Fermenting Bomb

So brewed this weekend and had a great time on 2nd batch. We store this at my buddies and he woke up to beer over the walls. The pressure was too much and the top flew off. I'm assuming the best thing to do is a blowoff tube for the first couple of days? Also, should the beer that's left still be good?

Thanks,

That is why I love my 8 gallon fermenting buckets.

bni said:

That is why I love my 8 gallon fermenting buckets.

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I had a blow off with a 7.5 gallon. Even going that large a big beer and active t yeast strain can blow off!

The size of the bucket doesn't matter of the opening is too small, pressure builds up and POP! More headspace does help with foam; more space will allow the foam (called kruesen) to rise without reaching your blow off tube. Some batches with some yeast might do fine with just an airlock, but you never know til it's too late that you needed a blow off tube. I always use one for the first week or so...

Thanks. we are using a 6 gallon carboy for 5 gallon batch. Is the tube a universal size that plugs into the top or are there different sizes. Beer should still be good i'm guessing?

My favorite method of blow off tube it to just jam a tube onto the end of the 3 piece airlock. You will almost always have a blow off waiting to happen with the 6 gallon bottle and 5 gallons of ale because if you look at the head space requirements on the yeast spec sheet and do the math you will see that yeast needs 33-20% head space. But go ahead and research each yeast you use and that will help determine if you should expect a blow off. What did you make? Happy Brewing!

Thanks. First brew i did was a scottish Ale. This one i tried a Citrus IPA which smells phenominal and has a great color. I'm getting a few feet of blow off today and use that for the first few days.

doornumber3 said:

Thanks. we are using a 6 gallon carboy for 5 gallon batch. Is the tube a universal size that plugs into the top or are there different sizes. Beer should still be good i'm guessing?

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There are different sized openings on better bottle carboys, but I think the glass ones are all the same. Just measure to be sure but you want the tubing that fits snugly in the entire opening. The idea isn't just to let the blow off out, but also the pressure which is what could force out an airlock. Also, during initial active fermentation the liquid in an airlock can easily bubble away leaving it dry even if it doesn't get blown out or foamed up. A blow off tube addresses all these issues...