When you think you should use a blow-off, USE IT.

I had a feeling when I checked my RIS this morning that it was going to go well beyond the headspace in the 6.5 carboy.. So why didn't I do something about it then?

Just came home with an airlock full of foam/wort. I grabbed my hose and stopper for the blow off and the second I touched the stopper in the carboy.. *WHOOSH*

The airlock missed me by about half an inch and I got a face/neck/shoulder/chest/arms-full of krausen. There's even some dripping from the rafters of the basement.. :rockin:

Use a blow-off.

Yeah, at this point I use a blow off for all my beer, for at least the first 3 days. One beer fountain is usually enough.

Hope it turns out great!

What, no pictures?

You know, that's often been my line, but I was too busy getting gobs of gunk off my face to grab the camera...

Airlocks are for the birds.

Foil FTW.

I just want to see this for myself with one of my batches someday I don't care if I have to clean the mess!

I have done the same exact thing. The only reason I know why someone would mop the ceiling!

I have never used a blow off and with exception to my RIS, never have to worry about it. The 2 times I've made my RIS there was a little bit of bear in the air lock. I usually use a 6.5 gal bucket but have just found a 7.9 gal bucket and it will do what I need it to do. I don't worry about blow off at all

This to your blowoff!

agroff383 said:

I just want to see this for myself with one of my batches someday I don't care if I have to clean the mess!

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Dude, it sucks. It only took me once to learn my lesson. Krausen was EVERYWHERE! It looked like a science experiment gone wrong in my fermentation closet.

justbrewit said:

The 2 times I've made my RIS there was a little bit of bear in the air lock.

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Blow off tubes won't help you with bears in the airlock.

Try a pic-a-nick-bas-ket.

Well be glad it was in the basement and hitting the rafter is better then drywall.

I had one go in the spare bedroom.

The wife was not that happy

I use a blowoff tube on every batch and just leave it on the whole time. Better safe than sorry. It's not like it's any harder than an airlock.

ive had a blow off tube blow off. it was on a bavarian hefe back in april. thank god for semi gloss.

flyangler18 said:

Airlocks are for the birds.

Foil FTW.

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So you just have krausen on the floor?

olllllo said:

Blow off tubes won't help you with bears in the airlock.

Try a pic-a-nick-bas-ket.

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I was thinking the exact same thing.

It must be one tiny bear or one huge airlock.

That's what I get for typing on my cell phone "altered" Beer in my airlock.

chumprock said:

You know, that's often been my line, but I was too busy getting gobs of gunk off my face to grab the camera...

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Has anyone put this in their sig yet?

Since I've been using FermcapS I've nothing close to blowoff, even on HG ales (1.075).

z987k said:

So you just have krausen on the floor?

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Truthfully, I've not had need for a blowoff in many batches, so the foil suffices for 90% of the ferments. If I'm using a strain known for being explosive, well, that's another matter entirely. I'll rig a blowoff for sure.

agroff383 said:

I just want to see this for myself with one of my batches someday I don't care if I have to clean the mess!

Click to expand...

Trust me, no you don't! Well at least if its your beer or happens in your house! I had it happen to me....Once !!! I had made five gallons of my super sweet stout in the middle of summer, and while at work we had a power outage which killed my AC for the house. So by the time I get home, the house went from a nice 70 degs. to about 97! So as I walk up to my front door I can hear this incredibly loud high pitched whistling sound coming from the inside of my house. So I open the door and it sounds like someone has left the tea kettle on, then I notice its coming from the air lock on my carboy. So I walk over and make the ultimate mistake of taping the side of the air lock and BOOM it exploded right in my face and eyes! It took me about five minutes of flushing my eyes out in the sink before I could see, and after that it still felt like I had sand in my eyes! That's when I turned around and saw the disaster in my wife's kitchen ! ! ! My carboy was on my kitchen counter and the amount of force that had built up in my carboy had managed to put about a six foot diameter Rorschach blot on my ceiling. I was lucky to just finish wiping the last of it up as my wife walked in the door, she never new how bad the mess was! And I only lost about a gallon and a half from the explosion!

