Immediately remove dirty blow off tube?

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MrMcPeach

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I am brewing an IPA and it fermented all the way up into my blowoff tube. It didn't block airflow, but the tube is pretty gunked up.

Should I immediately remove the tube and replace with a clean airlock to reduce chances of infection or is that not necessary. The blowoff tube goes to a small bucket filled with starsan so I think it should be OK.

I am just a bit paranoid about infections as my last 3 batches have all had problems with severe over carbonation and one of the things I realized was that I may have been using a blowoff tube that was not 100% free of crud.
 
If it is not clogged and the ferment has died down a bit then you don't need to change it out. But it won't hurt anything to put a freshly sanitized one on. btw - I usually switch to an air lock at that point.
 
I leave the tube on for a week then go with the ole airlock. It's not 'dirty'. Just filled with with gunk that won't hurt or infect your beer. As far as the tube causing infections, as long as it was clean and sanitized before you used it, you should be fine.
 
OK, I guess I will just leave it as is for now then as all other air locks are currently in use. Thanks for the quick replies.
 
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