When will i learn!?!?!

So, in my dining room with the nice blinds and chairs and table and some stupid white table runner, what ever the hell that is, sits one of my primarys. A nice pale ale sitting at an OG of 1.046 and a pitched tube with no starter of 001 califonia ale yeast.

I get a call from my wife who was surprisingly calm saying, "what do you plan to do with your beer in the dining room". I say "well i dont know drink it". she says "how about all of it that is on the ceiling, the table the runner the blinds the floor the chairs"

forgot the damn blow off tube son of a bit*&^$%^ B&*$&* I*Y$#* *&*$#^&^& *&*(&* %%@#@#@ .....................crap!

My SWMBO would have slit my throat for that. For just PUTTING a carboy in the dining room, I'd expect harsh treatment.

Good luck man - I think you're going to need it.

Oops.

Uh oh -- if she is calm, that is when they are most dangerous. You had better come home with flowers and a gift card to go shopping with...

FlyGuy said:

Uh oh -- if she is calm, that is when they are most dangerous. You had better come home with flowers and a gift card to go shopping with...

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True. I would be scared. kevlar jacket time me thinx. remember to keep your back to the wall and your eyes open!

FlyGuy said:

Uh oh -- if she is calm, that is when they are most dangerous. You had better come home with flowers and a gift card to go shopping with...

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Good call. flowers it is!

Why do we ferment in carboys ?! I did a wine last weekend and it frothed all over the floor. Why didn't I use a bucket ? I have 2 perfectly good buckets waiting for something and I used a friggin carboy and made a mess.

I'm never fermenting in a carboy again.

Reverend JC,
You have to go to sleep some time. LOL

I keep my full primary and secondary fermenters in my dining room too. I also had a volcano the last time I brewed. I'm just glad it was on Saturday and I caught it just in time.

I'm in agreement with brewman. I'm not going to use a carboy as a primary anymore.

brewman ! said:

Why do we ferment in carboys ?! I did a wine last weekend and it frothed all over the floor. Why didn't I use a bucket ? I have 2 perfectly good buckets waiting for something and I used a friggin carboy and made a mess.

I'm never fermenting in a carboy again.

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I am still having a hard time understanding why you feel a bucket is necessarily superior to a carboy. Is it that there is more headspace, and that this reduces the risk of blow-overs? If so, try a bigger carboy. And to be more precise, you should say "I am never fermenting in a small fermenter again!". All this prejudicial talk about carboys is making me sad.

I did that once.



ONCE.

My wife would thank me - just another reason to go shopping and re-decorate (again).

Lil' Sparky said:

My wife would thank me - just another reason to go shopping and re-decorate (again).

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LOL - that might be true for me if we hadn't done that room recently.

Ok, got the flowers, had dinner ready, and had the mess cleaned up.

She was like "oh honey, you didnt have to clean that up by yourself, i just had some errands i had to get done and would have been more than happy to help."

She then said it was rather amusing when you think about it..........................................................MUUUWWWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA. I have brain washed her well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway, trouble averted, and the brew is still churning away.

Next time, remember the blow off tube!!

Or a 6 gal carboy!!!!!

Luckily my first and only blow off was in the basement. I was fermenting 4.9 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy, my first batch. I learned that making beer was different than making wine! I now use 6 gallon carboys with a blow off tube. There is always stuff in the tube when I am done.

Fortunately, February is "Dining Room Savings Month" at your local ICKY.

Reverend JC said:

Next time, remember the blow off tube!!

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And, um, perhaps not fermenting in the dining room amongst nice furnishings...?

It's not always about headspace. Some brews just want to explode. I tried a blowoff in my 6 gal better bottle using a carboy cap and 3/8" tubing off the smaller nipple. I started with about 5.25 gals and the carboy cap clogged overnight. Luckily it was able to froth out from the edges of the carboy cap because they don't fit very snuggly on the BBs. I upgraded the blowoff tube to 1/2 ID and put it OVER the larger nipple on the carboy cap. Oh, don't forget to use a large container for your airlock because that will overflow with foam as well.

This was in a 6.5 gallon carbooy, the problem started when i made 10 gallons of IPA and not getting enough boil to get it to 10. i ended up with about 12 gallons, so 6 in the carboy and 6 in the bucket. Used safe ale 56 in bucket and seems to be fine. the 001 california ale tube is alot more vilolent then i had thought it would be.

