Blowoff Tube Blown Off

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KDM

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This is in response to the Sarge-I'm-Hit thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/boom-im-hit-sarge-im-hit-wait-my-fermentor-96256/

Funny thing, I had the same exact thing almost. I awoke this morning to a blown off blowoff tube on my second brew ever, a double bock extract kit. Here how it all started yesterday...

db3.jpg


Here's what it looked like just a couple hours later -- man, it was almost scary! Look at the bucket bubbling away, and it's still going strong as ever a day later! Somebody told me this kit might be prone to puking, and that I'd best use a blowoff tube on it. Man, they wasn't whistlin' Dixie.

1_6_09a.jpg


This morning, as I said, I returned to find the top blown off, laying on the floor, and grody looking masses of greenish-brown sticky-ass petrified sugar-grain-yeast foam all over the place. I regret exceedingly that I failed to take a picture of the mess, dammit (I wish I had more snap, but that's what happens when you drink beer for forty years, young whippersnappers). Anyway, there's still a bit of the foam to see in the pic below, in the bucket and a glop on the tube...

1_6_09b.jpg


The "Sarge" thread helped me understand the airlock caused the problem, and so you can see where I reinstalled the tube directly to the stopper. Good thing to know. This post is also made to add ol' Sarge to the database with a searchable header...

Oh, one last thing: I just stuck everything back together without even thinking about sanitizer. My bad? Whatever, I'm gonna RDWHAHB. Hey, what else can I do?
 
see, I actually DID that (attached the tube directly to the grommet/stopper in the lid) and it still blew up two hours later.....hopefully you'll have better luck than me. I just put mine on time out in the closet and I'll check on it when it's done fuming and throwing a fit....

thanks for the pics!
Oh yeah...MMmmmmm...Dopplebock! one of my favorites.
 
i need to get a carboy/clear fermenter so i can watch this stuff happen. its not nearly as cool in a white bucket!
 
Snails! I thought you had a blocked-up airlock! No? Uh-ohhhhhhh . . . :::begin ominous "Jaws" music:::

Nvr2, it oughta be a law, I wouldn't be missing this for worlds! The whole mass of liquid inside the big jug just swirls and circulates like it had a power agitator inside. Really cool to know it's only a bunch of micrscopic little yeasties, yet to can so plainly see their work...
 
I had the same thing happen to me just yesterday on a Dunkelweizen pitched on to a full yeast cake. Using a bucket, my airlock got clogged (sure enough, on that little 'X' thing on the tip!), but I caught it when I noticed my lid bulging far more than the norm... Cleaned everything out and it's bubbling happily along now, but my lid has definitely been permanently stretched! :eek:
 
Will a 1/2" tube stuck into a #10 stopper for the better bottle offer enough room for my APA I plan on brewing up this weekend? You guys are scaring me...
 
Will a 1/2" tube stuck into a #10 stopper for the better bottle offer enough room for my APA I plan on brewing up this weekend? You guys are scaring me...

I think you'd be fine with an airlock on that one. The problem with the batches above is that they have a whole lot of fermentable sugars in them. Also, the dunkelweizen probably used a hefe yeast which can get pretty out of control. The batches I tend to have problems with are hefeweizens. I have done a few pale ales without any problems using a regular airlock.
 
Snails! I thought you had a blocked-up airlock! No? Uh-ohhhhhhh . . . :::begin ominous "Jaws" music:::

Nvr2, it oughta be a law, I wouldn't be missing this for worlds! The whole mass of liquid inside the big jug just swirls and circulates like it had a power agitator inside. Really cool to know it's only a bunch of micrscopic little yeasties, yet to can so plainly see their work...

no. well, I did, but I also had a too-small diameter tube and a complete lack of awareness or understanding of the powerful forces at work in the (now seemingly) flimsy plastic bucket. :eek:
 
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