Oh My God !!

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sudsmonkey

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Brewed a batch of fairly stout Stout last night. Can of Ironmaster Stout mix, 1lb. dark DME, 3.3lb amber DME, 1oz Northern Brewer, 1oz. Kent Golding hops. Everything went fine. I put it to bed in the carboy and went to bed myself. Woke up this morning to my first blowoff. Man, what a mess ! There was crap everywhere! I had the carboy wrapped in an old sweatshirt to keep out the light. There was this big, brain-looking lump of foam on top of the sweatshirt. It had swallowed my stopper and airlock. The brain was growing while I stood there in amazement. Drawing from my reading here on the Forum, I quickly rigged a blowoff tube into a gallon jug of water. Called home at lunch to get the Wife to check on it for me. She told me that the bubbles in the jug were keeping the cats entertained. Tonight, it's got the nastiest krausen I've ever seen. maybe I can go back to the airlock tomorrow.
Thank you, guys, for arming me with the knowledge to handle this crisis. Without your wisdom, I'd wave been forced to fight that foam/ brain monster alone. This is a great forum!!!!

Thanks,
Sudsmonkey
 
Oh No!,, Not the .. the... STUFF! Will you be drinking IT...or .. will IT be drinking you! :D
 
Man, it reminded me of the time I saw The Blob on the late-night Creature Feature ! If it turns out to be friendly, I'll keep it around for a while. If it starts trying to conquer the Earth, I'll drink it as quick as I can to save the rest of Mankind. :D

It's all about selfless sacrifice so that others may live.
 
sudsmonkey said:
Man, it reminded me of the time I saw The Blob on the late-night Creature Feature ! If it turns out to be friendly, I'll keep it around for a while. If it starts trying to conquer the Earth, I'll drink it as quick as I can to save the rest of Mankind. :D

It's all about selfless sacrifice so that others may live.

:cool: I will help--send me half and I will share your burden!!! :cool:
 
I use a 7.5 gallon carboy for inital fermintation of 5 gallons.
But even then an airlock will get all cloged up by the overflow.
Ain't you using a overflow hose till the 'stuff ' the Krousen lays down a bit?

J. Knife
 
I use a 6.5 gal. primary and I've only had three 'blow-ups' so far. Guess it just depends on the yeast/temp/recipe equation. All three were when I first racked onto previous yeast cakes, so I thought that would aways be a problem when racking to a previous yeast cake. But that hasn't been the case. :confused:

After experiencing my first blow-up, I now keep a blow-off tube and bucket handy - just in case.
 
aahhh, memories of the Night of the Living Beer.......what fun cleaning the ceiling, the walls, and keeping the dog out of the kitchen so he doesn't track goo all over the house.......
go large carboy grasshopper........
at least it's a good, vigorous fermentation!
 
Ain't got onea them digital cameras yet. Still living in the 20th century, I guess. It was a violent start that just kinda stopped. I went back to the airlock Monday night and it bubbled right on. Tues. AM , nothing. It bubbled occasionally, but that's it. I was sitting in the kitchen with Mrs. Monkey tonight and saw it bubble twice in about ten minutes. I thought about stirring in some brown sugar and see what happens, but it seems like all that DME should've counted for something.Seems like my last Stout didn't ferment long either, but it still knocked my weenie in my watchpocket. Guess I'll transfer to secondary tomorrow , see how it goes. Thanks for the bigger fermenter advice . That did cross my mind Monday morning as I was trying to beat the Blob back into the carboy. :p Northern Brewer has a 27 gallon stainless conical fermenter. This seems like as good an excuse as any to go for that. Now, if I can just remember the guard schedule at the local bank...
 
Racked "The Stuff" to secondary last night. Tastes like a dry stout, smells like??? This is the first time I've added hops. Maybe that's what I'm smelling. It has a bitter, hoppiness with an aftertaste that I think is alcohol. According to my calculations, it's at either 19.5 or 3.2 % ABV right now. I screwed up the OG reading. Took one of 1144 in straight wort, Took another with the wort way too watered down. No idea. I guess I'll have to put it to the old standby test. Just drink it and measure brain numbness. Not as scientific, but way more fun!!
 
sudsmonkey said:
Racked "The Stuff" to secondary last night. Tastes like a dry stout, smells like??? This is the first time I've added hops. Maybe that's what I'm smelling. It has a bitter, hoppiness with an aftertaste that I think is alcohol.

probably a little of both. the stout will have a little more bitter taste from the dark roasted grains (or in the darker extract) and the hops you added. let it sit about 7-10 days in the secondary, then bottle. once it's carbonated, it will have mellowed a bit.

so, you've never used pellet hops in your brews, always just hopped extract?
 
De Roux- Just read your post. I just bottled tonight. I'm impatient, I know. Added half a pot of strong coffee with the priming sugar and some vanilla flavoring mixed in. Had to drink some green. Right now, it tastes like Guinness' answer to cotton candy. It's sweet to start with, followed by a bitter hoppiness. A couple of weeks in the bottle should cure the sweetness, I think.
All in all, it tastes pretty good. I had a 40 oz. Miller( The champagne of cheap commercial beers, I drink them for the bottles) And about 10 ounces of the new beer. My head is numb. That doesn't normally happen with the Miller, so I'm attributing it to the new beer. Could be the bleach fumes from sanitizing. I'll know more about it in the next few weeks. What to brew next? The ever present question. :confused:
 
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