Beginners, Why you should use a Blow Off!

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Morkin

Morkin

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Joined
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I feel like an idiot, but it happens to everyone I guess. Brewed an American Wheat last evening and racked right onto of a Witbier Yeast cake. I "thought" I had enough headspace. Started at 9:30 PM and pitched at probably 12:00, so I had had a few. This is what I work up to at 9:30 AM. Don't let your drunkenness get the best of you, use a blowoff, especially on wheat beers.

This is what I saw this morning.
117-oooze.jpg


This is the mess on my ceiling of the basement

118-ceiling.jpg


Mess

119-mess.jpg


What I should have done in the first place!

120-shouda.jpg
 
Secondly, you think since I caught it within a few hours it had enough C02 behind it to keep an infection away?
 
I think you DEFINITELY do not have to worry about an infection, with all that coming out your fine there. Love the pics btw!
 
Haha, Morkin, the EXACT same things happened to me this morning! Same type of beer, same time line, ect. Never used a blow off tube, never had to worry about it. Filled the fermenter up a little bit more than I should have but thought no worries. Checked it this morning at 930 and the airlock was all gunked up making odd hissing noises. I go to relieve the pressure and get a nice puff of gunk and foam sprayed at me.

While I quickly worked to assemble a blow off tube, I had foam slowly creaping out which I would just scoop off. Finally got the blow off tube installed and now its bubbling away next to the swamp chiller.

If anything, I have the SLIGHTEST more understanding of BP... out of sight/mind, frantically trying to put in a "relief" well, and having to deal with the mess. Fortunately my mess wasnt that big.
 
Also, I thought about infection too, especially when the stopped was out and it was just the open carboy, but with all the stuff coming OUT, I knew there was no chance of anything getting IN.

Id imagine it would have been like trying to swallow powder sugar while projectile vomiting.
 
snipper_cr said:
Haha, Morkin, the EXACT same things happened to me this morning! Same type of beer, same time line, ect. Never used a blow off tube, never had to worry about it. Filled the fermenter up a little bit more than I should have but thought no worries. Checked it this morning at 930 and the airlock was all gunked up making odd hissing noises. I go to relieve the pressure and get a nice puff of gunk and foam sprayed at me.

While I quickly worked to assemble a blow off tube, I had foam slowly creaping out which I would just scoop off. Finally got the blow off tube installed and now its bubbling away next to the swamp chiller.

If anything, I have the SLIGHTEST more understanding of BP... out of sight/mind, frantically trying to put in a "relief" well, and having to deal with the mess. Fortunately my mess wasnt that big.
Click to expand...

Mine must have clogged the airlock with yeast, and then built up pressure, because it exploded with force, not just popped off. My airlock peices were cracked from the pressure of hitting the ceiling. Crazy yeast growth and movement in here. Hopefully will turn into a good beer.

And yes, I brewed a 5 gallon batch in 6 gallon carboy. Should have used a 6.5 acid carboy, but I brewed a Witbier before this one and it wasn't that much krausen, in comparison to this one. I guess re-pitching the yeast had something to do with it....
 
BTW.....I now use Fermcap S and that stuff WORKS! I just brewed a batch Saturday and put in 6 gallons into my 6 and a half gallon bucket. Used some drops of Fermcap and as of today it is bubbling like crazy but virtually zero trub pumping through the blow off tube. Call it magic safety drops.
 
Had the same thing happen to me yesterday. It wasn't nearly as bad. Came home from work and I had foam bubbling out the airlock and beer collecting on top of my primary bucket. It was kind of odd because I had used the same type of yeast a couple of months ago with no issues.
 
JJL said:
Had the same thing happen to me yesterday. It wasn't nearly as bad. Came home from work and I had foam bubbling out the airlock and beer collecting on top of my primary bucket. It was kind of odd because I had used the same type of yeast a couple of months ago with no issues.
Click to expand...

Could be a temp difference
 
I've used a blowoff on primary since day one on advice from this site. Glad I did. Only had one blowoff - from a NB cream ale kit with pilzen LME. The blowoff was so huge that it would have laughed at a 6.5 gal carboy, but was nicely contained by my blowoff setup.

I'm sure I would have been repainting the ceiling otherwise....

Pez.
 
Have no fear, I did this myself two days ago. Fortunately, I had it in a closet so it was only able to explode so far. Great stuff.
 
Yup, I woke to a similar sight Sunday. Except I heard the airlock explode out of my carboy. Not the sound you want waking you up.
 
hereforbeer said:
I literally yelled out "HOLY ****!".That is awful.You know what kind of beer that is?
Click to expand...

This was a Black Cascadian IPA I made a few weeks ago. I now have it safely fermented out, finished the secondary last weekend with dry hops and now in a keg at 33 degrees cold crashing with gelatin for a few weeks before I gas and drink.
 
