Who has two thumbs and is switching to a blow-off tube?

--> This Guy! <--



To the first of many!

Blow off tubes rock. Is that where the lid landed??? Or did you move it over there before taking the picture?

The scene was untouched...

wait...

Your telling me my lid might blow off?

oo7cable said:

wait...

Your telling me my lid might blow off?

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Search around these forums. You'll find some awesome pictures. If you use a blow-off tube for the first few days of fermentation, then you won't have any problems. Actually- the airlock is usually fine if you have enough headspace in your bucket.

Holly Crap!


LOL - I think Im good.. Ive got a 6.5gal Fermenting Bucket. That seems like enough head room. But then again, I have no Idea what Im talking about....

oo7cable said:

Holly Crap!


LOL - I think Im good.. Ive got a 6.5gal Fermenting Bucket. That seems like enough head room. But then again, I have no Idea what Im talking about....

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I have a 6.5 gallon carboy filled with 5.5 gallons of a SNPA clone. I came homeabout 36 hours after pitching and checked on it. The airlock was plugged solid, so I SLOWLY began to loosen the bung and it started to hiss, for about 30 seconds before the pressure equalized. There must have been 5-10 PSI inside that carboy, the verge of explosion. Thankfully I caught it just in time. Once I switched to the blow off hose the entire 3 feet of 1 inch hose was completely filled with krausen in under a minute.

Edit: Mind you it was fermenting at 62*F the whole time.

This was 5 gallons of IPA in a 6.5 gallon bucket...

damnit.....

Now I need to spend more money.... and explain it to the wife.

oo7cable said:

damnit.....

Now I need to spend more money.... and explain it to the wife.

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Better to have to explain a little added expense now than to explain the mess. Trust me, I had an explosion 13 years ago and I still hear about it every time I brew.

Good point!

Blow off tubes...yep I have them and use them. I actually stopped using airlocks and it does not seem to bother anything.

For the cheapest blow off buckets head over to your grocery stores deli and polity ask if they have any gallon sized old buckets with lids. The round ones will fit perfectly on top of the ale pale. I bet your LHBS even sells the clip that holds the tube stable into the bucket for less than an airlock and tubing is super cheap!

There are two kinds of brewers: those who have scraped beer off the ceiling, and those who will!

have had this happen in my fermenting fridge. not a fun cleanup!! haha.

blow off tubes are mandatory for my 1L liquid yeast ale starters. they go nuts!!

oo7cable said:

damnit.....

Now I need to spend more money.... and explain it to the wife.

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You need to explain a $5-10 purchase?

No blow off tube for this guy...I use Fermcap in my fermentation buckets now. Even my blowoff tube gets clogged. No more issues once I switched to the drops! Awesome stuff!

Yikes. I had an airlock blow off, but that was in a 3 gallon carboy - no lid to blow off! But then again, I did have a hell of a time cleaning out the inside of my closet.

oo7cable said:

damnit.....

Now I need to spend more money.... and explain it to the wife.

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Good temporary fixes are easy. I had a minor blowup earlier in the week and the friendly folks here suggested just putting a 5/16" hose on a disassembled three part airlock. It worked fine, and I plan on using it for the next few batches until I get around to getting a large carboy and a larger blow-off.

I just had to hook a blow-off tube on my lemon weiss this morning. I woke up with the airlock filled with krausen, so I slowly started to pull the airlock off to switch it with the blow-off, I did not pull it off slow enough though. BAM! yeasty crap and krausen up to the ceiling, on my face, in my girlfriends hair.... it was like a fargin' beer bukkake in there. haha.

my blowoff consists of an airlock with a tube connected and run to a half gallon of water/starsan. like previously posted, mine was filled with krausen within a few seconds and the gallon jug was bubbling like crazy

....this is gonna be a good beer....

It's...it's beautiful *tears*

MetallHed said:

I just had to hook a blow-off tube on my lemon weiss this morning. I woke up with the airlock filled with krausen, so I slowly started to pull the airlock off to switch it with the blow-off, I did not pull it off slow enough though. BAM! yeasty crap and krausen up to the ceiling, on my face, in my girlfriends hair.... it was like a fargin' beer bukkake in there. haha.

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Beer Bukkake! :rockin:

MetallHed said:

BAM! yeasty crap and krausen up to the ceiling, on my face, in my girlfriends hair.... it was like a fargin' beer bukkake in there. haha.

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You've just received the medal for quote of the month!

oh my god lmao beer bukkake

I recently made a strawberry wheat beer for the wife and the airlock got clogged. The end result was a nice strawberry volcano, and strawberries dripping from my ceiling and the hanging plant.