Ok.

New rule.

If ANYONE comes home and finds their airlock clogged and pressure building in your fermenter, you are required to get SWMBO to come and video tape you when you try to open it up.

Can we get someone in charge to add that to the forum's TOS?

z987k said:

So you just have krausen on the floor?

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Nah, it goes into the cooler that the fermenter is in. I mean...I'm dumb, but I'm not that dumb

I never really needed a blow off tube untill I started AG and making starters, boy did that change things. I got lucky on this one, but I've had much worse!

Im planning on brewing Thursday this week but Im going out of town all weekend. I don't have a blow off tube but its coming in the mail... Should I go ahead and brew Thursday or wait till next week when I have the blow off? Im brewing a fat tire clone and it will be fermenting in a 6.5 gallon bucket in my closet. I really want to brew Thursday... It will be my first.

Cover it with loose foil. PsuedoChef... back me up.

Is there a big chance that the beer will get infected with just foil instead of airlock?

Sanitize it like you would your airlock. You won't have any problems. People here use foil for starters, on sanitized bottles and on carboys.

Ok thanks olllllo just didn't want a disaster when i came back home

I always use a blow off tube but it's usually a small one that fits in a standard airlock grommet in my Ale Pail. Works well so far. I've had numerous wheat batches blow off something fierce. For the first time, one of my steam yeast batches blew out the tube and into the blow off water. I figure one day that small a tube is going to get blown out, but so far I think the investment in some narrow tubing and a sanitized milk jug has been worth it. You can even use the same milk jug on multiple fermenters at the same time if you're worried about cost

olllllo said:

Cover it with loose foil. PsuedoChef... back me up.

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I'll back you up on this one!

I also use the same setup as hal2814 does. It works in a carboy also, especially if you use a 5gl carboy to ferment. It has worked well for me so far Nothing worse then speckling the ceiling with beer, especially when it is in your bedroom. Beer dripping from ceiling makes wife unhappy.

olllllo said:

Cover it with loose foil. PsuedoChef... back me up.

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Backed up. I'm done with airlocks on the primary fermenter. Sanitized foil works fine.

Edtolles said:

Is there a big chance that the beer will get infected with just foil instead of airlock?

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I don't think so. If the beer's pushing CO2 out, that keeps stuff from getting in. Remember, wild yeast, microbes, and other contaminants don't have legs. They have to drift around attached to dust or insects or whatever. If you keep gas moving out, nothing gets in.

FYI, I did a witbier a couple of weeks ago that blew foam out of the carboy cap I use on 6.5 g carboys, even after adding foam control drops. It was no problem, except that cleaning dried crusty yeast residue off the outside of a carboy is not much fun.

Here, here, foil! Plus, ever since I started using Fermcap-S (of which a $5 bottle will last you for I'd say about a 100 batches), I don't even worry about blow-offs (until my top-cropping fiasco - but I'm done with that).

so, had my first ever blow out, 3 of them technically, few hours after i pitched i checked on it and the airlock was filled with crap, so i cleaned it out and replaced it, 2nd time few more hours checked on it airlock full of skudge again, cleaned it and sacrificed a few thiefs worth of brew to the gods, cuz i figured id just over filled my carbouy, and replaced the airlock after cleaning it again, than i go to bed, i live in a bachelors apartment, and i was woken up by a loud pop followed by a gush and splatter, and instantly went "****", krausen everywhere, so, groggily i stumble out and see the mess before my eyes and groan, this is my first time making beer, im a wine and mead guy so im not used to the extreme energy of beer, i now see why you guys make it in buckets and not carbuoys, having never had to deal with this before i didnt really know how to go about doing it so i improvised, sanitized a j cloth and rubber band, and slapped that puppy over the mouth, few hours later and it looks like hell, should i have done something differently? is my beer going to get infected cuz i used a cloth instead of foil....that i dont have?