First brew

[Bill_C]

Hi,
I am going to be starting my first brew in a few weeks after my wine is racked and my carboys are free again. I chose for my first try a Pilsner beer kit from 'Brewers Spring'. The kit contains: one bag of extract, 1 pkg of yeast, a pkg of hops and a package of bentonite and a pkg of corn sugar. It is supposed to make abt. 76 bottles of great tasting beer.
My question then comes to reading about home brews warning others to always use a blow off tube. Is it necessary to use these on beer kits?
Thanks in advance.

 

[eluterio]

You can if you want I havent used one yet and if I do it will be for wheat beers. a simple air lock will work just fine.

 

[ncbrewer]

I've done lots of batches with an airlock and no blow-off tube. I set the lid on loose, with about a 1 pound weight on top to keep the fruit flies from getting in. After 5 days, I seal the lid. Using a 6.5 gallon fermenter for 5 gallons of beer, the kraeusen has never reached the lid, but if it did, it would just ooze out without blowing the lid off.

Good luck with your first brew.

 

[revco]

I say go for the airlock if that's what you have now. Just like most of us, your first "Mt. Saint Beer" explosion is a great learning experience in my estimation! Most beers probably don't require a blow off tube...problem is, there's no way to tell until it starts overrunning the thing and causes a mess. If you're away when this happens, expect to have a bit of cleanup. And a trip to the hardware store to get tubing.

Oh, and good luck with the batch! Hope you have fun!

 

[Cyclman]

I have cleaned up too many blown out airlocks, and always do a blow off tube. But if you don't have the equipment, and check your fermentation multiple times a day, other than possibly cleaning out the airlock and some mess, it's unlikely to be much more than an inconvenience.

 

[JimRausch]

The two most important things to avoid the 'volcano beer' are:
1. Have enough headspace
2. Make sure you control your fermentation temperatures to be at the low end of your yeast strain's range. Especially for the first couple days.

 

[JimRausch]

Just did the math:
76 bottles(assuming they are 12oz) = over 7 gallons.
Big batch, or are they blowing smoke?

 

[Bill_C]

Thanks for the replies. I'll stick with the air locks as that is what I have. I transposed the number 67 off the box. It says it will make 67 bottles of 341ml bottles of beer. That should come out to about 6 gallons.