Lost some pretty major beer today through the blow-off tube..???

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adamjackson

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Brewed an American Pale Ale / IPA (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/what-beer-style-did-i-just-make-extract-brew-339806/) on Thursday.

We're at hour 48 and the blow off tube is always my default at least for the first 4 days then I switch to an airlock as I use 5 gallon carboys.

So, I get home today and the Bucket full of StarSan and Water was about 2 litres fuller than when I left this morning and was totally brown water. Usually, it's just brown but no raised levels. I uncovered the carboy and there is an entire ring gone.

What I mean is, I filled the wort to the top ring of the carboy (before the neck tapers toward the spout) and now it's a full ring lower (about 1-2 litres of loss of liquid). This is my 6th batch and I've had serious insane krausen with blow off but never have I LOST beer to the blow off bucket totally about 10 glasses of loss.

It's depressing and I'm wondering how I could avoid this and is this normal? I didn't fill the carboy higher than before yet I loss a significant amount of wort and now must drain some of the blow off bucket or it's going to overflow.

:drunk:
 
That happens to me a lot with my brews. I have my bucket over by my sink to clean it out now. It is the sign of a good fermentation.
 
Keep an eye on fermentation temps. Was this fermenter slightly warmer ( 2 degrees) than the ones that didn't lose beer? Was the OG bigger than what you have brewed in the past? Different yeast strain? Did you oxygenate this wort more than in the past? All of these components come into play. I know for my self, I notice a difference in the krausen level with a warmer fermentation. I like to keep my chest freezer at 66 degrees when using a standard ale yeast because the center of the fermenter is always going to be 5+ degrees warmer than its ambient temp. Hope this helps.
 
The other option is a system in which the blowoff material actually returns to the fermenter. They title it as a burton union system which isn't accurate, but the premise is similar. Here is a link that BYO did on a system, http://***********/stories/projects-and-equipment/article/indices/20-build-it-yourself/354-build-a-burton-union-system-projects, however there are many designs that you can look up on the internet.
 

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