Carboy go boom

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deyoung

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It's my fourth batch of beer and after racking I had my airlock overwhelmed with foam and beer. Thinking it would be a good idea to remove it, I took it off and was blasted in the face (as was a good part of the room) with beer and the recently added blueberry puree. Yum.

I rigged up a blowoff tube using my racking cane and a pot of sterilized water and the whole thing is sitting in the bathtub until it calms down.

I'm lead to believe from reading this forum that this is a pretty common experience... too bad it had to happen to me the first time when my carboy had dark colored fruit in it! :) The blueberries I added appear to have contributed a fair bit of sugar because the fermentation is going really hard in the secondary.

I just hope nothing got contaminated in the process.

Joel
 
Thanks for the reassurance. My wife got home 15 minutes after it happened and we just had a good laugh. She's very supportive of the beer making--even after I told her she'd have to use the other shower! :)
 
This has happened to all of us at least once. Welcome to the club!!

Be glad you took the stopper out yourself before the pressure blew it out. I came home one day to find wort/krausen on the ceiling after the bung blew out from the pressure. It was so bad I had to repaint the ceiling! After that I started using a blow-off tube on every batch.
 
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My very first beer was a strong old ale that clogged up the airlock and exploded. It exploded in the morning, and I was sleeping, but my wife heard it. She said it shook the house and was very loud. For some reason, though, when she looked in the basement and didn't see anything unusual (it was tucked away in a hidden corner), she just shrugged it off. I didn't find out until about 5 pm. We have natural gas, so I was shocked that she hadn't said anything. Lesson learned!
 
I'm just not sure I understand why people don't always use a blow-off.:confused:

A nice large-bore blowoff hose came in my NB starter kit, but even if you have to buy one, they are like $4.00.

But, what I really wanted to say is how funny that damn picher is.

Pez.
 
I'm just not sure I understand why people don't always use a blow-off.:confused:

I like the aesthetics of a bubbling airlock better. This is an art, ya know.

But seriously, I usually do, but my blowoff setup was tied to a new batch, and at the same time I was racking onto the blueberry, so I was a little limited. I still could have thrown something together, I suppose, but, meh.
 
Alright, I just racked a blueberry on top of puree tonight. I did not put a blowoff there. I promise the pics if there is a natural disaster. Really.

Glad you're blueberry didn't blow out. I am getting close to bottling now, and noticed there's still a fair bit of blueberry pulp in there. Basically small enough to pass through the racking cane but large enough to notice in your mouth. I added a bit of finings to settle things out more. If it persists I could filter it using my mash tun.

I'll let you know how it goes.
 
2 words:
Fruit flies.

I live in GA again and never get them... but if you tend to, a good way to get rid of them is to leave a small amount of red wine in a glass. they will be attracted to it, but when they go in, they will get trapped in the wine. They cant break the surface tension to get back out :ban:
 
I live in GA again and never get them... but if you tend to, a good way to get rid of them is to leave a small amount of red wine in a glass. they will be attracted to it, but when they go in, they will get trapped in the wine. They cant break the surface tension to get back out :ban:

Gonna have to give this one a shot.
 
I dont understand why people use air-locks during primary

Because I rarely have a problem that necessitates a blow off. *shrug* Maybe it also helps that I use a 6.5 gallon carboy for primary. I commonly get a kruesen ring in the neck of the carboy but hardly ever have a problem in the airlock.

So I guess the answer is: people use airlocks because it works for them. Why fix what ain't broke?
 
I never use a blow-off tube, I've never needed to. The smallest fermenter I have is my carboy and I just use that for wine and mead. My primary 5g batch fermenter is 7.9g and my 10g batch fermenter is somewhere around 13.5g with a loose fitting lid, no airlock
 
I'm glad this thread has generated so much interest, and apparently, at least one registration too. Time for me to sign up too....

The brew that caused this whole episode has turned out pretty good... no spoilage or anything. I think the next time I try fruit in the beer I'm going to go with something with a bit more flavour though, like raspberries.

I managed to get the stain off the bathtub also, so all in all no real permanent damage and lots of learned lessons. I was so concerned about the amount of beer I was wasting during racking (because of the extra space taken up by the puree), that I probably filled the carboy a little too high.

Joel
 
Rasberries...Yum....

Did a Blonde, A 10 gal batch.. 5 was just normal blonde.. the 2nd i put 1/2 can of Oregon Puree in the secondary.
Let it sit for a week in the secondary...Keged it...Forced carbed and WOW talk about tart!!!

At 6 weeks old it mellowed out. 2 months now, it has a slight hint of rasberry smell and just a "hint" of berry taste.
Its not to bad.... If i would do it again, I would put the whole can in. Get more flavor.

I hope this helps ya out a bit.
 
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