My First EXPLOSION !!!

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BrewProject

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Well Friday night some friends and I brewed up the AHBS Douple IPA...

With all the extra sugars in this one I kinda assumed I might have a blow over problem... The kit calls for 9 lbs of LME and 1 lb. of corn sugar. I however added the 1% alcohol boost in addition, so this thing had 11 lbs of sugar total...

The kit also says this one will have an OG of 1.088, mine came in right there, about a 1.090 !

Well late last night I am laying on the couch and BOOM !!! At first I wondered, WTF was that, then it hit me, my primary had blown it's lid. So off to the closet I ran to find that indeed the top had blown off. The mess was not too bad, at least not like some other pics I have seen.

I cleaned off the wall, cleaned the air lock and reset it all in place.

One hour later.... BOOM !!!!... S**t, back to cleaning the wall and airlock again.

By this time, I am starting to try to rig a blow off tube... Nothing fits tightly on anything. My little 3/8" siphon hose (which is 5/8" on the exterior) will not fit anything tight enough to rig up a blow off hose...

So I put it all back together and hoped for the best. Within the hour, BOOM !!!

Now I wish I would have taken pics of the first three blow-ups, but I was tired and had been drinking and didn't get any. However, like I said I've seen pics of much worse blow overs... Mine just coated the wall in a 1 x 2 foot area...

Cleaned up the wall and airlock once again, but realized I was fighting a losing battle. So against all common sense, experience and information I left the lid on my plastic fermenter loose...

Should have taken other precautions but I went to sleep...

Here's what I woke up to this morning

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So it's all cleaned up again and everything back in place.

Now I know you guys are gonna tell me glass car boy with wide blow over tube and next time I do a BIG beer like this I will comply.

However, now that I am sober and have some energy I was able to rig up a blowover hose. It's only a 3/8" hose, so I guess we will see...

Once I got her all cleaned up and locked up again, the airlock just went on it's happy way bubbling very fast. So now I have the blow over hose in place and hoping for the best with this beer. To be honest, there was so much klausen coming out this thing, I doubt seriously if any oxygen got to the beer or hurt it...

Live and learn I suppose...
 
I had to soak the hose tip in some very hot water to get it to fit over the airlock inner tube. This was the only way I could get it to work.

But working it is... Now I hear bubbling water. I guess if I fail to hear that I better go check on it...

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What you need to do, is cut the little end off of your airlock. If you look at the very bottom of it, you'll see a thingie, that blocks most of the pipe. Just cut it off, sanitize, and affix the tube.

That little thingie is blocking up, and blowing the lid.

steve
 
Just woke up to the same thing! I brewed an IPA last night with 10 lbs. of extract and this morning i cleaned up 3 times before i gave in and picked up some more hose to drain into a bucket, same fix as you have done. the local Home brew supply guy said maybe it's too warm in my kitchen. I normally brew at a friends house that is noticeably cooler than mine. I've since moved the primary outside on my covered patio to lower the temperature a bit but it's still quite active.
I guess I know what to expect next time! keeping my fingers crossed!...
 
skou said:
What you need to do, is cut the little end off of your airlock. If you look at the very bottom of it, you'll see a thingie, that blocks most of the pipe. Just cut it off, sanitize, and affix the tube.

That little thingie is blocking up, and blowing the lid.

steve

that's an oustanding idea, the bottom of those things have little slits, why not make it bigger :rockin:
 
sipNswirl said:
Just woke up to the same thing! I brewed an IPA last night with 10 lbs. of extract and this morning i cleaned up 3 times before i gave in and picked up some more hose to drain into a bucket, same fix as you have done. the local Home brew supply guy said maybe it's too warm in my kitchen. I normally brew at a friends house that is noticeably cooler than mine. I've since moved the primary outside on my covered patio to lower the temperature a bit but it's still quite active.
I guess I know what to expect next time! keeping my fingers crossed!...


sucks doesn't it... oh well, live and learn. i promise to attach a blow off hose with all brews that have a greater than 8 or 9 lbs of sugar :p



to everyone else, thanks for comments and compliments... :mug:
 
BrewProject said:
that's an oustanding idea, the bottom of those things have little slits, why not make it bigger :rockin:

Yep, just turn it into a piece of plastic pipe, without the "thingie" on the bottom.

Back when I started in this hobby, airlocks didn't have the "thingie." (Back then, T he Complete Joy of Homebrewing was called The NEW Complete... :D

steve
 
Big brews belong in 6.5 gallon carboys with a 1 1/4" blow off.

Ain't no way I'm sticking a 1090 beer in a bucket with that little bitty sphincter of a hole for a blow off.

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^^^ yep, that's what i should have done :tank:

the good news is it looks like it doing fine now... still bubbling, but no longer blowing over, at least for now :mug:
 
I haven't had a lid blow off, but I am using fermenters with screw on lids... they are NOT going to come off. I have had a small volcano erupting out of an airlock while brewing Arrogant Bastard, but since that time i have gone to a 1/2" blowoff tube in all of my brews. It's simpler, more effective and eaiser to clean up! I just leave the grommet out of the hole and the 1/2" tube fits snugly in the hole.
 
BierMuncher said:
Big brews belong in 6.5 gallon carboys with a 1 1/4" blow off.

Ain't no way I'm sticking a 1090 beer in a bucket with that little bitty sphincter of a hole for a blow off.

View attachment 4412

Am I reading it wrong, or does your thermometer say it's about 80 degrees in there?
 
Lol...the first batch I ever blew was my german chocolate stout. Funny seeing this thread today cause I just brewed the batch a second time tonight!!