Sorry to say, but I had a good laugh over this. When I shared the story with my husband (the anal one in our household), he was horrified! He kept saying, "That's not going to happen here, is it? Are you sure?" I've only had a couple of small blow offs and he wasn't around to see it, so I assured him that it could NEVER happen around here. I do stick my fermenters under a counter in the kitchen, just in case!

I am still having a hard time understanding why you feel a bucket is necessarily superior to a carboy. Is it that there is more headspace, and that this reduces the risk of blow-overs? If so, try a bigger carboy. And to be more precise, you should say "I am never fermenting in a small fermenter again!". All this prejudicial talk about carboys is making me sad.

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Buckets have more headspace. They are easier to clean. There is zero risk of having a blow over. Did I mention that I lost a quart of wine due to blow over ?

Carboys are too small. I don't understand carboy manufacturers. If you brew a 6 gallon batch, you probably need a 7.5 gallon carboy to ferment it. And you'll need 2 sizes of carboys. The first one will need to be 7.5 gallons for primary. The second one will need to be 6 gallons to minimize headspace as a secondary. Yet the 7.5 gallon carboy doesn't exist ! One could primary in a 6.5 and secondary in a 5, but 5 gallon brews are too small around here !

And what are we gaining by using the carboy for a primary ? Headspace isn't a bad thing for primary fermentation. I've never had an infection problem with a bucket. What does a carboy do that a bucket doesn't ?

For those of us that are visual people we love watching the brew churn. Oh, and boobs:rockin:

brewman ! said:

Buckets have more headspace. They are easier to clean. There is zero risk of having a blow over. Did I mention that I lost a quart of wine due to blow over ?

Carboys are too small. I don't understand carboy manufacturers. If you brew a 6 gallon batch, you probably need a 7.5 gallon carboy to ferment it. And you'll need 2 sizes of carboys. The first one will need to be 7.5 gallons for primary. The second one will need to be 6 gallons to minimize headspace as a secondary. Yet the 7.5 gallon carboy doesn't exist ! One could primary in a 6.5 and secondary in a 5, but 5 gallon brews are too small around here !

And what are we gaining by using the carboy for a primary ? Headspace isn't a bad thing for primary fermentation. I've never had an infection problem with a bucket. What does a carboy do that a bucket doesn't ?

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Um, it lets me see what's going on without opening the lid and risking contamination. This is important, as far as I'm concerned. I like watching what's happening.

Though, I've never had a true blowoff. Hell, dude, last week I racked the wort of a 1.125 barleywine directly onto a huge cake of pacman, and while the fermentation was vigorous as hell, it never did blow off.

brewman ! said:

Buckets have more headspace. They are easier to clean. There is zero risk of having a blow over. Did I mention that I lost a quart of wine due to blow over ?

Carboys are too small. I don't understand carboy manufacturers. If you brew a 6 gallon batch, you probably need a 7.5 gallon carboy to ferment it. And you'll need 2 sizes of carboys. The first one will need to be 7.5 gallons for primary. The second one will need to be 6 gallons to minimize headspace as a secondary. Yet the 7.5 gallon carboy doesn't exist ! One could primary in a 6.5 and secondary in a 5, but 5 gallon brews are too small around here !

And what are we gaining by using the carboy for a primary ? Headspace isn't a bad thing for primary fermentation. I've never had an infection problem with a bucket. What does a carboy do that a bucket doesn't ?

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Yep, that makes sense to me now. It really is that you like having a larger fermenter, but carboys aren't made big enough.

I use both buckets and carboys for primaries. Usually it just comes down to convenience or whether or not I want to see the fermentation. In all honesty, there are many more potential disadvantages to using glass carboys, but being able to see the fermentation and the abililty to more thoroughly sanitize them are reasons for me to keep using them. I use 1" blow off tubes into a 1 gallon bucket of bleach water, and have never had a problem. I *DID* have an infected bucket once, however. Now all my plastic buckets get washed and sanitized IMMEDIATELY after use, and they get stored full of sanitizer until they are used again.

My old infected bucket is now my bottle washing bucket.

And if I had my preference, I would ferment everything in 7.5 gallon or larger stainless steel conical fermenters. But too pricey for me.

You guys should feel lucky!!! In my day I didn't have any fancy-schmancy carboys or buckets!!!!! We all fermented in our shoes. Never needed to add yeast though.

67coupe390 said:

You guys should feel lucky!!! In my day I didn't have any fancy-schmancy carboys or buckets!!!!! We all fermented in our shoes. Never needed to add yeast though.

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Nasty! Shoe-brew, eh? Talk about off-flavors!!

Toe Nail Ale!!.... Hhhuumm I may be on to something:rockin: