I'm assuming that having a mess in the blow-off tube and jug is OK. As I said a few postings above, I brewed this Sunday afternoon (today is Thursday). Monday evening I transferred 5.5 gal into the 6 gal Better Bottle and pitched 2 pks of Safale US-05. I set the Ranco controller to 60. I don't have a heater, but the freezer takes it down to 58 after shutting off, but it's spending most of the time at 61.
In anticipation of heavy krausen, I used a blow-off tube instead of the 3-pc airlock.
Had some bubbling Tuesday morning and considerable bubbling last night. This morning, there's a decent amount of creamy stuff in the blow-off tube and the water bottle water has a bunch of nice-smelling sludge in it. There was a couple tablespoons of sludge on the floor of the freezer.
The blow-off "system" is intact - nothing disconnected. I replaced the little water bottle with a 1/2 gal milk jug of water.
So I'm thinking that everything is OK. I guess I need to make sure that the krausen that collects in the tube doesn't harden and block the tube. I will check later today since I'm off work today. I might need to spray starsan around the stopper and neck of the Better Bottle, remove the stopper/tube as I cover the bottle with sanitized aluminum foil, clean out the tubing, resanitize, and replace.
Any suggestions?
Keith