I blew the lid off of my fermentor!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

CJSIXER

Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2011
Messages
19
Reaction score
3
Location
Salem
I have been a member for a couple of years but this is my first thread. I wanted to get some opinions of what the likelyhood is of my batch being ruined.

I brewed an Imperial IPA in the vein of Stone Ruination or Three Floyds Dreadnaught. I figured since it had an original gravity of nearly 1.08 that I would need a blow off tube instead of an airlock. We finished up last night at around 9pm. When I got up this morning around 10am I was disappointed to see that it hadn't started to show signs of activity. By lunch time things were off to the races. As time went on pressure built until there was bubbling comming out around the lid grommet and around the edges of the lid. Finally there was a boom and the lid blew right off of the fermentor. Check out the pic.

Well we put the lid back on and stacked some books on it. What are the chances I will end up with a ruined batch? I was very careful with sanitation prior to closing up the fermentor the first time. Do you think things will turn out all right?

526840_10151569329372790_707816918_n.jpg
 
Thank you for posting a picture of your fun!

I think you'll b alright, with the yeast going crazy like that there's a good chance it took care of any bacteria that could have gotten in there. People have dropped way weirder things inside fermenters and came out alright, so just keep an eye on it, and bottle it up. I'm sure you'll be able to come up with a clever name for it and all that after this experience.
 
Thanks for chiming in. I only left the lid off the fermentor long enough to take a quick picture before I snapped it back on. We stacked a half a dozen of my wifes old programing textbooks on top to try to make sure it doesn't blow off again. Things are back to the races and it is pumping a TON of CO2 out of the hose. It is also forcing a small amount of beer out all around the edge of the lid.
 
Is your blow off tube connected to a racking tube? If it goes to the bottom of your bucket, it isn't going let CO2 out like that.
 
Thank you for following rule #1. When something like this happens, take pictures to share BEFORE you start clean-up. :mug:

Don't sweat infection. If it's pumping out CO2 like that, it's pretty protected. Make sure you clean out that blow-off tube though or it might happen again.
 
Is your blow off tube connected to a racking tube? If it goes to the bottom of your bucket, it isn't going let CO2 out like that.

THat was part of a siphon that broke. I cut the inner tube off. The plastic tube only goes into the bucket a couple of inches. It is definitely up above the level of the beer.

Even with all the books stacked on top it popped the lid off again. It basically just popped the seal and sprayed a small amount of the krausen onto the wall again. Much easier to clean up this time. So I snapped it back on and I am hoping that it stays on this time.
 
Thank you for following rule #1. When something like this happens, take pictures to share BEFORE you start clean-up. :mug:

Don't sweat infection. If it's pumping out CO2 like that, it's pretty protected. Make sure you clean out that blow-off tube though or it might happen again.

THat is the funny thing. The tube isn't clogged. It just seems that the CO2 output of the yeast is of a higher volume than the hose can vent. I think things would be better if I had a 1 inch tube so it could flow more volume.
 
THat was part of a siphon that broke. I cut the inner tube off. The plastic tube only goes into the bucket a couple of inches. It is definitely up above the level of the beer.

Even with all the books stacked on top it popped the lid off again. It basically just popped the seal and sprayed a small amount of the krausen onto the wall again. Much easier to clean up this time. So I snapped it back on and I am hoping that it stays on this time.

shouldn't be a big deal at all. I fill my fermenters almost to the rim and I've had the lid blown off (although, not quite as dramatically as yours) multiple times without any issues. I've also had textbooks stacked on top too.
 
Thanks for taking pictures. It may be better to let the pressure off till it slows. If you get a good seal on the lid and pressure builds, it can blow up. That first mess in the picture is nothing.
 
It'll be fine. Your skin, on the other hand, may suffer when the wife sees that mess...

Funny you say that. The first thing I did after seeing the photo is look at his profile. The OP is "single", once I saw the stove/range in the corner of the photo I was concerned.
 
