What do i do?

I'm a beginner (2nd batch) and just started the fermentation process. Woke up this morning and my tubing was crusty and sanitation bowl had somehow siphoned beef into it! What should I do?

mccabereynolds said:

I'm a beginner (2nd batch) and just started the fermentation process. Woke up this morning and my tubing was crusty and sanitation bowl had somehow siphoned beef into it! What should I do?

Click to expand...

*beer, not beef

What type of vessel are you fermenting in? Did you have an airlock on it or did you have a blow off tube going into a bowl of sanitizer? If you have a blowoff tube, and there is crusty foam residue in it, then you had a blow off, which is completely normal. The "beer" in the bowl of sanitizer is not really beer, it's the nasty foam blowoff. There is some beer wasted when you have a blow off, but it's not a concern. The only concern is to make sure that the tube does not get clogged or pressure can build up and blow the cap off and make a big mess.

No worries. That is the exact purpose of having a tube going into a container of liquid (blow-off tube) rather than just a fermentation lock. I assume that you are fermenting in a plastic bucket. There are 2 possibilities. If you have the tube stuck into the bucket deep enough that it is in the fermenting beer then you could have actually siphoned some beer over, but I doubt this is the case. More likely you have had a blow-off. When your fermentation is active you it will form a krausen on top of the beer which is made up of yeast and other solids (protein, etc) which can be quite large. This is what you are seeing in the bowl, and the crusties in the tubing is the evidence that some krausen blew off.

Awesome, thanks for the help! So it's ok to take the tube out and clean it?

Yes if its inactive,then put a sanitized airlock on.Or cover the hole and clean and sanitize your tubing and put it back on but then you have to clean and sanitize that again once you bottle thats why i just put an airlock on. Its easiest to clean if you take it off once krausen backs off and it looks inactive.That way krausen wont harden as fast in the tube making it a PITA to clean.

The first thing is to determine what cut you've got. If it's a nice piece such as strip, tenderloin, prime rib - then get a hot fire going. You want to cook these tender cuts hot and fast. If you've got a tougher cut like the shoulder, you're going to want to do it low and slow to break up all that connective tissue.

Oh, beer. Not beef.

Sorry. Just clean and sanitize. Happens to the best of us - just means you had a nice vigorous fermentation.

mccabereynolds said:

Awesome, thanks for the help! So it's ok to take the tube out and clean it?

Click to expand...

Normally it's best just to leave the tube there until vigorous fermentation has completed (usually around 2-3 days). After this, you could pull off the blow-off tube and replace it with an airlock. If I'm doing something that I know has huge krausen, I'll usually leave it there for about a week before pulling it off though. Mainly because sometimes there can be a light hiccup or lull in the fermentation and a jolt or a slight increase in temps could jump-start it again.

Man, if beef were a byproduct of beer that would make the best beverage in the world so much better! Great for brewBBQs!

Ah, why can't reality Be more interesting!

Gduck said:

Man, if beef were a byproduct of beer that would make the best beverage in the world so much better! Great for brewBBQs!

Ah, why can't reality Be more interesting!

Click to expand...

Beef could be a byproduct of beer because the grains that beer is made from make good cattle feed when the mash is done. Just get a weaned calf and start feeding. The problem comes when there is more required than just grain and you start buying hay and the second problem it that you need to brew every day to keep enough grain for it to eat and the third problem is you end up shoveling a lot of s**t before you get beef to eat.