Closed Fermonster Lid Crack...:-(

[MMP126]

Hey all. Just here to share, maybe vent a little.

Fermenting a NEIPA in my closed fermonster, with the nice lid connections and floating dip tube. The whole setup. Was going to move to spunding at the tail end of fermentation, but noticed the krausen was really high, so I wanted to wait a bit for the krausen to fall. Came back in the evening, and the krausen/yeast had blown out of the blowoff tube, and all over my fridge. Fine, ill clean it up. I went ahead and replaced the blowoff with a clean disconnect and tube, and tried to pressurize the fermonster again. And found the below.

I went ahead and made an emergency transfer to a new fermenter, but I am almost certain this NEIPA will be oxidized, and will be a total loss. I did purge my trusty Speidel fermentor, and purged the headspace as much as I could. It may have had a few gravity points left to hopefully consume some O2, and maybe save the beer. I am going to monitor it and see.

Just wanted to share. All in all, plastic is cheaper, but it does have issues. This is the 2nd time fermenting in this fermonster, the last one went well.

Just to share, this was a 7gal fermonster with a little under 6gal of wort in it. So, I thought, plenty of headspace. Maybe I had a faulty lid? Who knows. I think I am going to go to a modified Speidel fermentor. Setup is below. Pretty inline with what others are dong here.

Anywho, the beer is below. Probably the best smelling and best looking NEIPA I have brewed. Smelled and actually tasted amazing, and I hadn't even dry hopped it yet. Oh well...probably have to try again!

 

[Henbrew]

That sucks but I wouldn't lose help on the beer yet, especially since it was still fermenting when this all happened. I have a Fermzilla and really like it, built well for being plastic.

 

[IslandLizard]

That sucks!
Rather than racking to another (possibly inferior type) fermenter, I probably would have just taped up the crack or put some hot glue in/over it, not pressure ferment, and let it ride out.

Alas, your beer looks very fine going by the picture. Keg, then drink fast?
Keep some notes on any changes over time, due to possibly oxidation.

 

[Elric]

I wouldn't blame it on cheap plastic, you were using the equipment outside of it's intended use. Looks like your gas disconnect got clogged from the krausen and because you didn't have any sort of pressure relief valve setup, the plastic on the lid gave when the pressure got too high. In an instance like that I would much prefer a failure on the lid versus the fermenter itself blowing out. I played around with fermonsters under pressure, but ultimately felt it's best to only use pressure during transfer when monitoring it as opposed to doing active ferment under pressure, I leave that for systems that were designed expressly to do so (like the fermzilla).

 

[superiorsat]

I wouldn't blame it on cheap plastic, you were using the equipment outside of it's intended use. Looks like your gas disconnect got clogged from the krausen and because you didn't have any sort of pressure relief valve setup, the plastic on the lid gave when the pressure got too high. In an instance like that I would much prefer a failure on the lid versus the fermenter itself blowing out. I played around with fermonsters under pressure, but ultimately felt it's best to only use pressure during transfer when monitoring it as opposed to doing active ferment under pressure, I leave that for systems that were designed expressly to do so (like the fermzilla).

The lids are definitely cheap. I've probably got 10 cracked ones sitting here and I only ever use a bung with blow off tube. I had the company replace the first couple that cracked but after so many I figured I better just buy some replacements to have on hand. Maybe 10ish cracked lids in 7 years is acceptable. It is nice to have backup on hand incase you find a crack you can swap it out.

 

[Elric]

The lids are definitely cheap. I've probably got 10 cracked ones sitting here and I only ever use a bung with blow off tube. I had the company replace the first couple that cracked but after so many I figured I better just buy some replacements to have on hand. Maybe 10ish cracked lids in 7 years is acceptable. It is nice to have backup on hand incase you find a crack you can swap it out.

That's crazy! I have four lids and thankfully no issues with any of them as yet (oldest is about two years old, newest is four months old). I have the normal lids with bung hole that my three fermonsters came with and I have one of the solid lids that I added corny posts to. Thanks to some neck injuries I don't have much upper body strength, maybe that's a blessing and keeping me from torquing them tight enough to crack them!

 

[superiorsat]

My guess is I probably get them a little to tight, although I only use my left hand and purposely try to not over tighten since I have had a reoccurring problem. When they do crack it is after I had a blow out through the tube so they must get just enough extra pressure to crack the lid.

 

[Elric]

My guess is I probably get them a little to tight, although I only use my left hand and purposely try to not over tighten since I have had a reoccurring problem. When they do crack it is after I had a blow out through the tube so they must get just enough extra pressure to crack the lid.

I wonder if it was faults in the lids? I routinely do 5-15 psi with my solid lid and it's never split and I even accidentally overcharged past 20 psi, it bulged the pressure indents at the bottom of the fermzilla out but the lid held just fine. I would think that without a fault in your lids you should have seen a similar pop out on the fermzilla before the lid blew.

 

[Bobby_M]

Overtightened the lid.