This is a post I put on the Midwest Brewing Site on Sunday 11/17. Fortunately I think we weatherd the storm but I didn't feel totally satisfied with the amount of feedback I got. The advice we did receive was good, however there just isn't a lot of participants on that form so I'm switching to this one. Since we are new to this hobby I'm trying to learn all I can. I will also copy my other follow up posts from this thread so you can see my other comments. Please feel free to comment on any of the moves I made and let me know if we are on track. Thanks!
Original post 11/17 3:29pm:
Last night (Sat 11/16) we brewed the MW Imperial Stout extract. We pitched the yeast at 7:45 PM and the fermenter is in a dark room with a constant temp between 68 to 70. From what I've read this can be a pretty aggressive batch (btw the starting gravity was almost 1.09) so we rigged up a blow off hose. We used the one that came with the kit (3/8 I think) and dropped it into our bottling bucket (so we'd have plenty or room) with 1 1/2 gal or so StarSan mixture. Also from what I read it sounds like it's possible my room is a little warm so we set up a water bath and dropped in a couple frozen water bottles. Went to bed around 1:30 and no activity yet.
Checked it at 9:00 AM this morning and the party was on! Plenty of bubbling in the water and bubbles in the hose. Temp in the fermentation bucket read 66 so felt pretty good about that and dropped in a couple new frozen water bottles.
Now here we are at 3:00 PM and everything is MUCH more aggressive. Tons of bubbling, krausen in the tube and bucket, and bubbling up under the lid of the fermentation bucket. Now I put some weight on top of the lid just in case. Temp in ferm bucket still says 66 degrees.
I attached a picture of my rig so you can observe the set up we have right now.
Am I gonna be okay? I'm concerned my tube is too small to handle the activity and what if it plugs?
Help!
Follow up post 11/18 5:53am:
Sorry couldn't get pic to work. Laid two small pieces of 2x4 over the top of the lid and set 2-10lb weights on them to keep the mutha from blasting off!
Update: left house for several hours and returned around midnight Sun night to find everything still intact. However there was lots of foam in blow off bucket, a layer of foam and sugars around the outside of the lid, and dark brown foam and sugars clogged up in the hose. But at least there was still a trickle of bubbling so luckily it wasn't totally blocked. I quickly clipped off the top 5-inches of the hose and taped a gallon size baggie over it, cleaned and sanitized the rest of the hose, pulled the stub out and popped the hose back in.
Dodged a bullet for now but will see in the morning!
Follow up post 11/18 6:30am:
Good news so far! Checked it at 6 am (Mon) this morning and looks pretty good. Still plenty of bubbling in blow off bucket but now it's clean in there. Hose clean too and not clogged. Dropped couple fresh frozen bottles in water bath and let it go.
Did we weather the storm? Temp on the outside of the ferm bucket now 63. Should we start bringing the temp back up now?
Follow up post 11/18 10:04am:
So you think I should keep my ferm temp where it is or start letting go back up and eventually take it out of the cold bath? Regular room temp is 68 to 70.
Original post 11/17 3:29pm:
Last night (Sat 11/16) we brewed the MW Imperial Stout extract. We pitched the yeast at 7:45 PM and the fermenter is in a dark room with a constant temp between 68 to 70. From what I've read this can be a pretty aggressive batch (btw the starting gravity was almost 1.09) so we rigged up a blow off hose. We used the one that came with the kit (3/8 I think) and dropped it into our bottling bucket (so we'd have plenty or room) with 1 1/2 gal or so StarSan mixture. Also from what I read it sounds like it's possible my room is a little warm so we set up a water bath and dropped in a couple frozen water bottles. Went to bed around 1:30 and no activity yet.
Checked it at 9:00 AM this morning and the party was on! Plenty of bubbling in the water and bubbles in the hose. Temp in the fermentation bucket read 66 so felt pretty good about that and dropped in a couple new frozen water bottles.
Now here we are at 3:00 PM and everything is MUCH more aggressive. Tons of bubbling, krausen in the tube and bucket, and bubbling up under the lid of the fermentation bucket. Now I put some weight on top of the lid just in case. Temp in ferm bucket still says 66 degrees.
I attached a picture of my rig so you can observe the set up we have right now.
Am I gonna be okay? I'm concerned my tube is too small to handle the activity and what if it plugs?
Help!
Follow up post 11/18 5:53am:
Sorry couldn't get pic to work. Laid two small pieces of 2x4 over the top of the lid and set 2-10lb weights on them to keep the mutha from blasting off!
Update: left house for several hours and returned around midnight Sun night to find everything still intact. However there was lots of foam in blow off bucket, a layer of foam and sugars around the outside of the lid, and dark brown foam and sugars clogged up in the hose. But at least there was still a trickle of bubbling so luckily it wasn't totally blocked. I quickly clipped off the top 5-inches of the hose and taped a gallon size baggie over it, cleaned and sanitized the rest of the hose, pulled the stub out and popped the hose back in.
Dodged a bullet for now but will see in the morning!
Follow up post 11/18 6:30am:
Good news so far! Checked it at 6 am (Mon) this morning and looks pretty good. Still plenty of bubbling in blow off bucket but now it's clean in there. Hose clean too and not clogged. Dropped couple fresh frozen bottles in water bath and let it go.
Did we weather the storm? Temp on the outside of the ferm bucket now 63. Should we start bringing the temp back up now?
Follow up post 11/18 10:04am:
So you think I should keep my ferm temp where it is or start letting go back up and eventually take it out of the cold bath? Regular room temp is 68 to 70.