Thanks for taking pictures. It may be better to let the pressure off till it slows. If you get a good seal on the lid and pressure builds, it can blow up. That first mess in the picture is nothing.

That is a good point. You can just set the lid on the bucket and not snap it down. You're churning out enough CO2 that isn't not going to be an issue. Then after it starts to slow down, seal it up.
 
Funny you say that. The first thing I did after seeing the photo is look at his profile. The OP is "single", once I saw the stove/range in the corner of the photo I was concerned.

I am actually married. I never got around to filling out all the info on my profile properly. My wife helps me brew and she helped clean up that mess too. Yes, I know. I am a very, very lucky man. :mug:
 
I am actually married. I never got around to filling out all the info on my profile properly. My wife helps me brew and she helped clean up that mess too. Yes, I know. I am a very, very lucky man. :mug:

As am I, my wife never complains about my brewing habit.
 
My wife complains, but it usually leads to good things. She says things like, "I'm tired of all these bottles taking up space. Why don't you start kegging?" or "I'm tired of you messing up the kitchen. Why don't you start doing all-grain so you can brew outside?" :mug:

She's an arts and crafts kinda person and she even suggested a big freezer for my kegerator so she can paint hop gardens on it. :D
 
Thanks for taking pictures. It may be better to let the pressure off till it slows. If you get a good seal on the lid and pressure builds, it can blow up. That first mess in the picture is nothing.
Yea, I have had WAY bigger messes than that. That's gunna be an ass kicker when it's done!
 
My wife complains, but it usually leads to good things. She says things like, "I'm tired of all these bottles taking up space. Why don't you start kegging?" or "I'm tired of you messing up the kitchen. Why don't you start doing all-grain so you can brew outside?" :mug:

She's an arts and crafts kinda person and she even suggested a big freezer for my kegerator so she can paint hop gardens on it. :D
That's a good wifey!
 
I just brewed a Big IPA with belgian yeast, and the same thing happened, though it was a much bigger cleanup on my end.
 
Same thing happened with my Irish stout a few months ago. I only had an air lock in at the time. So the lit flipped in the air. I had krousen on my walls and ceiling and shandeler. I foud after that, if you wrap a large towel around the lid and let it drap over the sides it will keep the krousen in if it blows again.
 
New question! This batch stopped bubbling after about 5 days. We are now at the 10 day mark and I am transfering to a secondary to dry hop. When I was brewing the batch and putting it into the fermentor I made sure I had about 5.5 gallons of liquid to account for the trub and any loss through the airlock. Well needless to say with the massive activity I had for the first few days I lost more than I planned. Now the beer is only filling the secondary up to the point in the carboy where it finally begins to curve in at the top. If had to estimate I would imagine that there is around 3/4 of a gallon of headspace. I say this because I pulled as much of the beer as I could without picking up the trub and noticed before I started siphoning that the level of the liquid was just below the 5 gallon line.

How much head space is too much? I don't want to oxidize the beer but I also don't think adding water or something makes much sense. What do you all think?
 
New question! This batch stopped bubbling after about 5 days. We are now at the 10 day mark and I am transfering to a secondary to dry hop. When I was brewing the batch and putting it into the fermentor I made sure I had about 5.5 gallons of liquid to account for the trub and any loss through the airlock. Well needless to say with the massive activity I had for the first few days I lost more than I planned. Now the beer is only filling the secondary up to the point in the carboy where it finally begins to curve in at the top. If had to estimate I would imagine that there is around 3/4 of a gallon of headspace. I say this because I pulled as much of the beer as I could without picking up the trub and noticed before I started siphoning that the level of the liquid was just below the 5 gallon line.

How much head space is too much? I don't want to oxidize the beer but I also don't think adding water or something makes much sense. What do you all think?
It's fine. Don't worry. I usually fill my carboy with C02 before transferring. IF you keg, do that. If not, still no problem.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top