I'm coming up on two years of brewing. I've brewed in a number of different styles and different brewing techniques (all grain, extract, no-boil kits). I've never had these kinds of problems. I think once, I had some splatter that came out the air lock that I had to wipe up. I typically use 6.5 - 7 gallon containers for fermentation. Always in pails, never in carboys. Wouldn't it be much less trouble just to ferment in a proper size container? (I suspect that plastic buckets also have the advantage that the lid seal isn't perfect and can allow gas to escape even if the airlock becomes clogged.) It just seems like I hear story after story of people having a huge mess to clean up plus the loss of beer, then they have to rig up a blow-off tube. Why not just get the right size container to begin with?
 
brian_g said:
I'm coming up on two years of brewing. I've brewed in a number of different styles and different brewing techniques (all grain, extract, no-boil kits). I've never had these kinds of problems. I think once, I had some splatter that came out the air lock that I had to wipe up. I typically use 6.5 - 7 gallon containers for fermentation. Always in pails, never in carboys. Wouldn't it be much less trouble just to ferment in a proper size container? (I suspect that plastic buckets also have the advantage that the lid seal isn't perfect and can allow gas to escape even if the airlock becomes clogged.) It just seems like I hear story after story of people having a huge mess to clean up plus the loss of beer, then they have to rig up a blow-off tube. Why not just get the right size container to begin with?
Click to expand...

I use a 6 1/2 gallon carboy and a 6 1/2 gallon bucket to ferment in, and my batches are usually 5 to 5 1/2 gallon batches to make sure I get 5 gallons into my keg. I usually don't have issues, however different yeasts and different gravity beers do different things. I am glad you have never had any issues, but I suspect the vast majority who use lots of different types of yeasts and many different recipes have had at least an issue here or there. Now that I use fermcap I suspect I won't have an issue ever again :mug:
 
brian_g said:
I'm coming up on two years of brewing. I've brewed in a number of different styles and different brewing techniques (all grain, extract, no-boil kits). I've never had these kinds of problems. I think once, I had some splatter that came out the air lock that I had to wipe up. I typically use 6.5 - 7 gallon containers for fermentation. Always in pails, never in carboys. Wouldn't it be much less trouble just to ferment in a proper size container? (I suspect that plastic buckets also have the advantage that the lid seal isn't perfect and can allow gas to escape even if the airlock becomes clogged.) It just seems like I hear story after story of people having a huge mess to clean up plus the loss of beer, then they have to rig up a blow-off tube. Why not just get the right size container to begin with?
Click to expand...


Even a moderate blowoff can be too big for a 7 gallon container. You do not have to "rig" up a blowoff. One inch diameter tubing fits right in the neck of a carboy. Run the other end into any empty one gallon or larger container. I use a pickle jar. Then pour in some star san or water. Done.

Northern Brewer sells the tubing pre-cut solely for theis purpose. Only 5 or 6 bucks if I remember. A blowoff assembly comes in many starter kits too.

The right thing to do is use a blow-off from day one.

There are two kinds of brewers. Those that have had a blow-off, and those who haven't had one....yet.:)
Pez.
 
Pezman1 said:
I've used a blowoff on primary since day one on advice from this site.

Pez.
Click to expand...

+1 i always use a 6.5 gal. glass carboy and about 3 or 4 times it would of been real bad if i just used a airlock. i was even woried about the blow off tube poping off. I figured that a 5 dollar blow off rig is cheaper then to replace the oak hard wood floors.
 
BadgerBrewer said:
I use a 6 1/2 gallon carboy and a 6 1/2 gallon bucket to ferment in, and my batches are usually 5 to 5 1/2 gallon batches to make sure I get 5 gallons into my keg. I usually don't have issues, however different yeasts and different gravity beers do different things. I am glad you have never had any issues, but I suspect the vast majority who use lots of different types of yeasts and many different recipes have had at least an issue here or there. Now that I use fermcap I suspect I won't have an issue ever again :mug:
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I have only used a small number of different yeasts, which may in part explain why I haven't had the problems others have had. On the other hand, the parent did say he was using a 6 gal carboy. That's cutting it too close, IMO.
 
BadgerBrewer said:
This was a Black Cascadian IPA I made a few weeks ago. I now have it safely fermented out, finished the secondary last weekend with dry hops and now in a keg at 33 degrees cold crashing with gelatin for a few weeks before I gas and drink.
Click to expand...

What kind of yeast was that?what OG?How long did the clean up take?
 
hereforbeer said:
What kind of yeast was that?what OG?How long did the clean up take?
Click to expand...

Nottingham yeast. It had an OG of 1.062, so while not a really big berr, it was big enough to get out of hand. Took me maybe 20-30 minutes to wipe out my chest freezer that I use for temp controlled fermenting. The lid exploding off happened on day 2, so I just used a sanitized spoon to scoop the foamy krausen off and laid the lid loosely on top to allow excess CO2 to get out without building up alot of pressure again. Worked well
 
Same thing happened to me with my first brew. Beer was fine. Problem reappeared on my third brew when my blow off tube clogged (too many hops)! Fermentation was insane and I'm pretty certain that it'll be okay too.

Home brew is fun but you don't have to fear to clean some mess!
 

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