FYI, those white lids are the easy ones to blow off. They dont have a gasket or anything in there. The blue lids hold on much better, but then you'll run the risk of blowing the air lock to the ceiling.
 
well i guess this beer blew it's top in the first 30 hours. Hasn't been any further trouble and in fact bubbling has now slowed to a trickle...
 
Whatd you think is the highest OG you can put in a plastic bucket before it blows?
 
web250 said:
Whatd you think is the highest OG you can put in a plastic bucket before it blows?

For me it’s not just one factor but several:

If the bill has a lot of wheat malt, I tend to get violent fermentations.
If I’m using a Belgian Wit yeast, the krausen seems to grow and grow.
If I'm pitching on a yeast cake I'm sure to have some blow off.
If I go over 1.060, I don’t take my chances.
 
BierMuncher said:
For me it’s not just one factor but several:

If the bill has a lot of wheat malt, I tend to get violent fermentations.
If I’m using a Belgian Wit yeast, the krausen seems to grow and grow.
If I'm pitching on a yeast cake I'm sure to have some blow off.
If I go over 1.060, I don’t take my chances.

So my next brew is gonna be a ~1.067 choc stout, I should use a blow-off?
 
i did a double choco stout that came in at 1.070. i had no problems at all.

however, with that said, i will not take any chances from now on. i say use the blow off tube for at least a couple days...
 
EvilTOJ said:
Your primary looks like it had way too much to drink last night.

:D

i racked this beer to the secondary tonight and got a gravity reading of 1.014... This beer is gonna be killer, coming in at 10.1 % ABV already.

Most of my beers seem to rise another 1/2 % in the secondary to this one is gonna weigh in at a heavy 10.5 % or above, hells yea :mug: :ban: :rockin:

nice hoppy flavor too, with a beautiful blonde color...

2 inches of trub and enough left overs from the krausen and on the floor to make another inch or two of trub. 4.5 gallons total into the secondary...
 
I ferment in 5 gal glass carboys & always use a blow off. I just bought the big blow off hose, but in the past, I've simply used the stopper & stuck a 3/8" hose right in it - I figure that unless there's something solid that's going to block the hose, i'm fine with liquid, co2 and foam coming through the little hose. Been fine so far. I put the end of the hose into a BIG (2 gal) pot with about an inch or so of water in the bottom to form an airlock.

I do end up loosing about 4 beers worth of liquid this way - wish I could loose just the nasties, and keep the beer!
 
i found this blow off a few days into it. it had slimed itself and the wall/floor... it was good beer though!

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I just got done with the primary of a 1.060 IPA in a food grade bucket with an "S" style airlock and I didn't have any problems. Is a good general rule the higher the OG the larger the blow off above a certain gravity?

BierMuncher said:
For me it’s not just one factor but several:

If I go over 1.060, I don’t take my chances.
 
well i learned my lesson with this beer and a blow over tube....

the good news, i bottled last weekend and this beer is almost 11% ABV :tank: :mug: :rockin:
 
:rockin: Beer explosions rock.:rockin: Its nice to blow stuff up once in a while, right? It'll make drinking that beer more enjoyable.;)
 
I tend to use a blow off for the first few days of any brew. I have a 1.044 Kolsch in the primary and even that would have blown its lid without a blow off tube. I think today (day 4) I will swap the tube out for an airlock.
 
with the usual 6.5 gallon carboy and airlock w/ the only prob being the hefe that I pitched with pretty much all of the yeast from a previous batch. That one came through the air lock but never blew the thing off the carboy. What size tubing is that and is it just stuck in the neck of the carboy?

Regards,
Al
 
i'm doing a bavarian hefe next. :mug:

no doubt i will be using a blow over tube... problems are to be expected... :p
 
Wow, I just brewed a 1.080 coffee stout (which got contaminated in the secondary :( ) using a white plastic ale bucket and pitched a half gallon yeast starter in with it and I did not have any trouble with blow off.
I'm still glad I read this as I am about to attempt another big beer, which, I do not yet know.
 
For me it’s not just one factor but several:

If the bill has a lot of wheat malt, I tend to get violent fermentations.
If I’m using a Belgian Wit yeast, the krausen seems to grow and grow.
If I'm pitching on a yeast cake I'm sure to have some blow off.
If I go over 1.060, I don’t take my chances.

This is all good advice; from my experience it all boils down to two main factors:
1. speed/rate of fermentation
2. krausen persistence - if your foam is particularly persistent, the stuff on top will stick around while it builds and builds from the bottom until it clogs your airlock

Speed of fermentation is going to depend on several factors -
How high your yeast pitching rates are (if you pitch high, there are a lot more yeast doing the fermentation, which means faster fermentation). Pitching on a yeast cake should obviously be considered a 'high pitch rate' scenario.
How high your gravity is - more food for the yeast
How aggressive your strain of yeast is.
Temperature - higher temperatures will increase yeast activity
Ingredient bill - some ingredients, like honey, require more time to ferment and cause a slow fermentation. Others, like corn sugar adjucts, tend to ferment extremely quickly.

Krausen Persistence also depends on a few things,
Type of yeast used - some yeasts cause 'thicker/stickier' krausens. Weizen strains are notorious.
Ingredient Bill - many brewers consider wheat to cause a very sticky/persistent krausen

The point here being that there are a lot of factors that can cause your fermentation to happen at a quick rate and create a lot of krausen, and some of them are pretty hard to predict - if you are ever in doubt, just use a blow-off.

cheers!
:mug:
 

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