Are blowoff issues likely?

[captaineriv]

I believe I asked a similar question to this months ago, but there was a big difference in my batch size. Anyway, the question is: I use a 6.5 gallon plastic bucket w/drilled lid for my primary, and if I want to brew a 5-gallon batch of high grav Belgian ale (around 1.109), am I likely to have blowoff issues if I use my 3/8-inch siphon hose (fed through the airlock grommet) as my blowoff tubing, or will I need to buy a 6.5 gallon carboy and use a 1-inch blowoff hose?

captaineriv

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

The small tubing should work unless there are whole hops involved. If you used pellets, you'll be fine.

 

[budbo]

I have never had issues with smaller hose, except when I didn't use it and got to mop the ceiling.

 

[captaineriv]

Never had to mop ceilings and I hope to keep it that way. The lid on my brew bucket seems to have a tight fit so I don't see it shooting off. The tubing fits through the grommet pretty snug too, so hopefully things should all stay together.

captaineriv
​

 

[chillHayze]

Cap-i-tain, since your question has been answered, I hope you don't mind if I hiijack yer ship...er...thread.

Is there a need to switch to an airlock if the blowoff hose is already attached? It is basically an airlock anyways, or no?

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

You can leave it on there if you want I suppose... Less risk with an airlock once fermentation slows down though.

 

[captaineriv]

Cap-i-tain, since your question has been answered, I hope you don't mind if I hiijack yer ship...er...thread.

Go for it. No point in letting this thread die so early.

captaineriv

 

[Catfish]

captaineriv-
Put that bad boy in the tub for the first nice. Your hose probably won't clog, but your lid may well pop off allowing massive quantities of krausen to saturate your brew closet. The clean up sucks, explaining to the wife why all the crap in the closet is now soaked in beer sucks. It will end up in the tub regardless.

 

[captaineriv]

Good thinking about the bathtub! Is it common practice to tape lids down as a precaution? And for the purpose of keeping this thread alive, to what extent should I aerate the wort and propagate the yeast? I have an aquarium pump with diffusion stone and I usually aerate for 20 minutes, but something tells me I will have to do it longer this time. Any guidelines? And for the yeast starter, how many times should I build up? So far, I'm limited to what a 1-liter flask will hold. This will be my first super high gravity brew and I just want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row.

captaineriv

 

[Catfish]

check out www.mrmalty.com he has a pitching rate calculator. For that big of a beer you will be wanting to pitch a LOT of yeast... like a gallon. As for aeration, there is only so much O2 that will stay in solution. You may want to aerate the wort again a few hour after pitching.
It is a Belgian, so you might want to stress the yeast out a bit, but I wouldn't add too many ducks.

edit: yep, I just ran the numbers through the calculator, 4 liters of starter, or 5 tubes/ packs of yeast w/out starter.

 

[cweston]

Good thinking about the bathtub! Is it common practice to tape lids down as a precaution?

Never heard of anyone doing this. In fact, if there's *that* much pressure inside your bucket, you'd want the lid to pop, rather than something even worse happening.

Rig a blowoff tube and you'll be fine. I pop the rubber grommet out of the drilled hole of the bucket when I need a blowoff and shove a snug-fitting tube into the larger hole. It's 1/2 ID, I believe.

The larger the blowoff tube the better--less likely to clog.

I run the tube into a tall container: like an olive oil bottle or something, of weak sanitizer solution, then put that in a larger pitcher. The narrow-nouthed bottle holds the tube in place better than a mason jar would, and the larger pitcher helps contain the overflowing gunk.

 

[Cheesefood]

I have never had issues with smaller hose, except when I didn't use it and got to mop the ceiling.

"That's what she said"

(had to be done)

 

[HomerT]

Well, I had this same worry this weekend. I was making a Belgian Tripel 1.080 and pitching the slurry from a half gallon starter. I bought another lid for my plastic primary and drilled out a 1" hole and used a 1" blowoff into a jug of water (much like a blow-off from a glass carboy. The hose was fairly tight, but I wrapped the outside with a thick coating of teflon plumbers tape to make a good "gasket surface" before inserting it through the lid. It worked beautifully....I had a golden brown water bottle bubbling away the next morning. I can take a pick of my "ghetto-blow-off" if you'd like....it was still bubbling this morning.

-Todd

 

[brewhead]

one regular carboy stopper drilled out
two 1/2"ID hard els
one 5" length and one 21" length of 1/2"ID PVC

friction fit to allow breakdown and ease of cleaning with my bottle brush.

total cost less than $5

no worries about cleanup on isle 5

priceless