Carboy Problem Bubbles (picture)

[Andy_Burbank]

This is my second brew ever in a year, 1st in a carboy. I did all the steps and started the fermentation today. When I came home after about 5 hours it looked like this. Is there anything I can do to salvage it? Is this normal, what did I do wrong?

 

[Vigo_Carpathian]

Looks like a normal fermentation to me. If you have a piece of tubing laying around, use it as a blow off hose to trap the foam in another container. The bigger the diameter of the hose the better. You can probably just attach the hose to the top of your bubble trap. The one in the picture actually plugged with hops because the tubing wasn't large enough so beware. My brew room looked like a crime scene the next day.

 

[tone_s]

Go to this link and scroll down to Revys picture of making a blow off tube.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/blowoff-tube-bucket-154531/

 

[Andy_Burbank]

Okay, that seems to be what i'm finding is the solution.

What do I do with the blow off container? Do I keep and somehow reuse whats going into it or just discard it?

Also when do I stop the blow off hose and go back to the normal stopper, if i do at all.

 

[Vigo_Carpathian]

You'll know when it's time to go back to the bubble trap because the krausen will start to fall. Don't worry about saving the foam out either. It will be mainly stuff you don't want anyway. Just use a container filled with a little sanitizer solution and dip the tubing below the liquid level.

 

[Andy_Burbank]

Great, I have a tube running into a runoff bucket. I will re sanitize the stopper when the foaming finishes. I am wondering if I can go to bed and redo the stopper and discard the hose and runoff bucket in the morning or if I should wait until the foaming stops and do the stopper before going to bed. Does it usually take awhile?

 

[Vigo_Carpathian]

You can let it sit with the blow off hose as long as you want. On a lot of my brews, I don't use a bubble trap at all, just a blow off. If you do plan on putting the trap back on, it should be a few days, before it's ready.

 

[Andy_Burbank]

Thanks Vigo I appreciate it

 

[cracked1]

You've already got advice on your current situation... As to the future, I'm curious what size carboy that is. Doesn't look like there's enough headspace in that one for whatever size that batch of beer is. For 5 gallon batches I like to use 6.5 gallon carboys. But, that's just me.

 

[psnydez86]

That looks like normal blowoff from having not enough headspace which is fine. 1/2 inch tubing hooked up to a 3 piece airlock without the bell thing in it works out good to avoid messes.

 

[psnydez86]

 

[Andy_Burbank]

Ok so this is what it looks like. Should I put a lid on the bucket?

My first brew was in a 6.5 gallon bucket with a 5 gallon recipe, but this time I used a 5 gallon carboy forgetting about needing the room. So I guess I'm going to keep it with the tube and bucket for the two weeks of fermenting in the carboy, unless anyone has any other suggestions

 

[Vigo_Carpathian]

Looks good

 

[jflongo]

This is my second brew ever in a year, 1st in a carboy. I did all the steps and started the fermentation today. When I came home after about 5 hours it looked like this. Is there anything I can do to salvage it? Is this normal, what did I do wrong?

SWEET PICTURE!!

Just follow what others have said, doing a blowoff tube is easy. You can either use a large one and put it directly in the carboy, smaller one inserted into the bung, or smaller inserted into the airloc.

 

[PhelanKA7]

Airlocks are trash. Toss it out and use a blow-off from now on and you will never have to worry about these accidents again.

 

[Andy_Burbank]

If I were to do another 5 gallon brew in the same size carboy could I also run a tube from that carboy into the same runoff bucket since I'm discarding everything in there anyway?

Also will the runoff bucket attract gnats or anything, what can I do to prevent anything funky happening with the runoff?

 

[jflongo]

If I were to do another 5 gallon brew in the same size carboy could I also run a tube from that carboy into the same runoff bucket since I'm discarding everything in there anyway?

Also will the runoff bucket attract gnats or anything, what can I do to prevent anything funky happening with the runoff?

Yes you can run two tubes into the same bucket. Just fill your bucket with enough sanitizer to cover the bottoms of the tubes.

 

[Vigo_Carpathian]

Sure, just run all your fermenter lines to the same bucket. If you use sanitizer as your liquid in the bucket, nothing funky will happen.

 

[Andy_Burbank]

I used iodophor with water to cover the bottom of the bucket and tube. Do I need to switch out the sanitizer at any point or the one time will suffice.

 

[psnydez86]

Ok so this is what it looks like. Should I put a lid on the bucket?

No lid is necessary but when using blow off tubes be careful not to crash cool the beer as the liquid in the bucket will get sucked back into the tube and possibly your beer.

 

[jflongo]

Also, you should really submit that first picture here

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/photo/fermentation-and-yeast/

 

[cluckk]

I've had multiple tubes running into the same bucket on several occasions. That is one of the nice things about a blowoff. You can protect several batches at a time with one bucket of sanitized water. When it's done just discard the water in the bucket. I had a six gallon carboy that I overfilled--I really have a hard time wasting good wort. It was a batch that was quite active--lots of simple sugars added. The blow off handled it just fine. It was blowing off so much that a few hours later the water in the bucket was almost the same color as the beer.