Blew the top off my 1-gallon fermenter

[daved]

Hi - Real newbie, working with the Brooklyn Brew Shop 1 Gallon equipment that I received for Christmas.

I was trying to make a stout-like beer. Not working off any single recipe, but trying to work together my own brew from a few different sources of info.

Brewed yesterday evening, and I noticed that the blow-off tube was clogged. When I moved it even the slightest, the whole thing went off like a geyser. after 2 hours of cleanup - I figured I'd write the forum to see where I may have went wrong. (I doubt it had anything to do with the 1 oz Kent hops)

- I used 1 1/2 lbs of Muntons Extra Dark DME, boiled in 3/4 gallons of water. (1/2 of a 3 lb bag)
- I added 1/3 hops in at start of boil. 1/3 at 30 minutes, and the remaining 1/3 at 5 minutes. The hops were thrown directly into the boil, without a sack.
- Safale s-04. I purchased enough for a 5-gallon kit, and used about 1/3rd (sources said to use up to a half, but it was already noticeably more yeast than I had ever used before).

Is it possible to have used too much yeast? Too much DME? It looks like it was mostly hops that had clogged my blow-off tube. DId I just get unlucky, or did I severely overuse one of the ingredients.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[daved]

"Brewed yesterday evening, and I noticed that the blow-off tube was clogged."

Just to elaborate... The tube had become clogged after about 15 hours. I certainly didn't start off knowing the tube was clogged

 

[dkevinb]

1.5 pounds of DME in 3/4 gallon of water is a high gravity beer and S-04 is a very active yeast. I had a batch of brown ale using S-04 almost blow up my Mr. Beer LBK once. 1 oz of hops in 3/4 gallon is also going to be very hoppy. I'm betting the hops combined with the krausen is what clogged the blow-off tube.

For a stout I'd consider backing off to 1 lb DME and half that much hops. I'd also try to make sure I transferred as little of the trub/hops from the boil kettle to the fermenter as possible. That might reduce the possibility of clogging the blow-off tube.

 

[HopSong]

If your BBkit is like mine, the airlock is pinched somewhat closed. I'd suggest grinding/sawing off the restricted/pinched area that fits inside the jug.. just the pinched part. Then find a piece of vinyl tubing at a hardware store that fits over the middle portion of the airlock to provide an unrestricted blowoff as mentioned above. Make the tubing long enough to fit into a bottle of water. Another thing to consider.. with the temps rising you may need to control the temp of the fermenter. I use a large bucket to put the jug in. Filled with water as a thermal mass to help regulate the internal temp of the fermenter. That water temp can be controlled using frozen bottles of water.. like the personal water bottles you buy in the store. Collect a few, fill, freeze and change as necessary to keep the water about 63-65*. Especially important the first few days. That will help control the rapid fermentation/krausen from building up too rapidly.

 

[Ash1616]

Hey Dave,
As a complete aside, I have used BBkit kit as well and would like to caution you to not over-tighen the plastic carboy cap too much...make sure its snug but don't give it that extra twist. I did a few batches ago and cracked it and had to run out quickly to my LHBS to get a replacement.