Crazy Fermentation...now what?!?

[white_nite]

So, I'm two days from brewing my second batch...it's a West Coast style porter, modeled after Black Butte Porter from Deschutes Brewery. (My first is in it's second week in the secondary and I'm planning on bottling this weekend!) Last night, I came home to find that the airlock on my primary was bubbling over with hop sediment in the airlock. (Good thing it only made a small mess on the lid.) after speaking to a buddy and reading the forums here, I decided to remove the airlock and go with a makeshift blowoff tube. I ended up using the 5/8" (I think that's the size) tube that came with my kit, which is used for racking and bottling. This morning (I was smart enough to put the primary in my bathtub!) I saw that there was bubbling around the rubber stopper where my tube goes into and around the lid, bubbling was happening too. The lid was "puffed" up! The 1gal bucket was full of sediment that had come out of the tube. (This thing is ACTIVE!)

I ended up taking the tube put, clearing it out (it had gotten clogged solid with sediment), resanitizing it, and putting it back on. In that process, I also tried to release some pressure in the primary by pressing on the lid and out came more bubbles and all. Now...it seems ok but I am sure it will get clogged again.

I suppose I could get a larger tube (I used what I had) or shorten what I have by a couple of feet (it's four or five feet). Any other ideas? I don't think I ruined anything and hopefully didn't contaminate my baby. I'm trying to RDWHAHB...but my first home brew ain't done yet.

 

[white_nite]

Oh yeah...the 1gal bucket is my blow tube bucket, not the primary. My primary is a 6.5gal bucket.

 

[CTownBrewer]

You should be fine. The release of all that CO2 acts as a seal due to the pressure build up from fermentation. It sounds like you did everything right regarding sanitizing the blowoff tube & removing the blockage quickly.

At my local liquor store, they sell some HB supplies. It only cost me $0.67 for 4 feet of the 3/8" tubing that fits snugly in my primary lid grommet. It never hurts to have some extra on hand.

I have a barleywine in my primary that I pitched on the yeast cake from an IPA I brewed at the beginning of the month. I had about 6 gallons in a 7 gallon primary at an OG of 1.110. I topped off with some purified spring water in the kettle to cool it down and realized I didn't get much boil off after the fact...only shooting for 5 gallons. Anyway, it took off within 2 hours & has been bubbling like crazy for 4 days. I got a large amount of krausen flowing out of my blowoff tube during the initial 24 hours. Thank god for blowoff tubes!

 

[powerfreak]

OG of 1.110

Wow.

I assume after having one the bottle says...

"Excuse me sir, I seem to have knocked you on your ass. So sorry. Want another?" :cross:

What yeast do you use for something with a gravity that high? Champgane?

 

[CTownBrewer]

Yeah. It's definitely gonna be a sipper.

I used Wyeast 1056 American Ale in a 2L starter for my 1.070 IPA. On Saturday, I brewed the barleywine & racked the IPA to my secondary for dry-hopping. Then I simply poured the higher gravity barleywine on the left behind yeast cake from the IPA. The yeast already went thru the reproductive phase, so basically it's like pitching onto a huge starter...saves me the money on multiple packs of high gravity yeast.

FYI - I actually undershot my target OG...it was supposed to hit 1.123 according to my recipe. The extra water I thought I'd need to add actually diluted it a bit. I'm hoping it will be ready by next winter after a long 8+ month secondary.

Sent from my iPhone using HB Talk

 

[lextasy23]

This is happening as we speak to my Blonde.

The fermentation has made so many bubbles that it's shooting into the airlock. I'm going home on lunch to hook up a blow-off tube into a jug of sanitizer solution.

1.065 OG, added a pound of Agave Nectar at flameout.

Out of control: