1 inch blowoff tube FTW!!!

Got some 1" ID vinyl tubing from work about 6 months ago. I never needed it , till today. It fits tightly into the neck of the carboy, and I don't think it's gonna clog. Makes for a heck of a blowoff tube.

Me thinks you need a bigger bucket for that rocket!!!

annasdadhockey said:

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Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!

That's what I've always used for ales, work great.

But I must ask: How is it you're getting that much blowoff from a carboy where the liquid level is so low? Are you fermenting at warm temps? My carboys are filled so that they are twice as close to the neck as those pics and they just barely blowoff, often not even enough to fill the blowoff tube with foam. But that's fermenting at 62-64 F.

What yeast was that? I've read about doing this before with English ale yeasts and am planing to do this with my ESB. What I read to was to use a 5gallon carboy and the action of the blow off pushes a lot of the break material out of the carboy cleaning up the beer.

Great Pictures!

That is the size blowoff tube Northern Brewer sells with their starter kits

Parker36 said:

Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!

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I tasted it...a little bitter!!!

SpanishCastleAle said:

That's what I've always used for ales, work great.

But I must ask: How is it you're getting that much blowoff from a carboy where the liquid level is so low? Are you fermenting at warm temps? My carboys are filled so that they are twice as close to the neck as those pics and they just barely blowoff, often not even enough to fill the blowoff tube with foam. But that's fermenting at 62-64 F.

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Ambient temp is about 66F. As far as the liquid level, I don't know. I boiled off more than usual due to cooler temps, so less went to the fermentors, and this is still the first time I've needed a blowoff.

Bsquared said:

What yeast was that?

Great Pictures!

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Rehydrated Nottingham.

Just a note; spreading the gospel of Fermcap-S.

I loled, nice

I never see glass blowoff tubes mentioned here but here's what I use for lagers. It's nice in the lager fridge because it takes up very little room and almost 'hugs' the carboy (that pic in the link doesn't illustrate that very well). I usually have ales in a bucket of cool water so it just won't fit there.

The best feature is that it is much easier to clean than plastic...just soak in PBW and rinse...done.

When I google 'glass blow off tube', that's pretty much the only one I see. And that homebrew store is my LHBS. Maybe that's why I haven't seen it mentioned here?

That glass blowoff tube sure looks nice. Knowing me, I'd break it.

More fermcap prosletyzing here!

Fermcap doesnt affect head retention in the final product?

Nope, can actually improve it because it's keeping all the proteins you're losing to blowoff in solution.

I also love Fermcap. However, it does add 10% to the bitterness when adding to the fermenter which can be good or not so good.

I like filling the carboy such that it will just barely blow-off (or gets right up to the neck and stops there). Gets that gunk stuck to the neck area of the carboy without losing a bunch of foam so the gunk doesn't fall back into the beer. I think Papa Charlie got me on the 'use the foam to your advantage' bandwagon very early on and old habits die hard.

Yeah I used that same glass blow off tube, works great. I ordered a kit online from that store which included the tube. They have pretty good prices but shipping is a *****. You're lucky they're local for you.

trig said:

Yeah I used that same glass blow off tube, works great. I ordered a kit online from that store which included the tube. They have pretty good prices but shipping is a *****. You're lucky they're local for you.

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Ha, not really. I almost never go there. I can find better prices and better selection online. That place is notorius for making walk-in customers feel like you're just pain in their ass.

Fermcap user here. Use it in the boil and it really helps in fermenting. Just did a hefe at 72* w/ a 2L starter and it didn't foam through the airlock at all. Done one before w/out fermcap and it went ballistic!

I used a 1" tube like that once and was really upset with the amount of beer loss. I lost about a quart over the first night and it overflowed the blowoff vessel and made a mess like in your pics. I switched back to 5/16" tubing jammed into the hole in a standard carboy bung and have been much happier. I generally lose less than a pint. I haven't worried about clogging since I learned how to whirlpool properly and started leaving the hops and other break material in the kettle.