The carboy that ate kihei !!

[Snuffalupagus]

I started two new batches this weekend (saturday)

one was an all apple brew consisting of 4.5 gallons of Martinellis applejuice and 6 16 ounce cans of concentrate and two teaspoons of yeast nutrient- pitched Red star montrachet in there - all is going fine (I've done a recipe like this before with two cans less concentrate -came out phenominal even young - trying to up the Apple flavor and ABV with the concentrate as opposed to sugar)

the other brew I started is possesed by demons though...
2 gallons treetop and 2 gallons of safeway applejuice 4 pounds thawed frozen blueberries and four pounds of dark brown sugar pitched EC1118 in there - it's gone insane... I came home from work today and found the airlock full of red liquid... and it was making this godawful whistling sound! I think it was threatening me. I pulled the airlock to clean it and got a gyeser of red fermenting goodness right in the face!!! Since i can't put an air lock on it and keep it clear until the deamons depart the brew - I quickly disassembled my racking syphon, installed the end of the tubing on a fresh airlock, stabbed it into the bung - and stuck the end into a gallon bottle of water. it's still blasting evil into the makeshift blowoff tank! I think I've discovered a method of making blueberry flavored biofuel... time will tell - whatever the end result... I think it's going to be a real panty dropper, weather it's palateable or not.

 

[Limited Visibility]

what was your gravity on this

sounds yummy

 

[Snuffalupagus]

what was your gravity on this

sounds yummy

donno - I go by the seat of my pants - don't have a hydrometer.
I just throw stuff togeather till it stops bubbling - give it a few months
and give it a test swig on bottling day... so far I haven't brewed anything that was too gross to drink.

I did, however create a pretty vicious dry apple wine with notes of rum/butterscotch (due to turbinado sugar) using EC1118 and that only had 2 pounds of added sugar in it... a 20 ounce bottle of it gets you pretty buzzed, two will get you drunk... so at 4 pounds od sugar and the fact that EC1118 is pretty tolarant of ABV this pissed off blueberry brew might be pretty dangerous if it's not to hot to drink.

 

[Snuffalupagus]

well, it's still bubbling away madly - but at least the deamons have left the carboy, and I'm again able to run with a standard airlock on there - it's still whistling pretty loud... but it's not filling the airlock with red goo.
I think I can cancel the priest and excorcisim.

 

[BlackE1]

Wow i am interested in to see how this stuff comes out. Sounds like it should be tasty

 

[LastKnight]

How big a carboy are you using?

 

[Snuffalupagus]

How big a carboy are you using?

5 gallon #2 water bottle ( I know this will offend purists but there are NO homebrew shops in Hawaii that are still open, and shipping a glass carboy is about $130 dollars, not including the carboy itself... a "better bottle" is 50 to ship.) so I roll with what I can get on the cheap.

I've filled to just above the bottom of the bottle shoulder - those with 6 gallon carboys who try this may not have the same issue I had with overflow.

I intend to rack this to a secondry over 5 additional pounds of frozen blue berries after 4 weeks, and top off the carboy with blueberry juice (If i can find some here... I think a store in Pa'iia has some but it's 8+ dollars a quart...)

I'll keep you all posted

 

[Snuffalupagus]

I gave this sucker it's first racking - I was afraid that it might get funky - I left a little more headspace than i like to -and there was a $hitload of bleached out (they looked like some sort of effed up ALBINOS ofter the EC-1118 got done with them) floating on the surface - I was afraid the ones on top they start to go off -since EC 1118 is so frigging quick I figured it would be safe to rack after two full weeks instaead of the intended four.

so I pulled out a freshly sanitized 5 gallon water bottle and dumped an additional 4 pounds of blue berries in there - used my paintball tank to purge air out of the carboy in favor of an all Co2 atmosphere- and commenced to racking
first i filled a 6 ounce wine glass with the concoction for a taste test - Whew!!!! gonna need some mellow time -I think it has some potential, but ABV is through the ROOF! I had a second glass just to confirm my findings and now I'm slightly drunk - and I'm a 220 pound male with a decent tolerance level built up... anyway... its a monster.
after I siphoned off all of the liquid I could from the primary - I topped off the carboy to the top of the bottle shoulder with 3 quarts of pure blueberry juice, re installed an airlock, and intend to let it sit for at least a full month and a half before messing with it again.
will update with further developments when available.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Snuffalupagus - Where are you finding Martinellis applejuice without having to sell your first born?
I'm terribly sorry to hear about you loss of blueberry cider, it shall be missed.

 

[Snuffalupagus]

Snuffalupagus - Where are you finding Martinellis applejuice without having to sell your first born?
I'm terribly sorry to hear about you loss of blueberry cider, it shall be missed.

only lost a quart... and most of that was krausen/exploded blueberries -but don't worry though -moste of it hit me in the face and I got to taste it... pretty foul since it was only day 2 or so...

I decided to treat myself and go with the martinellis (usually use treetop)
but safeway has martinellis for 10.00 a gallon so i bought 5... discovered that Star market has it for 9.00 a gallon.