overflow

ok, so I've brewed several batches in the past. Not an experienced brewer, but not a newbie...
I decided to try a new belgian tripel, brewed it on Sunday, on Monday it displayed normal activity on the airlock.
Today I look at it, and it's overflowed. I had a spare airlock so I removed the first and put a new on on (thinking the overflow was a momentary issue. sigh.)

I've read about attaching a hose, do I completely remove the airlock device and how big of a container should I run the hose into (in other words, how much should I expect to blow off?).
What size hose....and can i get it at home depot or does it need to be a special hose?

Your siphon hose should fit inside the airlock grommet. I run mine into a glass half full of water.

rig up an airlock blowoff tube...take your bottling wand hose or other suitable one, put a small slit in it...Heat it for a few minutes in hot water to soften, then do this.





One thing that I do to all my airlocks is saw or break off the little criss/cross of plastic on the bottom of them.

then you'll be fine.

thanks... i put the hose on and ran it into a pot. How important is the placement? I see you have it sitting on top of your fermenter, mine is currently on the floor.

When I pulled out the airlock in order to clean and put on the hose, I discovered that there was a lot of pressure built up... got a facefull of it. Not to mention my hair... and the wall. Rather impressive. another lession learned!

Sometimes you'll get a crazy blowoff. I used a 1" ID tube to control this one. Just make sure the catch container is below the liquid level of the wort.

holy cow thats scary looking

lovemybrew said:

thanks... i put the hose on and ran it into a pot. How important is the placement? I see you have it sitting on top of your fermenter, mine is currently on the floor.

When I pulled out the airlock in order to clean and put on the hose, I discovered that there was a lot of pressure built up... got a facefull of it. Not to mention my hair... and the wall. Rather impressive. another lession learned!

Click to expand...

No it should be below the level of the input of the tube. The growler on top was just for illustrative purposes to show the container I was using.

thank you for the clarification, I didn't want to assume. Since my first assumption was that I didn't need a blowoff hose!
It seems to be happy now

Another question... how long do I leave the hose on? It's slowed down from this morning, at this point i don't see foam coming through the hose, it's just the gas. I do see a few inches of foam coming up from the lid, into the hose. It's just not moving any further along the hose.
Should i remove it and replace it with rest of the airlock at some point?
I'm planning on transferring to my carboy at some point, this brew is so active I'm unsure what the best course is.

I'd leave it a little while longer. By this time tomorrow you should be OK

Some people leave the blow off tube on for the whole fermentation. It's up to you. Really, the blow off tube is just a big airlock.

I have people and pets all over the place, so I like switching to an airlock because it's more secure in my house. I've only actually needed a blow off tube once, though. But I've had a couple put on "just in case".

Thanks....when it overflowed, it made a mess on the top of the lib, and the inside of the grommet i'm sure, when I pulled it off to clean the airlock and put the hose on it. am i better off leaving it be, or trying to clean the inside of the lid hole?

Revvy said:

rig up an airlock blowoff tube...take your bottling wand hose or other suitable one, put a small slit in it...Heat it for a few minutes in hot water to soften, then do this.

One thing that I do to all my airlocks is saw or break off the little criss/cross of plastic on the bottom of them.

then you'll be fine.

Click to expand...

Revvy- this is just a quick note to say thanks again. I've learned a ton from you by lurking the forums. Whenever I have a doubt or question it is usually one of your posts that sheds light on the answer or puts my doubt into perspective. This thread is just another example. My Ale Pail was spewing everywhere when I checked in on it tonight (your advice for making a starter must have worked a little too well). I probably would have popped the lid off and scooped out all the foam had I not found this thread. I was able to make a similar set-up to the one you described and it is working brilliantly.

Cheers (again)