First brew, TWO blow offs last night!

[rtracer]

Hey guys
Got my equipment Saturday at More Beer's grand re-opening. Everything was 15% off. Nice!
Brewed my first brew on Sunday, full boil of M-80 IPA extract from More Beer. The brew went flawlessly(as far as I could tell).
Pitched White Labs liquid yeast(Cal. pale) when wort was low 70's and was able to get the temp down to 68 in a couple hours with a wet t-shirt and sitting outside for a couple hours that night. Into the closet it went and woke up yesterday, the Ferrometer was reading 68* and the airlock was clean and bubbling away. Sweet its working!
Get home last night from work and the airlock is full and overflowing with Krausen. Quickly remove airlock, clean in the sink, dunk in my StarSan bucket for a minute then re-insert. Immediately starts to bubble over again. I think oh well adn leave it to catch up on Billions. 45 minutes later I hear a POP and think oh shiz. Open closet and the stopper and airlock are no where to be seen. Uggg, wort on the ceiling(this is not a good start with keeping the wife into brewing .
Stupid me repeats the process from before...clean, sanitize and insert.
Go to bed and an hour later my wife wakes me and says she heard something downstairs. Oh crap...run down and find it blew off again. This time I smarten up and devise a blow off tube.
Wake up this morning with the strong fermentation still going but all is good with the blow tube. Just getting the Krausen in the bowl of sanstar water. Still showing 68*

Anyways, is this normal, or should I fear something went awry?

More Beers M-80 IPA extract kit
Full boil
My OG was 1.062 or 1.063(hard to tell as there was bubbles in wort I sampled)
Pitched at low 70's with White Labs liquid yeast(california Pale)
Fermenting in a 6 gallon plastic carboy.
Lots of star san foam when I racked to the carboy, not sure if that makes a difference.
Not much head space as I racked almost the full 5 gallons.
Temp seems to be holding a steady 68 degrees.

Good thing is the mess has helped me try to convince my wife that we need a second chest freezer for a dedicated fermentation chamber.

 

[FVillatoro]

Hey guys
Got my equipment Saturday at More Beer's grand re-opening. Everything was 15% off. Nice!
Brewed my first brew on Sunday, full boil of M-80 IPA extract from More Beer. The brew went flawlessly(as far as I could tell).
Pitched White Labs liquid yeast(Cal. pale) when wort was low 70's and was able to get the temp down to 68 in a couple hours with a wet t-shirt and sitting outside for a couple hours that night. Into the closet it went and woke up yesterday, the Ferrometer was reading 68* and the airlock was clean and bubbling away. Sweet its working!
Get home last night from work and the airlock is full and overflowing with Krausen. Quickly remove airlock, clean in the sink, dunk in my StarSan bucket for a minute then re-insert. Immediately starts to bubble over again. I think oh well adn leave it to catch up on Billions. 45 minutes later I hear a POP and think oh shiz. Open closet and the stopper and airlock are no where to be seen. Uggg, wort on the ceiling(this is not a good start with keeping the wife into brewing .
Stupid me repeats the process from before...clean, sanitize and insert.
Go to bed and an hour later my wife wakes me and says she heard something downstairs. Oh crap...run down and find it blew off again. This time I smarten up and devise a blow off tube.
Wake up this morning with the strong fermentation still going but all is good with the blow tube. Just getting the Krausen in the bowl of sanstar water. Still showing 68*

Anyways, is this normal, or should I fear something went awry?

More Beers M-80 IPA extract kit
Full boil
My OG was 1.062 or 1.063(hard to tell as there was bubbles in wort I sampled)
Pitched at low 70's with White Labs liquid yeast(california Pale)
Fermenting in a 6 gallon plastic carboy.
Not much head space as I racked almost the full 5 gallons.
Temp seems to be holding a steady 68 degrees.

Good thing is the mess has helped me try to convince my wife that we need a second chest freezer for a dedicated fermentation chamber.

Yeah that's normal and doesn't sound like there's a need to worry about the fermentation health. Good call on using the blow off tube dipped into some starsan.
Since you pitched in the low 70s the yeast metabolism sped up and began to ferment pretty vigorously. A fermentation chamber is one of the best thing that I did to increase my beer quality so I highly recommend it with a thermal well :rockin:

 

[Sailingeric]

If you stick with it, I would get a bigger bucket. I have a Brewcraft 8 gallon+ (30L) bucket and it has plenty of head room. Never had a blow out yet, fingers crossed. :rockin:

 

[ncbrewer]

If you stick with it, I would get a bigger bucket. I have a Brewcraft 8 gallon+ (30L) bucket and it has plenty of head room. Never had a blow out yet, fingers crossed. :rockin:

Same here - just different brand. I don't even use a blow-off any more. But it's probably best to allow for a blow-off for several batches until you're confident that it won't happen. I used to just leave the lid loose for the first few days, with a 1 - 2 pound weight in case of a blow-off. That way the kraeusen will just ooze out the top if it runs over.

