4th blow off in as many days

Hey I made a gallon of straight cider about 6 days ago. I used safale American ale yeast and have had a blow off every day for the past 4. I have a 3 piece airlock on there and have been taking it off and cleaning it but I'm worried about oxygen exposure. Would leavening the airlock with the blown off cider hurt the product at all? Is the risk of oxygen exposure worth the clean water in the airlock? Thanks.

I'd be more concerned with infections than with oxidation at this point. If you get that airlock liquid sucked back into the fermentor, it could cause a problem. I would rig a blow off tube on the next batch or ferment initially in a vessel with plenty of headspace. Then rack to a vessel that allows you to fill to the top for secondary fermentation.

My first batch of Noble Trappist did the same thing. As long as you're just cleaning the airlock and putting it right back in you should be fine. That small hole being open for a few minutes shouldn't hurt anything unless you're in a really dirty/dusty room. I bought a couple extra airlocks so if it happens again I can swap them quickly and not worry about leaving an open hole in the lid.

I use Nottingham in Cider strictly and it's always given me incredible fermentation. It's plugged up every air lock I've ever used, so I built a medusa style blow-off ale pail. Might be easier to use a single large diameter tube, but this stuff is cheap and easy to replace if I suspect an infection. It's 3 bucks for 25 feet at Walmart.



This is what Nottingham will do to a cider air lock with added sugars.

Get you some 3/8 id tubing and make u a blow off tube. I know it's to late now but for future references try this out.

Yeah, that cider was amazing. I rigged up some tubing with a quickness. It was mellow and drinkable within two weeks. Not too dry, with an abv high enough to schnocker you within about three glasses.

How much air space do you have? Cause I usually do 5 gal. in a 6 gal. primary. That's a lot of air space, quickly filled with a blanket of CO2.

Does Notty make more than 3 in. of krausen?

Fill your airlocks with cheap vodka instead of water and you won't have to worry about infection from suckback.

MarkKF said:

How much air space do you have? Cause I usually do 5 gal. in a 6 gal. primary. That's a lot of air space, quickly filled with a blanket of CO2.

Does Notty make more than 3 in. of krausen?

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This has been my thinking as well. The CO2 will/should force out O2 at the beginning of fermentation. And even if you remove the airlock for a short time the CO2 being heavier should hold out O2 while you clean up.

Now as far as other contaminates getting in that could be something to think about and a good reason for having a second airlock on hand to replace the clogged one.

Or just go with the blowoff tube for the first few days.

MarkKF said:

Does Notty make more than 3 in. of krausen?

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Not in my ciders when pitched rehydrated. Pitching juice on a notty yeast cake...maybe 1-2".

In my beers? 4-5"+

Nottingham krauzen in cider has never exceeded 2.5 inches for me when I leave enough space in the container. It caught me by surprise the first time and just about shot out of the airlock in the picture above. I expected it to behave like champagne yeast. Stupid me.