Airlock explosion!

[aReBeeZy]

So I took my homebrew kit to my mothers house to show her where all my money has been going lately. What do I do? I forget the fermenter lid. Luckily her neighbor used to home brew 20+ years ago and had a couple 5 gallon car boys previously used as Mountain Valley Springwater water jugs. After cleaning thoroughly and sanitizing properly I put my 5 gallon home brew batch into one of the aforementioned carboys.

Not even 24 hours had passed when I came home from work and found yeast and hops and beer sprayed all over my closet and had even been so forceful that it reached the ceiling. It had begun spilling frothiness/yeast sharts out of the opening on top. This is the picture of my airlock I found after 20 minutes of searching on the top shelf.

Here is my question: are there any instances where a certain carboy is not adequate for home brew or since it was a five gallon capacity carboy, was it just to small (and I should've used a blow-off tube)? I wasn't aware that the construction of 5 gallon glass jugs could very that much or even if they did at all.

 

[Rockn_M]

It's good practice to use a blow off tube for the first 3-5 days of fermentation. Those are the most "explosive".

Sorry to hear about the mess. Hopefully it didn't ruin anything.

 

[kombat]

Most of us ferment 5 gallon batches in 6 or 6.5 gallon glass carboys or food-grade plastic buckets.

 

[kh54s10]

I doubt that the fermentation alone could have done that. Though I suppose the force could have busted it when it hit the ceiling.

If you use one of those 3 piece airlocks for a blow off setup cut off the x at the bottom end. It can clog too easily.

A 5 gallon carboy IS too small for fermenting a full 5 gallon brew.

 

[Psycotte]

Pics of the explosion or it didn't happen.

 

[Newsman]

Yeah, that's why I put a blowoff tube directly in my universal bung. It's the same size as the airlock stem and fits in the hole in the stopper just fine.

 

[stonecutter2]

To answer your question: yes. Some carboys are not adequate for home brew because they don't have enough headspace to allow krausen to form. Water jugs are sometimes exactly 5 gallons, which won't allow room for fermentation. Fermentation can be a nasty and forceful beast, as your airlock demonstrates.

Well, you launched an airlock into the ceiling. Welcome to homebrewing, you've officially arrived I narrowly averted such a disaster thanks to these very forums and a quick swap to a blow off hose when I made some porter with Nottingham yeast.

If you're making a 5 gallon batch, you want a 5.5 gallon+ fermenter. If the Mountain Valley Springwater jugs were exactly 5 gallons or barely more, then you needed more room to avoid a blow off like that. The wort should fill the fermenter and there should still be enough headspace for (ideally) another 0.5-1 gallon, maybe more.

The easiest solution is to attach a blow off tube for the first few days of brewing, so that if anything does "blow off" it'll make it's way into your blow off liquid and not explode all over

 

[aReBeeZy]

Thanks for The quick responses! This is my new favorite website of all time I think. You guys are awesome keep up the good work. Cheers!

 

[SIXFOOTER]

I think just about everyone in here has had an air lock Launch like that, although yours seems to have been pretty spectacular.
A carboy in the 6.5 range for a 5 gal brew is a good place to be. Some beers will have a mild ferment, some look like a slow explosion.
A blow off tube will help, but if you don't have enough headspace your still going to lose ingredients. I like 3 piece airlocks because they are so easy to clean. A simple mod to help keep them from stopping up and blowing out is drill out 2 or 3 os the little holes in the cap, the supplied holes are too easy to plug with floating bits of hops.

 

[Newsman]

I think just about everyone in here has had an air lock Launch like that, although yours seems to have been pretty spectacular.
A carboy in the 6.5 range for a 5 gal brew is a good place to be. Some beers will have a mild ferment, some look like a slow explosion.

I've actually been lucky so far... no rocket-launcher airlocks.

 

[bbohanon]

I am up to 3 rocket men brews so far. The first 2 were not bad and the only thing that took flight in those was the stopper and airlock/blowoff hose.
The 3rd one, I lost 2 gallons of wort from the carboy and my ceiling in the brew closet looked like the diarrhea wall scene in the movie Bad Grampa. It was BAAAAD.
Took me 3 hours to clean that up and I still salvaged 3 gallons of the beer.

On a good note(for me that is), that last explosion was the last straw for the in-house fermentation for my wife which allowed me to get a 12x24 shed that is being insulated, drywalled, wired, heat/AC and outfitted with a keezer for all of my brewing needs.

Fair trade I says.