How much head space for high gravity beer?

[KingKlong]

I brewed a pale ale this weekend, and everything is going fine except I've used up all my head space. The fg was 1.070, and the final volume came out between 5 and 5.5 gallons. The brew is coming out of the airlock, and pressure has built to the point that the lid of the 6.5 gallon bucket is allowing small amounts of beer to escape around its seal. I'm really not to worried about the beer. Just the mess, and I'd like to avoid this in the future.

All suggestions for future batches are welcome and appreciated.

 

[Copbrew133]

On larger beers I try to leave a quarter to a third of head space in the primary. Also switch to a blow off if possible. It really helps out the mess and if for some reason the spaces where krausen and off gassing are escaping becomes clogged you could end up with an explosive mess. Good luck.

 

[KingKlong]

is it possible to use blowoff tubes with buckets?

 

[Dawgs47]

Yes, you can attach them to an air lock.

 

[duboman]

is it possible to use blowoff tubes with buckets?

Yes, you can either find a Diameter hose that fits right into the lid grommet or you can take a 3 piece airlock, remove the cap and float and attach a hose to the inside tube, then insert the airlock as usual, both ways work well, just be sure to sanitize as always!

 

[Copbrew133]

If you don't have a larger hole on the lid to accommodate a one inch tube you can make one. On a three piece airlock, preferably a spare, crack the small plastic pieces off the bottom. I think there are four at the pointed part inside the bucket. This will keep it from clogging with krausen. Take off its cap and the bell, for lack of a better term, and attach a section of I believe 3/8" hose to the stem on the inside. Put the other end into a bucket of sanitizer and your good to go. Just make sure the bucket of sanitizer is lower than your fermenter if possible so you avoid any risk of it siphoning back not your brew. There's some pictures of it somewhere on here. Takes like 5 minutes.

 

[johnbrain]

I did the airlock/blow-off tube set up recently for a Triple. Did it's job perfectly. No sign of fermentation at 12 hours. Left for the kids track meet and it was going through the blow off by 18th hour. Wish I'd been home to see it.