Stopper pops out of carboy

I never had this problem until 6 weeks ago and I've never *not* had it since. My #6 rubber stopper simply refuses to stay in my one gallon carboy. It pops out within 30 seconds to one minute. The last time I managed to jam it way down into the neck but when it came time to bottle I wasn't able to get it out without breaking off the neck of the carboy. (And actually not even then; it was still jammed in tight despite fractures and broken glass throughout my beer.)

I figure it's the star-san solution that I sanitize it with is simply too slippery so I'm air drying it an I'm going to put it in completely covered with airborn bacteria.

So how do *you* guys deal with this.

Hmm, I suppose I can pour boiling water over it. That'd be less slippery than star-san.

Definitely the star-san. Don't know why it didn't occur to was boiling water until today though.

Sorry. Just needed to vent. I *hate* stupid little set backs like this. Almost comical to watch a star-san slick stopper pop out of a carboy like a greased ping-pong ball.

I encountered this exact issue, asked on the forum and got 2 basic answers:

1) Use a blowoff setup

2) Wipe the stopper down with a dry paper towel, taking care not to leave any paper fibers stuck that could fall into the wort.

I just leave it in there best I can get it then push it in once its dry enough. Usually a couple hours.

I almost forgot option #3: Duct tape

brewkinger said:

I encountered this exact issue, asked on the forum and got 2 basic answers:

1) Use a blowoff setup

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The stopper is an essential part of my blowoff setup

2) Wipe the stopper down with a dry paper towel, taking care not to leave any paper fibers stuck that could fall into the wort.

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I thought of that but I figured that couldn't possibly be sanitary.

m3n00b said:

I just leave it in there best I can get it then push it in once its dry enough. Usually a couple hours.

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I was having trouble with the blowoff tube being top-heavy. Didn't occur to me to just let the top sit on top of the carboy with nothing/a lighter weight airlock/covered at first for an hour or two.

Still, boiling water seems to be a good solution for now. Boiling water is not slippery. I didn't seem to have this problem with iodophor so... even less with boiling water.

Anyway it's *really* nice to know I'm not alone with this problem. Never heard anyone with it and I was kind of assuming it'd be the type of problem people would be inclide to not believe I was having or not consider serious. (Although it *is* serious; my carboy won't close!)

Boiling water though. Works great.

I just string a zip tie across the top with a carboy handle and tightener down! That's what I did anyway, before I started using a big blowoff tube.

woozy said:

The stopper is an essential part of my blowoff setup

I thought of that but I figured that couldn't possibly be sanitary.


Anyway it's *really* nice to know I'm not alone with this problem. Never heard anyone with it and I was kind of assuming it'd be the type of problem people would be inclide to not believe I was having or not consider serious. (Although it *is* serious; my carboy won't close!)

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Understood about the stopper being integral.
My blowoff consists of a 3' piece of 1"OD vinyl tubing which fits snugly into the mouth of a carboy and does not slip out.

It is not really as un-sanitary as you might think. But an alternative is to slightly dampen the paper towel with starsan and then wipe until the rubber is dry and will stay in the carboy.

When it happened to me, I was frustrated and also thought it was something I was doing wrong.

Grab a clean paper towel, and dry the inside of the carboy and dry off the bung and put it in there. It's fine.

I'd get some new stoppers, blowoff tubes, and/or go to better bottles with the caps that stretch over the top, not in the top. And yes the bung needs to be dry. If the yeast is pushing it out you need more head space in the carboy, AKA a bigger carboy or bucket.

It's not the yeast. This is in the *very* first time I put the bung in. It's slippery and wet and pops out like a cap in a cap gun. Imediately. And with an *empty* carboy. The pressure is *entirely* from the wedge of the bung. There just isn't any friction in a star-san wet bung to keep a bung in.

I'm surprised paper towel is considered sanitary but... well, if you say so.

