Airlock or blow off hose

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Vicat

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I’m brewing a black IPA tomorrow. My target OG is 1.067. Should I use a standard airlock or a blow off hose during fermentation?
 
what yeast strain? some fart like a rhino, others meek along like field mice.
 
I’m brewing a black IPA tomorrow. My target OG is 1.067. Should I use a standard airlock or a blow off hose during fermentation?
How much do you like washing down the walls and ceiling? With an airlock you might not need to but with a blowoff you nearly certainly will not. Unless you have a very large headspace, the blowoff is the safe choice.
 
5 gal in a 6 gal glass carboy. But based all the other comments I guess I will use one regardless.

Yeah, that's fairly tight (unless your 6 gallon carboy is really 6.5...most glass ones are). That, plus 1.067 gravity would be enough for me to use a blow off.
 
Yeah, that's fairly tight (unless your 6 gallon carboy is really 6.5...most glass ones are). That, plus 1.067 gravity would be enough for me to use a blow off.
Yes, 6.5. It’s my first AG 5 gal batch, so thanks for the advice.
 
I used 6.5 gallon carboys for over a decade and never used nor needed a blow off, wlp001 yeast even. But I like to be different.
 
Get into the habit of using a blow-off every brew. I use one very time; it is not much more effort than using an airlock. A blow-off event can be messy: Airlock and beer sprayed for several feet. I've had it on the ceiling before. Fortunately I ferment i the basement on a concrete floor, so no carpet damaged. Clean up is a *****.
 
So brew day done! My first AG brew. A black IPA! I hit my OG on point now hoping the fermentation goes well. Thanks for all the advice. Here is the blow off tube set up I’m using. Comments?
 

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^ Can't see the top bend in that hose, but is it kinked? You want it to be gently curved.
 
Same comment on the kink.

I really don't think those small hoses really do the job, they too can become blocked. I use a 1.25 inch hose that fits in place of the bung.

Did you remove the X from the bottom of the airlock?

How much water (sanitizer) is in the jug? It only needs to be just above the hose. With cold temp swings, the beer can suck the fluid back into the fermenter.
 
Same comment on the kink.

I really don't think those small hoses really do the job, they too can become blocked. I use a 1.25 inch hose that fits in place of the bung.

Did you remove the X from the bottom of the airlock?

How much water (sanitizer) is in the jug? It only needs to be just above the hose. With cold temp swings, the beer can suck the fluid back into the fermenter.
It’s a 1” hose. The sanitizer is about a third of the way up the 64 oz growler.
 
I always use a blow off tube any more. Had one time with an airlock that blew the lid off fermenting a Hefeweizen. Since then switched to a blow off setup. Ever had a reason to go back. If I transfer to a secondary, then I use an airlock cause I know I won’t have to deal with the over active fermentation any more.
 
Just brewed a stout yesterday. Within 4 hours of pitching yeast I could already see that it was going to be an active fermentation. A couple hours later we all heard a pop. Sure enough it blew out. Ran and got a blow off tube and set it up. It has blown out nearly a gallon of liquid so far. I have never had a beer ferment this robustly.
 
Once I started using blowoff I never went back. I just pop the airlock when krausen starts falling. Blowoff krausen is denser than airlock one and allows me to leave less than 10% headspace in fermenter (even when using kveik) with no issues.

I use 1/2 hose attached to a 3 piece airlock. The hose ends in a 1 gal container with PAA solution.
 
If you leave the cooled wort in your boil kettle to settle out over night and then transfer clear trub-free wort to your fermenter there will be substantially less krausen formed during the fermentation. Even my hefeweizens behave! It also makes yeast harvesting a breeze. Try it.
 
Too dangerous a proposition for my tastes. I'd rather go with the blow-off and temperature control then risk ending up with an unintended sour.

I recently did a batch of neipa using top-cropped 1318 from a previous batch - first time thing for me - and I had to keep the yeast on a really tight temperature leash. I normally run 1318 at 66°F for the first three days then let it rise to 67°F for a few days then up to 68°F to finish. In this case if I let the wort rise to 65°F - even four days post-pitch - it would go freakin' ballistic and fill the blow-offs :) so I pounded it back down a degree to 64°F and kept it there until Day 6.0

That was crazy - not sure I'll be doing that again...

Cheers!
 
If I don't know the yeast, blow off tube, you never know which yeast can blow the lid off
 
I don't even bother anymore. I ferment with a spunding valve set very low. (2-3 psi)
After fermentation is done I turn it up and start on c02 to 10ish lbs and cold crash at 28⁰
 
I don't even bother anymore. I ferment with a spunding valve set very low. (2-3 psi)

I also normally spund my fermentations in lieu of a traditional airlock or blowoff. But for high gravity worts I start with a blowoff and switch to spunding as soon as CO2 production slows noticeably.
 
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