it's just an oversized airlock with minimal back-pressure in it... I've used blow-off tubes in carboy bungs (putting the tube into the airlock hole) taping the bung down without any issue at all (this is on my PET carboys, not my glass ones since I have tight fitting tubes for the glass ones)...

Pictures would probably help... Of course, if the tubing was the correct size, it wouldn't matter since it would stay in on it's own... I simply pushed mine in deeper so that it would catch the blow-off before it got too high in the carboy. Had zero issues with it being like that for well over a week under INTENSE fermentation...

I've even had a PET carboy literally rocking as it would build up to blow-off through the smaller diameter tubing. Thankfully, I've not had a fermentation that active since then.

To each their own, but personally, I don't like the idea of taping things in tight to glass when it already wants to blow it apart. If the blowoff clogs it could get ugly. Like you said, you've had some INTESE fermentations going, but you said those were PET ones. If you had glass rocking, I'm guessing you would have been a little more nervous. I like having an extra level of safety when dealing with glass, regardless of how small it may be, but again, to each their own.

True, I didn't have the glass carboy rocking... Only because it's too rigid to rock... I wish I had taken a video of the fermentation when it was going full bore... I actually, did, but it was after it had calmed down from the foamcano to just a steady action... Basically every time I would degass and aerate the batches, they would foam like bastards for a good span of time. I had to be quick with the tube to get it back in. Eventually, I would hold back just enough so that I could get the aerator tool out of the carboy, before putting the tube back in, then shaking to get the oxygen into the must... Stuff that's "normal" during the first stage of mead fermentation (until 1/3 of the sugars are consumed, then it's "hands off" until complete)...

Not sure if I'll primary in the glass carboy at this point. Especially since I'm gearing more towards using stainless steel for fermenting/aging...

Another option could be to tape a sanitized towel onto the carboy so that IF the tube comes out, it covers the bunghole until you get to it...

That thing would have had me changing underwear pretty frequently (the foamcano). I figure, if its blowing off enough CO2 that the tube won't stay in, nasties won't be getting in either. So, if it ends up sitting a few hours unchecked with the tube out, it'll probably be fine. Not optimal by any means though.

I only had one incident where I needed to do a cleanup... Of course it was Thanksgiving morning, so I ended up arriving at my sister/mother's place later than expected. When I explained to them why I was late, it took them about 10 minutes to get what I was saying... Then there was another 30 minutes of questions...

I think once you see that much foam going through that large of a tube, most of your fears go with it.

I even had the ultra-active fermentation in a 6 gallon PET carboy... It calmed down enough after about 2-3 days so that I could put the airlock back in... Basically, at 6-7 hours after pitching the yeast (used a starter, my first time I believe) I had a foam sculpture in the airlock. Luckily I heard it, and checked on it... That was about 1am, thankfully, I'm more of a night person. :rockin:

Generally speaking, I find that I don't need a blow-off tube in the carboy (any size) after about 4-7 days...