Blowoff tube for Better Bottle?

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hoppysailor

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We just got a couple of 6 gallon better bottles and put them to work Saturday as fermenters. I rigged blowoff tubes using #10 drilled stoppers with tubing inserted in the holes. One of the batches had some crazy thick blowoff that wouldn't go through the small diameter tubing and pushed the stopper out repeatedly. I ended up just letting the blowoff ooze out of the fermenter for most of the day yesterday and was able to get the stopper to stay in last night. The question is, "what have you done to rig a larger diameter blowoff tube for your better bottles?".
 
I bought about 3 feet of 1 3/4 inch outer diameter tube that fits pretty snug in the bottle. I then tape it up so make it air tight. So far it hasn't cause any problems for me.
 
Fermcap does the trick. Also, I've found you really need to push the bungs into the better bottles (leaving about 1/8 - 1/4 inch between the neck and the lip on the bung). Otherwise, they like to ride up - lubricated by the StarSan.
 
I think I'm glad I didn't have the stopper jammed tight. The resulting explosion would have been worthy of a photo expose.
 
I have not tried a bung, but had no luck with the orange carboy caps. I now use the BB standard closure with the small o-ring and a 1/2 inch OD tube. That does the trick for me. No issues at all.
 
I have used the #10 stoppers on my 6 gal. BB without incident. I also use the universal bung and have not had any problem but the #10 seems much more sturdy so I am a bit surprised to hear that you had trouble with it. I just plug the 3 piece airlock (minus the interior and exterior caps) into the stopper/bung and connect the tubing down the length of the airlock post. The other end of the tubing goes into a growler filled 1/2 - 3/4 with Star San and wrapped in saran wrap. I change out the Star San/Growlers when the solution gets gunky/murky. Has worked like a charm thus far and I have had some wicked blow off from some batches. Montanaandy
 
Montanaandy - I tried sending you a PM but your mailbox is full. Where in Montana are you?
 
The orange caps are a little loose, but a quick round of plastic wrap fixes that. Alternately, the red caps are a good, snug fit if you can find them. I got some purple ones from AHS that were supposed to be specifically for Better Bottles but they're not even close so they just collect dust.

You can get a 1/2" ID hose over any of them. I usually cut the tip of the cap back a bit to expose the full diameter opening, since they do neck in a little.

Here is my orange cap with blowoff in action and red cap with airlock on my two BBs.

ris_and_son.jpg


-Joe
 
Hoppysailor - I am in Billings. I have tried to delete prior PM's but haven't been able to for some reason. I guess that I will have to upgrade my account soon :) Montanaandy
 
Joe - I use an adjustable clamp on my orange carboy caps and this gets them to seal air tight. I use this setup when racking from the BB's. Montanaandy
 
Montanaandy, make sure you're also deleting messages in the Sent folder. You may also have to empty the trash, I don't remember.

-Joe
 
Fermcap does the trick. Also, I've found you really need to push the bungs into the better bottles (leaving about 1/8 - 1/4 inch between the neck and the lip on the bung). Otherwise, they like to ride up - lubricated by the StarSan.

I found out the hard way that FermCap doesn't always do the trick. I think it really depends on the strain of yeast you're using. FermCap had zero effect on a batch I was fermenting with Wyeast 3787 (Wyeast describes it as a "True top cropping yeast").
 
I have found that carboy caps come in all different sizes, even the exact same colors. Two oranges may not fit the same. Same with maroons, etc. The only way I've found is to buy and try. Some of my orange ones fit so snuggly that it's hard to get them on. Other orange ones I have are totally loose and would be pushed off by the slightest amount of blowoff. You may just need to try different ones until you find some that fit right. Try different vendors, etc.

Yes, I realize this is a PITA and probably not worth the effort when other options are available...
 
I have had good luck with the orange ones. They are far too loose to be air tight for a blow off or racking from a better bottle, but throw some zip ties on there, or maybe some big hose clamps as mentioned before and they seal up just fine. To get my B3 racking setup to work i use zip ties around the cap on the better bottle, on the opening with the racking cane (slightly looser tho,) and on the opening with the filter. Kind of a pain, but I have tons of zip ties, thanks to clever impulse marketing by Lowes, and car parts stores, thats its not a big deal. HTH
 
We did a German Alt the other day. My friend texts me about the wicked action going on when suddenly the bung pops out of the glass carboy. I was like get the GD Blowoff tube quick and a sanitized container of sanitized water before you lose an eye:tank:Hoping the extra action means really good beer :rockin:
 
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