created a vacuum in carboy?

Brewer's Friend 728
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.
Z

Zeppman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2010
Messages
370
Reaction score
6
Location
chicago
So I was just about to keg my fat tire clone which has been in the primary for 3 weeks. I go to check on it, and somehow it had managed to suck water through the blow off tube and into the carboy!? I have never heard of this happening. It literally sucked nearly half a gallon of water with iodophor in it through the blow off tube! I fear my beer is ruined...

Does anyone know how this could of happened?
 
Suckback happens all the time, usually in betterbottles. But a change in temp will often draw the liquid in the airlock (or blowoff vessel) into the fermenter. What did you use as your blowoff liquid.

I wouldn't panic and just see the beer through to finish. It is really a lot hardier than most brewers think, and manages to turn out OK despite what happens to it.

Read this, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wh...where-your-beer-still-turned-out-great-96780/


Relax!
 
The "blow off liquid" was water and iodophor. I know we soak our equipment in this stuff but is it safe to actually drink?
 
If the cause of this is temp change, which way? I usually have my temp set at 72 until fermentation begins, then lower it to 67 until it's done. IPA's

What is the actual cause of this. I've never had it happen, but have heard of it. Just so I can avoid it.
 
telebrewer said:
If the cause of this is temp change, which way? . . . . . .
Click to expand...

When the temperature drops and there is no co2 release. In this case I use a longer blowoff tube and coil it a couple of times between the fermentor and the blowoff, call it an anti-suckback tube.

5111012116_c93f13c219.jpg



telebrewer said:
What is the actual cause of this. . . . .
Click to expand...

Contraction of the beer due to the lowered temperature. I.E. When lagering or chill crashing or just general uncontrolled temperature swings after primary fermentation is at or near completion.:mug:
 
bwomp313 said:
You should market that COLObrewer, hehehe. I love the drawing
Click to expand...

Agreed, drawing is classic...you could place an add on the site. When people order you simply send them the diagram explaining how to twist and coil the tube. Im sure Billy Mays would have been all over this. Cheers:mug:
 
I've learned the hard way, but only with a little bit of starsan in an airlock, vs a blowoff bucket. When I crash cool, I just empty the airlock out and wrap it tightly in foil.

My random thought of the day:

Capture the CO2 on the way out in an inverted 2 liter bottle, in your normal blowoff bucket. When you finally crash cool the primary it will suck back in CO2 instead of liquid. I would think the blowoff tube needs to go to the top of the inverted bottle that's collecting CO2. Good luck moving this pile of stuff :)

blowofftube.png
 
bolts said:
. . . Capture the CO2 on the way out in an inverted 2 liter bottle, in your normal blowoff bucket. When you finally crash cool the primary it will suck back in CO2 instead of liquid. I would think the blowoff tube needs to go to the top of the inverted bottle that's collecting CO2. Good luck moving this pile of stuff :)

blowofftube.png
Click to expand...

Good idea! And pretty picture too, although a little thought will be needed to hold the co2 receptacle at the right height while holding the tube as well as the fluid at the correct level, etc, You know, fasteners and things:mug:

CaptainCoconut said:
It's actually contraction of the air in the headspace.
Click to expand...

Hmmmmmm, . . . . . . OK;)
 
Clann said:
just put a one piece airlock on it. it will just bubble in the opposite direction.
:mug:
Click to expand...

That will work if you aren't worried about contaminated "air" getting into the beer. I'm usually not worried about such but some people seem to be.:D
 
Yeah I dont worry to much. My real problem wasnt cooling suckback but moving my better bottle. every time i moved it i would get some suckback. now I have a couple of milk cratesto put the bottle in.
 
Just last night my kid let me know he helped my hard cider make bubbles. I asked him to show me how and he went up to the bucket and pushed down on the lid and the 3 piece airlock then sucked down all of the star san! Ahhhhh!

So, I filled up a container with star san and did a blow off tube setup and put it somewhere he couldn't reach it.

Looking around online I found this video of a home made airlock that I might just have to try out.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
COLObrewer said:
That will work if you aren't worried about contaminated "air" getting into the beer. I'm usually not worried about such but some people seem to be.:D
Click to expand...

The whole point of the "one-peice" airlocks is to "sterilize" the air. By passing the air through water you will remove all the dist and therefore all the contaminents. The only drawback to them is the severly limited airflow.
 
I think the suck back is due the change in atmospheric pressure as well as the temperature. Operating on the same principle as a barometer.
 
