Can a blow off tube fit on fermenter bucket?

Hey there - I recently bought the intermediate brew kit from Midwest Supplies. It comes with a 6.5 gal Ale Pail with a small hole drilled with a rubber grommet in the lid which is the perfect size for an airlock. I'm concerned that I might get some blow off. I ordered a blow off kit from northern brewer, but it's a fairly wide hose connected to a drilled stopper for a carboy. Does anyone use blow off tubes for bucket fermenters? If so, I'm guessing I need to drill a much larger hole to allow for drilled stopper.

Questions:
- Is this normal or is there a small blow off hose that people use for this situation? I'm guessing it's gotta be really small since the hole is so small
- If I need to drill a new hole, does anyone know the correct size to use and the best way to drill this out to keep it clean and to ensure a tight fit with the stopper?


Thanks in advance!

One of the advantages of using a bucket is that you typically don't need a blow off tube due to the large amount of head space. Why are you concerned about blow off? Are you brewing a larger batch or something?

I just use a hose that fits the existing holes (although I had to enlarge one so all three lids match). Measured the hole and went to the hardware store.

Since you ordered a kit, wait to drill out the hole until the kit arrives. A Step drill is the cleanest way to make the hole. It also has the advantage that you can "step up" the hole until you like the fit.

You'll also need a new stopper with a hole for the airlock.

I've blown lids off of buckets and here's a recycled picture of happy yeast:

I think you could drill the hole bigger to fit the stopper. If you wanted to use your air lock you could get another stopper with the smaller hole for it.

I have some 3/8" tubing (i think that is the size) that fits right into the rubber grommet with some convincing.

Rig up an airlock blowoff tube...take your bottling wand hose or other suitable one, put a small slit in it...Heat it for a few minutes in hot water to soften, then do this.





One thing that I do to all my airlocks is saw or break off the little criss/cross of plastic on the bottom of them.

my buckets came pre-drilled with a small hole and a grommet for the air lock. On the night before brewing, I thought I would be smart and boil my airlock (it had been sitting around in the garage for a long time). Well, the airlock distorted in the boiling water. Rather than making an emergency trip to the LHBS, I used my bottling tube and a pitcher of water for blowoff. The tube fight tight in the grommet (that's what she said). Worked out perfect. I had to use one of my wife's hair clip thingys to keep the tube in the pitcher.

I've had huge blowoffs in a 6.5 gallon bucket. I picked up a chuck of very wide tube at NB in St. Paul that fits perfectly into the neck of a carboy and (as luck would have it ) perfectly into the airlock hole on my plastic fermenting bucket.

Wow - thanks so much for the quick and multiple replies! Overall I think Revvy's got a great system set up and it would work best for me. I wouldn't need to drill out my lid any further and can switch back to using the airlock after a few days very quickly without any disturbance. Great idea!

I've done the same thing as Revvy so far and it has worked fine for me, my last batch being a 1.062 and the siphon tubing rig handled it no problem, the one thing I have changed though is I've managed to get the tubing to fit into the pre-drilled hole on the fermenter rather than cutting it to fit over the airlock. For me that is just easier but you might find your equipment requires something a little different.

david_42 said:

...drill out the hole until the kit arrives. A Step drill is the cleanest way to make the hole. It also has the advantage that you can "step up" the hole until you like the fit.

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I did this and it works great.

So, looking at Revvy's setup, will that small hole and tube handle an aggressive blow-off? I want to do a Belgium Triple and have been warned to make sure I have a blow-off tube in place.

Thanks,
Brad

My LHBS shop had a solution so simple I don't know why I didn't think of it. Insert your three piece airlock as you normally would, but take the lid and bobble off so only the single main piece of the airlock is left. Then you can use 1/2" tubing over the airlock tube inside for blowoff. Once fermentation slows in 3-4 days you just slip the 1/2" tubing off, put the two additional airlock pieces back on, fill with sanitized water/vodka and you're set.

BrookdaleBrew said:

One of the advantages of using a bucket is that you typically don't need a blow off tube due to the large amount of head space. Why are you concerned about blow off? Are you brewing a larger batch or something?

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Yes you do. If you're not sure how your chosen yeast will react to your wort, it's the safest thing to do. Especially if you're brewing original beers.

The English ale yeast I use for my "porter" is so active the krausen fills the head space to the lid and is blown right through the tube. By the time fermenting is done the solution's nearly as dark as the beer. And sometimes foams up out of the large bottle I use. So I have to use a container for the bottle. And I'm only brewing 5gal.

The standard hose for siphoning and bottling your supplier has should fit in the lid just fine. I use Ale Pale also.

Revvy said:

Rig up an airlock blowoff tube...take your bottling wand hose or other suitable one, put a small slit in it...Heat it for a few minutes in hot water to soften, then do this.

One thing that I do to all my airlocks is saw or break off the little criss/cross of plastic on the bottom of them.

Click to expand...

You could do that and have the tubing eventually split and put far too much time and effort into it. Or you can just put the same tubing into the grommet.