Brewed My First Porter

Brewed a porter today and I'm really excited. It was a good brew day overall. I avoided a boil over by adding Fermcap when I noticed everything rising instead of adding it right at the beginning. I did have one boil over when I added the 5 min. hop addition and had to run inside real quick. I thought I was okay because I had lost enough volume during the boil. I couldn't chill outside because my hose was frozen, so I had to bring everything inside to chill. OG was about 1.052-1.054. It was hard to tell because there was almost a small head on the sample in the wine thief.

My question: I bought a couple of BetterBottles last weekend and figured that since the biggest one is 6 gallons, and this is the highest OG I've started with, I'd better start with a blow off tube. I bought 5/8 inch tubing and it seemed to fit just right on the bung that goes into the BetterBottle. But now after getting everything set up, I'm realizing that it is almost a little too big. It wants to slide right off. I can position it so that it stays, but it comes off fairly easily. If I have a blow off, will this be okay? Should I just put on an airlock? I don't have a HBS anywhere near me to pick up some tubing. Coudl I get tubing for a blow off at a store like Menards or Fleet Farm? Does it need to be food grade? Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance.

The blow off tube that I use fits snugly into the neck of the carboy. I am sure that you could find something that size in the hardware store.

Thanks for the suggestion. The BetterBottles have a wider opening than glass carboys. I'm not sure exactly how much bigger the opening is because both of my better bottles are full at the moment.

So I'm assuming that it doesn't need to be food grade tubing since it's just for a blow off? This is my 6th batch and I've actually never used a blow off tube.

I like Revvy's Solution

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-foam-coming-out-airlock-74920/

Use your air lock if the tube you have fits on that. If not- I took the bung I was using into a hardware store and found a perfect match. Then cleaned and sanitized it and haven't had any troubles yet.

I can usually wiggle my hose into the standard bung, but it can be a real hassle. What I ended up doing was making a single 3/4" slit in the end of my tube. That allows me to point the tip of the hose. It works into the bung MUCH easier. I get it down in there enough so that the hose ends up expanding out to its regular size in the hole. So far, no issues with it.

iron_city_ap said:

I can usually wiggle my hose into the standard bung, but it can be a real hassle.

Click to expand...

I have nothing to add, just wanted to quote that out of context.