My first Explosive fermentation....

I brewed a Brewers Best American Amber ale last night and I noticed the yeast starting to kick into gear after only a few hours. I went out and stayed at my girlfriends last night and when I came back I smelled it as soon as I stepped in my house. (Smells so good.)

The airlock had blown out the top.... but it isn't nearly as bad as some of the ones I've seen pictures of, and I got it just in time to clean it up quick and throw a 1/4in hose I use to siphon into the bung hole (haha).

I hope I don't lose too many beers through the blow off. How much to you usually lose? It looks like so far I just lost the finger or so I fill it past the 5g mark, I'm glad I caught it and knew what to do from reading HBT all the time!

Am I okay to leave this for the week for spring break now that I have the blowoff setup? It won't suck back enough to get the nasty solution in the beer will it?

I put mine in the bathtub just in case when I left for vacation.

A blow-off is just like a big airlock. No issues leaving it.

Invest in some FermCap. It reduces the risk of blow-off. If you use it in the kettle, it stops boil-overs. I will not brew without it. I reckon it costs about 10 cents a batch, but saves a lot of worry in the boil, and saves a lot of beer in the fermenter.

Does FermCap change the final product at all? I have never read much into it, I was afraid it would kill the head of the finished beer.

jgerard said:

Does FermCap change the final product at all? I have never read much into it, I was afraid it would kill the head of the finished beer.

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I've not noticed any difference. It is supposed to be an inert silicon based material that drops out after fermentation. It supposedly improves head retention.

As I feared, the bung was blown out again during spring break. I don't know how many days the carboy was open, could have been for the whole week. I don't see any signs of infection, there's nothing on top butt a few islands of bubbles and some of the crusty trub that fell off into the beer. Any reccomendations on what to do next? Wait for fg and keg it asap?

jgerard said:

I hope I don't lose too many beers through the blow off. How much to you usually lose? It looks like so far I just lost the finger or so I fill it past the 5g mark, I'm glad I caught it and knew what to do from reading HBT all the time!

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I re-capture the beer that blows out of my fermentor with this set-up;


It's just a sanitized, empty water jug with an airlock on it. When beer blows into it I just pour it back into the fermentor..

Just my thoughts. Watch it in the carboy for a while. If nothing funky grows on or in it, Keg it!

Worst case scenario, it got infected. Maybe some off flavors or something. It seems fermentation is somewhat complete so there is alcohol in solution to help protect it.

If it looks good after a week or so, I would keg it and try it. There is a chance it is fine, but only time will tell. Good luck!

Stauffbier said:

I re-capture the beer that blows out of my fermentor with this set-up;

It's just a sanitized, empty water jug with an airlock on it. When beer blows into it I just pour it back into the fermentor..

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Please say you don't. You are kidding, right?

bethebrew, I'm as serious as a heart attack..
No reason why you can't do it if you practice good sanitation.
Check this out. It's where I got the idea;


I just do it a little different is all...

Stauffbier said:

bethebrew, I'm as serious as a heart attack..
No reason why you can't do it if you practice good sanitation.
Check this out. It's where I got the idea;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2CHjeEhuXA

I just do it a little different is all...

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All good bro. But my idea of a blowoff tube is one that fits into a carboy, I think they are 1 1/2". I don't get much beer coming over, just a little foam sometimes not even that. I fill a container with sanitizer on the other end of the tube to catch any foam and to see exactly how fast ferment is going. Just brewed 10 gallons and stuck both blowoff tubes into one plastic bucket.

Yeah, I've used a normal blow off tube on many occassions. I just use this if I suspect that I might lose a large volume of beer due to blow-off.. I've seen people talk about losing a couple quarts or more. That's too much in my opinion. So, why not capture it? In the picture I posted it was a high OG (1.087) that had just blown the airlock out and started coming out of the grommet hole, so I rigged it up with the "monster lock".. Most of the time my fermentations only require an airlock...