I don't post all that much here, but I love the site and get great info all the time. I thought some of you might commiserate with my story.
I have three 7 gallon carboys that I use for primary. All three were full, and but I wanted to brew last Thursday. So I brewed up an AG Wit with wheat, pale malt, orange peal, coriander, a little black pepper....perfect for the upcoming warm weather. I figured I would try to squeeze it into one of my 5 gallon carboys, no problem. I brewed, pitched a heathly started, and let nature take it's course. All was well....beautiful white, creamy krausen within 10 hours, good fermentation activity after 24 hours. On Saturday I peeked into the brew closet and noticed that some of the krausen was pushing out of the airlock....nope, no blow off tube installed. No problem. The airlock was still bubbling. So I cleaned and sanitized a new stopper and airlock. Since the current lock was still bubbling I didn't figure there would be any presure built up.
Then things went horribly wrong. I twisted off the stopper and it popped off like a cannon. The force into the carboy erupted the wort up out of the carboy like Old Faithful. The plume was so high that it hit the 7 foot ceiling in the closet. There was no stopping it. Beer EVERYWHERE!!! I had krausen in my ear and nose. Wort was stuck to the ceiling, the walls and three gallons spewed onto the floor.
I scrubbed and mopped and cleaned. And then I aired it out all weekend, and it still smells like a college frat house. The sad part is I can still make out the aroma of the coriander and orange . And I guess i was fortunate that it happened to be one of my really old carboys with extra thick walls, so it didn't shatter.
Live and learn. At least i get to brew again this weekend. SWMBO didn't even make me sleep on the couch!!
Alan
I have three 7 gallon carboys that I use for primary. All three were full, and but I wanted to brew last Thursday. So I brewed up an AG Wit with wheat, pale malt, orange peal, coriander, a little black pepper....perfect for the upcoming warm weather. I figured I would try to squeeze it into one of my 5 gallon carboys, no problem. I brewed, pitched a heathly started, and let nature take it's course. All was well....beautiful white, creamy krausen within 10 hours, good fermentation activity after 24 hours. On Saturday I peeked into the brew closet and noticed that some of the krausen was pushing out of the airlock....nope, no blow off tube installed. No problem. The airlock was still bubbling. So I cleaned and sanitized a new stopper and airlock. Since the current lock was still bubbling I didn't figure there would be any presure built up.
Then things went horribly wrong. I twisted off the stopper and it popped off like a cannon. The force into the carboy erupted the wort up out of the carboy like Old Faithful. The plume was so high that it hit the 7 foot ceiling in the closet. There was no stopping it. Beer EVERYWHERE!!! I had krausen in my ear and nose. Wort was stuck to the ceiling, the walls and three gallons spewed onto the floor.
I scrubbed and mopped and cleaned. And then I aired it out all weekend, and it still smells like a college frat house. The sad part is I can still make out the aroma of the coriander and orange . And I guess i was fortunate that it happened to be one of my really old carboys with extra thick walls, so it didn't shatter.
Live and learn. At least i get to brew again this weekend. SWMBO didn't even make me sleep on the couch!!
Alan