A blowoff tube for a bucket that WILL work?

I need something for a blowoff on a bucket that will work. Using a tube attached to the airlock into a jug of water does NOT work. I've brewed a porter and today an oatmeal stout that were both 1.064SG and the krausen was about 5 inches thick and still clogged up the blowoff tube and will lead to an exploding bucket.


Is there any solution aside from cracking the lid and causing wort to leak everywhere?

Did you nip the little cross of the bottom of the airlock?

enderwig said:

Did you nip the little cross of the bottom of the airlock?

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Yup, the krausen comes up to the lid and gets very thick. Builds up much more pressure than that tiny hole can release. The krausen clogs up that hole real quick also, I clean the tube out and its clogged not 10 minutes later.

I got tired of the smaller blowoff tubes clogging, so I went to 1" tubing that goes directly into the bucket lid. I used a hold cutting saw to cut a hole in the lid that's just slightly larger than the tube. I wrap the tube in plastic wrap to get a really tight seal.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/magic-chef-chest-freezer-77661/#post823988

It's worked great for me for a few years.

cdburg said:

I got tired of the smaller blowoff tubes clogging, so I went to 1" tubing that goes directly into the bucket lid. I used a hold cutting saw to cut a hole in the lid that's just slightly larger than the tube. I wrap the tube in plastic wrap to get a really tight seal.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/magic-chef-chest-freezer-77661/#post823988

It's worked great for me for a few years.

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Ok now that is something i need. I should do that the next time around

What size bucket you use? I've only ever stopped up the airlock once on my buckets (6.5 gallon I think). I use Fermcap almost every time though. Also, you can just sanitize a piece of plastic wrap and cover the hole in the lid, nasties can get in when you're blowing that much CO2 .

BeerPressure said:

Ok now that is something i need. I should do that the next time around

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It definitely makes life easier. I've never had it clog. It's actually allowed whole hops to pass through it when I screwed up on an Imperial IPA and let some of the hops get into the fermenter. I'd definitely recommend it if you're having issues.

bakins said:

What size bucket you use? I've only ever stopped up the airlock once on my buckets (6.5 gallon I think). I use Fermcap almost every time though. Also, you can just sanitize a piece of plastic wrap and cover the hole in the lid, nasties can get in when you're blowing that much CO2 .

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I use the 6.5 gallon buckets. I am planning on ordering fermcap soon, hopefully it will solve the huge krausen issues i have with beers over 1.060.

BeerPressure said:

I use the 6.5 gallon buckets. I am planning on ordering fermcap soon, hopefully it will solve the huge krausen issues i have with beers over 1.060.

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I still have huge krausen with some beers - mostly wheat ones, I think. But my blowoff went from every beer, to maybe one in 10. On the ones that do clog the airlock, I just lay a piece of sanitized plastic wrap over bucket hole - it works and no infections so far doing that.

Certainly most extreme blowoffs are due to poor fermentation temp control. Once I started controlling the temps, keeping ales churning at 68F or less for example, blow off got really minimal.

To answer the specific question though, you can drill just about any size hole in the lid that you want. You can get grommets in just about any size and shove the blowoff into that. 1/2" ID tubing is what I'd call minimum.

Bobby_M said:

Certainly most extreme blowoffs are due to poor fermentation temp control.

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+1

I can control mine to withing +/- 1 degree F, but about 1 out of 10 beers still blows off pretty nicely.

I have fermented some Belgians in the 80's and they didn't blowoff. SOme wheat beers at 65 blow off...

Bobby_M said:

Certainly most extreme blowoffs are due to poor fermentation temp control. Once I started controlling the temps, keeping ales churning at 68F or less for example, blow off got really minimal.

To answer the specific question though, you can drill just about any size hole in the lid that you want. You can get grommets in just about any size and shove the blowoff into that. 1/2" ID tubing is what I'd call minimum.

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In my experience and in my own beers, it's been more related to the size of the beer and the yeast. I can maintain fermentation temperatures to 1 degree, and still get blowoffs more often than not. Of course, I've been on an IPA kick too. CA Ale yeast can get going in a larger beer, and can produce a blowoff, even at 67 degrees. They're smaller blowoffs, mostly just some scum running through the tubing, but they're blowoffs nonetheless.

I've also got a Belgian (White Labs Abbey Ale) fermenting at 65 right now (early in the fermentation) and it blew off quite a bit of yeast overnight. It was a larger beer and had quite a bit of simple sugar, which I'm sure adds to the blowoff.

Fermentation temp definitely plays a role, but having a lower temperature is certainty not a guarantee in preventing blowoffs, at least in my own brewery.