I'm surprised I'm not the only one. Which I guess the moral is, no matter how weird a problem you think something is, someone else will have experienced it.

So put it in dry, or wet with something less slick. I'll try the paper towel if boiling water doesn't continue to work but for now, I'm really loving the boiling water solution.

brewkinger said:

I almost forgot option #3: Duct tape

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My method of choice!

woozy said:

It's not the yeast. This is in the *very* first time I put the bung in. It's slippery and wet and pops out like a cap in a cap gun. Imediately. And with an *empty* carboy. The pressure is *entirely* from the wedge of the bung. There just isn't any friction in a star-san wet bung to keep a bung in.

I'm surprised paper towel is considered sanitary but... well, if you say so.

I'm surprised I'm not the only one. Which I guess the moral is, no matter how weird a problem you think something is, someone else will have experienced it.

So put it in dry, or wet with something less slick. I'll try the paper towel if boiling water doesn't continue to work but for now, I'm really loving the boiling water solution.

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I'm wondering- what's the boiling water for? You don't want to boil the stopper. Keep boiling water away from both the carboy and the rubber stopper.

He is using it instead of star-san, so he dosen't get an infection. Even tho we keep saying dry it with a paper towel.

Tape. Either duct or electrical. One piece over the edge of the stopper and another around the neck of the carboy to hold down the first piece of tape.

mikescooling said:

He is using it instead of star-san, so he dosen't get an infection. Even tho we keep saying dry it with a paper towel.

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Ah. Thanks for the clarification on that.

Yooper said:

I'm wondering- what's the boiling water for? You don't want to boil the stopper. Keep boiling water away from both the carboy and the rubber stopper.

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I'm pouring boiling water over the stopper to sanitize its surface. Dry it has friction, but isn't sanitary. Wet with star-san it's slippery. Pouring hot water over it sanitizes it and doesn't make it slippery.

It this bad? Will the boiling temp hurt the stopper?

mikescooling said:

He is using it instead of star-san, so he dosen't get an infection. Even tho we keep saying dry it with a paper towel.

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"Even tho..."?

Now hold on. I've only done it once this morning before any of you suggested the paper towel. (I had to do *something*; I had a gallon of cider sitting in an open jug in my closet.) It's not like I've done a dozen carboys since, each time stubbornly refusing to use paper towel. (Also I'm out of paper towel right this second now that I think about it). It's going to be at least a week before I do this again and I'll use the paper towel next time if you can tell me why that is better than boiling water.

I thought boiling water was a sensible and practical solution. That's all.

woozy said:

Definitely the star-san. Don't know why it didn't occur to was boiling water until today though.

Sorry. Just needed to vent. I *hate* stupid little set backs like this. Almost comical to watch a star-san slick stopper pop out of a carboy like a greased ping-pong ball.

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Don't do what I did on my last ipa batch. Played a game of chicken with it. The bung won. luckily I had another thermowell.

No no, your doing good. I'm all for keeping things clean. I've never had an infection in my brew, but I've got a friend who open ferments and some times his beer is just not drinkable. If you going to be super clean, I'm all for that. But at the point in the brew day I'm shoving a bung in a carboy, I'm tiered. I have a big bowl full of stopers and star-san, with a quick wipe and push, I'm done for the day.

woozy said:

I'm pouring boiling water over the stopper to sanitize its surface. Dry it has friction, but isn't sanitary. Wet with star-san it's slippery. Pouring hot water over it sanitizes it and doesn't make it slippery.

It this bad? Will the boiling temp hurt the stopper?

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It's not "bad" but those stoppers aren't meant to be subject to boiling water and will degrade.

Do what you'd like, as it's your beer. I use a clean dry paper towel to wipe off the inside of the carboy and the stopper, and I've been doing that for about 22 years. But if you want to do something else, that's cool. Instead of boiling, though, I'd probably just use a different sanitizer like Iodophor.