I sucked back some iodophor blowoff solution into one of my batches. Maybe a quart in 5 gallons. I was concerned. But the beer was fine. In fact, it was right next to a clone of itself and in the end I couldn't tell which one had sucked back the iodophor water.
 
theredben said:
The whole point of the "one-peice" airlocks is to "sterilize" the air. By passing the air through water you will remove all the dist and therefore all the contaminents. The only drawback to them is the severly limited airflow.
Click to expand...

This is just completely untrue. Airlocks are to prevent any air from getting into your fermenter, but still let air bubble out. If bubbles come in, they definitely won't be "sterile."
 
CaptainCoconut said:
This is just completely untrue. Airlocks are to prevent any air from getting into your fermenter, but still let air bubble out. If bubbles come in, they definitely won't be "sterile."
Click to expand...

+1 couldn't have said it any better
 
theredben said:
The whole point of the "one-peice" airlocks is to "sterilize" the air. By passing the air through water you will remove all the dist and therefore all the contaminents. The only drawback to them is the severly limited airflow.
Click to expand...

What the heck?!?!

A one piece airlock serves the same purpose as a 3 piece airlock, to vent off co2 while preventing o2 from coming in. The only difference between the two, is that one of them is made of one single piece (it used to be blown glass, now it's plastic) and a three piece has three separate pieces. But they serve exactly the same purpose.

Severely limited airflow?????? You sure as heck want limited "air" flow, you want non-existent airflow.

Airflow
 
well the same preasure forces that draw solution back with a blow off tube will allow for airflow back with a airlock (1 or 3 peice)... in that case, the dust will get traped going back, but the air mix - N2, O2 and traces will go into the fermentor.

The airlock alows for 1 way airflow if preasures in the headspace stay >= outside air. If you ferment at 28 bar and have a nice high presure system of say 31 or 32 bar come in, you probably will get some 'suck back' regardless of what sort of venting you use (blow off, 1 or 3 peice airlock).

fermentor material of course plays into this as does headspace. Glass less flexable the better bottles, so less subject to preasure changes of weather or 3 year olds and less head space means less air for compression or expansion.
 
ACbrewer said:
well the same preasure forces that draw solution back with a blow off tube will allow for airflow back with a airlock (1 or 3 peice)... in that case, the dust will get traped going back, but the air mix - N2, O2 and traces will go into the fermentor.

The airlock alows for 1 way airflow if preasures in the headspace stay >= outside air. If you ferment at 28 bar and have a nice high presure system of say 31 or 32 bar come in, you probably will get some 'suck back' regardless of what sort of venting you use (blow off, 1 or 3 peice airlock).

fermentor material of course plays into this as does headspace. Glass less flexable the better bottles, so less subject to preasure changes of weather or 3 year olds and less head space means less air for compression or expansion.
Click to expand...

We're not worried about dust, we're worried about bacteria, which definitely doesn't get trapped, it goes right through with the air.

Air won't bubble back in a 3-piece until airlock liquid has already been sucked into your beer (if your airlock's filled properly.

Glass carboys are actually more subject to external pressure changes, because they don't allow expansion or contraction to "dampen" changes in atmospheric pressure.

I guess people will post anything, whether they've checked their facts or not.
 
Glass subject to atmospheric I suppose due to a lack of elasticity, but not subject to someone (like a child) putting their hand on it and squeezing (there was a post on page 2 about that).

And you must put a lot more liquid in your 3 peice than I do to have liquid in before air.
 
ACbrewer said:
Glass subject to atmospheric I suppose due to a lack of elasticity, but not subject to someone (like a child) putting their hand on it and squeezing (there was a post on page 2 about that).

And you must put a lot more liquid in your 3 peice than I do to have liquid in before air.
Click to expand...

I fill them to the little line, just like I do with my 1-piece airlocks.
 
My 3 pieces would usually suck in fluid until the interior piece fell on the nipple, then it would create a vaccuum sucking on the interior piece and there would be no way to release it without it sucking in more fluid, that's when I started using the anti-suckback coil method, it's easy.

If it does happen to suck fluid in to the first coil then you have another airlock between ambient and the fermentor, if it sucked into the second coil, then there are three, I simply tape the coils low on the fermentor(s), that way it's no problem moving them.
 

Similar threads

_Keven
Question on if this mold made it into my fermenter
Replies
3
Views
513
hotbeer
hotbeer
Ali01
Gelatin + Cold crashing and bottle conditioning
Replies
11
Views
779
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
Arbe0
how much beer in 3 gallon carboy?
Replies
7
Views
772
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
Bobby_M
Open Fermented Weizen
Replies
19
Views
1K
Bassman2003
B
Clint Yeastwood
Beer Loss Due to Improperly Tightened DuoTight
Replies
3
Views
409
Broken Crow
Broken Crow

Latest posts

Back
Top