Can you pour blow-off material back into carboy?

Anticipating some heavy aeration of the wort with my new setup I connected the blow-off tube from my carboy to a 5 gallon Better Bottle. Both vessels are equipped with carboy caps connecting them together along with individual airlocks.

Predictably a good amount of krausen and some liquids (filled the carboy high) made it into the blow-off bottle.

Since the whole system is purged with CO2 and has remained sealed would I be able to pour the lost beer back into the carboy through the tube after the initial fermentation?

(I've also read about some systems that harvest yeast from krausen and recirculate the liquid back into the carboy. I guess I could just try to make a starter from the blow-off material.)

 

Depends what was initially in your blow off collection vessel besides krausen. You need a sanitary collection method if you want to collect krausen, but I would NOT want to pour any blowoff material back into the primary.

Look up yeast washing if you want to reclaim your krausen material.

 

Eh, maybe I got too greedy. I even put in Fermcap but it's still bubbling over a bit. Maybe lost a quart but as long as I end up with my 48 it's all good.

I didn't put anything in the blow-off tube this time. I connected a 5gal Better Bottle to a 6.5gal carboy via a 1/2" tube. Both are sealed by airlocks and were sanitized with Starsan (just started using it this batch).

Is dead space in a blow-off tube a concern? Usually I put the end down into a mason jar of sanitized water but I don't fill it with anything.

I'm pretty happy with the fermentation though - the plate chiller / pump combo really put some air into the wort as I filled the carboy. A dry pack of Notty took off the next day. Also the first time I've gotten a good rolling boil as I'm using a propane burner now.

 

I wouldn't pour it back in, but it can go right back into the fermentor.


this picture works better with the blow-off connected to the gas-in post IMO, but you get the idea



http://byo.com/scottish-ale/item/351-build-a-burton-union-system-projects

 

I remember seeing the Burton union before but I'd forgotten what it was called. Thank you!

Still debating whether or not to just tip the bottle contents back into the carboy - it should all be clean. :cross:

Only used a pack of dry yeast but I am looking into starters so this whole Burton system would be pretty cool and seems cleaner than washing yeast from the cake.