Well, I don't want them to degrade. Boiling them for twenty minutes is one them but a quick steam won't hurt them.

I'm kind of afraid I won't get them dry enough or I'll get paper towel fibers into things. Still I suppose I could try it. But I have a hard enough time getting my *hands* dry and fiber free with paper towels.

Well, I wasn't going to whip up a couple of gallons of idophore for one measly bung. And I wasn't going to use bleach ever no how.

Oh I imagine I'll get into paper towels once I get this into a rhythm. I only use a stoppers for my one gallon batches so this was just the second or so time I had this problem.

Gotta *buy* paper towels.

woozy said:

Well, I don't want them to degrade. Boiling them for twenty minutes is one them but a quick steam won't hurt them.

I'm kind of afraid I won't get them dry enough or I'll get paper towel fibers into things. Still I suppose I could try it. But I have a hard enough time getting my *hands* dry and fiber free with paper towels.

Well, I wasn't going to whip up a couple of gallons of idophore for one measly bung. And I wasn't going to use bleach ever no how.

Oh I imagine I'll get into paper towels once I get this into a rhythm. I only use a stoppers for my one gallon batches so this was just the second or so time I had this problem.

Gotta *buy* paper towels.

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You don't need gallons of iodophor. It comes in a very small bottle, and you use about 2 ml in a cup. I can check the "dosage" for sure if you want. You can also use iodophor instead of star-san on carboys and bungs, then they won't be slippery.

If your stopper gets stuck again, you might consider a corkscrew. It will damage the stopper, but the stopper is cheaper than the carboy + beer.

Wipe the Star San off the carboy and the stopper with some Vodka or rubbing alcohol. It will dry them out and they will mate up properly every time.

Cheers
Jay

You could always let the stopper just sit on top loosely without jamming it in until it dries sufficiently, unless you're planning to move it somewhere.

You could also wire it in place like they do champagne corks.

Yooper said:

You don't need gallons of iodophor. It comes in a very small bottle, and you use about 2 ml in a cup. I can check the "dosage" for sure if you want. You can also use iodophor instead of star-san on carboys and bungs, then they won't be slippery.

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Thanks. But I can do the math if I need to. [1 oz => 5 gallons = 80 cups so 1 cup <= 1/80 oz = 1/3 mL ~= 5 or 6 drops. I think.]

I don't want to got back to Iodophor after making a conscientious effort to move to star-san. (Plus star san breaks down; iodine is iodine)

When I next have the problem I think I'll deal with it with what I have on hand which may be vodka, paper towels, rinsing off the starsan (not sure why that didn't occur to me earlier), iodophor, etc.

A corkscrew for the bung. Did not occur to me because the hole in the stopper is too wide for the corkscrew and didn't occur to me to go through the rubber itself. I simply tossed the beer away which is too bad as it was a component of three batch yeast vs. hops experiment.

meltroha said:

My method of choice!

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Me too, I'm a ducktape kind of guy!

I always use rubbing alcohol. It evaporates quickly, helps the bung stay in, and helps it sanitize a bit.

meltroha said:

My method of choice!

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I'm more a fan of electric tape.

woozy said:

Well, I don't want them to degrade. Boiling them for twenty minutes is one them but a quick steam won't hurt them.

I'm kind of afraid I won't get them dry enough or I'll get paper towel fibers into things. Still I suppose I could try it. But I have a hard enough time getting my *hands* dry and fiber free with paper towels.

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Buy some quality paper towels for this, they won't fall apart as easily.
I do what other have said. Wipe down the carboy neck and stopper with paper towel and you will be fine.

Whenever I empty a carboy, I immediately clean it and sanitize it. I cover the mouth with a sanitized foil "cap" to protect it, so that the next time I need it, it's already sanitized.

Apropos the stopper issue, when it's time to use the carboy, I re-use that foil "cap" by wrapping it around the stopper and neck of the carboy to hold the bung in place if it's slippery.