 

[Stocktonbrew]

15% off Grand re-opening! How did I miss that? A chest freezer is the way to go. I love mine. Bigger the better.

 

[BeardedBrews]

Just don't forget to use a big enough container for your blow off tube. Nothing is worse than thinking you "out-smarted" the blow-off just to find the blow-off jar full of slime and overflowing.

For what it's worth, FermCap works wonders, but it can be kinda scary if you're expecting a bunch of krausen and get nothing.

If you can't find fermcap, you can check these alternatives:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=4008731&postcount=10

 

[raymcgill]

Big crazy IPA = big fermenetation! Welcome to the addiction... I mean hobby.

 

[BarrelAgedForrest]

I'm currently brewing a 1 gallon DIPA and I set it up with the blowoff and it is all in a rubber maid bin with heated water. Tons of blowoff. I'll probably only use blowoff set ups from now on. It's far less stressful!

 

[Calder]

I use a blow off every time. Don't need it most of the time, but when I do I am thankful I used it.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

I've been brewing for a few years now, and I can remember the first time my 3 piece airlock continually clogged. I simply cracked the lid on my bucket and let it do what it needed too.

Having said that, I use a blow off rig every time now (also have switched to 6 gallon carboys), and I also put only enough starsan in it so that the length of my blowoff hose will not suck the starsan into the fermenter. My problem is my blowoff jar (usually a 64 oz ball jar) will run dry from time to time. My ferm chamber has a fan and it keeps thing quite dry in there.

Regardless, we learn from our mistakes, and I am sure after your experience you will continue to use a blow of setup, at least for the first week...

On that note, beer is relatively forgiving, yes sanitization (sic. sanitation?) is important, but it is harder than you might think to completely ruin a batch of beer.

Sounds like you have it under control. Good luck to you!

Cheers!

 

[rtracer]

Thanks for all the reply's guys! Yeah, I'm in it big time. Cant stop scouring the internet for information and stuff to buy. Cant wait till Tuesday for my second brew!
Going to be kegging in commercial Sankeys as I have three already and have been drinking commercial keg beer out of my keezer for years. No sense I can see why I would buy soda kegs.
Already got one of them open and soaking.
Yes, I plan on strictly using blow offs for at least the first week or so.

One change I am already going to make for my second brew is to borrow my brothers sump pump and work some sort of recirculating ice prechiller for my immersion cooler. I was amazed at how quickly it immediately brought down the wort temp intill it hit close to 85, then lagged big time. In California we "should" be water conscious. I figure I can start her off with just the immersion, then once she gets down below 100 I can hook up the recirculating ice water??

Already on the need to buy list...
Second carboy
Dual adjustable regulator so I can force carb one keg and have the second at serving pressure
7.2 sq ft Chest freezer
Dual acting temp controller
Thermowell

Oh god...Its only been a few days :smack:

 

[Gibberoni]

Already on the need to buy list...
Second carboy
Dual adjustable regulator so I can force carb one keg and have the second at serving pressure
7.2 sq ft Chest freezer
Dual acting temp controller
Thermowell

Oh god...Its only been a few days :smack:

If you are into DIY and semi-computer savvy, check this thread out: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=466106

This is by far the best thing I have done for my brewing.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Thanks for all the reply's guys! Yeah, I'm in it big time. Cant stop scouring the internet for information and stuff to buy. Cant wait till Tuesday for my second brew!
Going to be kegging in commercial Sankeys as I have three already and have been drinking commercial keg beer out of my keezer for years. No sense I can see why I would buy soda kegs.
Already got one of them open and soaking.
Yes, I plan on strictly using blow offs for at least the first week or so.

One change I am already going to make for my second brew is to borrow my brothers sump pump and work some sort of recirculating ice prechiller for my immersion cooler. I was amazed at how quickly it immediately brought down the wort temp intill it hit close to 85, then lagged big time. In California we "should" be water conscious. I figure I can start her off with just the immersion, then once she gets down below 100 I can hook up the recirculating ice water??

Already on the need to buy list...
Second carboy
Dual adjustable regulator so I can force carb one keg and have the second at serving pressure
7.2 sq ft Chest freezer
Dual acting temp controller
Thermowell

Oh god...Its only been a few days :smack:

+1 for the Sump Pump, I use a 400gpm pump and re-circ icewater that I keep in a 60qt coleman cooler. It is a necessity out here in AZ between March/April and September/November. I can get temps from boiling down to 68°F in about 20 minutes or so with my immersion chiller.

When the obsession bites, it bites hard!

Knowledge is power, keep reading, learning and asking questions.

Cheers!

 

[txpitmaster]

May not be the 'right way' but I take my 3pc air lock took the top off, and the thimble pc off and put my tube on it and into an empty 1 gallon jut with some sanitizer in it to use for a blow off. Worked good as far as I can tell. First beer batch is getting bottled tonight and 1st mead is on second raking.