Ale Pail goes BOOM!

[cbauer210]

Holy Crap...I just settled into bead and was drifting off to sleep when I hear... BOOOOM! I jump out of bed thinking NYC is under attack. Sounds like a bomb just went off. Run into the living room but all is quite. But wait.....the door to my wine fridge/fermentation chamber is wide open and foam from my first Belgian strong ale is pouring out onto the floor. Low and behold, the lid on my Ale Pail burst off under the pressure of fermentation which is about 30 hours since brew. Freaking amazing. Half the time I'm cursing this damn bucket because I can barely even get the lid off the thing.

I'm not sure what really to do besides just be prepared for this to happen again. I removed the little cap from the airlock and replaced it with a loose piece of foil. I'm hoping this will help vent off the pressure quicker. Should I loose the airlock all together? I'm sure the outward pressure won't let too many nasties in. On a side note....It smells amazingly deliscous. It is the Delirium Tremens kit from AHS with WL Abbey Ale Yeast.

 

[chapa]

Pics? I'd say just throw a blow-off tube on there for the next day or 2, until it settles down.

 

[bad67z]

sorry man it's an unwritten rule.

 

[cbauer210]

It's all cleaned up and I'm trying to go back to bed...no pics tonight. I put a new airlock on and it is foaming out all over the place again. It is a bucket so I cant do a blowoff. You think no airlock is ok for the time being?

 

[cbauer210]

Ok...I found a small enough tube to fit into the airlock hole tightly....Hopefully this wont burst off again. Here is a pic of my rig job. Jeez....this is crazy.

 

[weirdboy]

Just pop the lid off and rest it on the rim of the bucket instead of snapping it down into place. Once the activity dies down a bit in a day or two, put the lid back on tightly and stick an airlock in there.

A blow off hose that small can very, very easily clog, especially given then you have already clogged an airlock of about the same diameter.

 

[bad67z]

Sorry I couldn't get pictures to post at first for some reason but:

If you have a piece of 3/8 tube you can use your air lock (assuming you have a three piece one) you can put together a blow off tube pretty quickly.

 

[cbauer210]

Ok...I left my makeshift blow-off in place and popped the seal on the lid. That small tube blowoff just looked like trouble. Hopefully I won't wake up to a horrible mess in the morning. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Teacher]

In the future (if you haven't already done so), use a pair of scissors to cut off the "crosshairs" that are molded onto the bottom opening of air lock for strength. There's a good chance that will help.

 

[bad67z]

In the future (if you haven't already done so), use a pair of scissors to cut off the "crosshairs" that are molded onto the bottom opening of air lock for strength. There's a good chance that will help.

That's a great suggestion! I'm gonna take a hot exacto knife to my air locks this weekend.

 

[Poobah58]

in the future (if you haven't already done so), use a pair of scissors to cut off the "crosshairs" that are molded onto the bottom opening of air lock for strength. There's a good chance that will help.

+1

 

[cbauer210]

In the future (if you haven't already done so), use a pair of scissors to cut off the "crosshairs" that are molded onto the bottom opening of air lock for strength. There's a good chance that will help.

Yeah...I had done that already. There was no stopping this one. I think I may upgrade to a carboy and blowoff soon.