First Raspberry Wheat was an epic failure

[Alaska325]

My first attempt at a fruit beer failed horribly. The blowout tube got clogged with a raspberry and the carboy exploded. 6 gal of beer gone. Sad day.



What is left of my carboy

 

[homebrewdad]

That sucks. Sorry for your loss.

This, I think, is another reason why you see people advocate fruit additions in secondary - the usual idea is to ferment in primary, then add fruit.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Yikes!!! Consider yourself and anyone living with you lucky, that coulda been a lot worse. There's loads of horror stories out there of people being seriously hurt, or worse, by a shattered carboy. Glad you're ok.

And sorry for your loss, no matter how it happens a wasted batch is a sad day. Get workin' on the next batch.... and maybe get a wider diameter b/o tube for the next raspberry wheat.

Oh yeah, and welcome to HBT!!!

 

[thughes]

Bummer. I always ferment in a bucket when doing fruit,especially with crazy yeast like 3068. Hind sight is 20/20....a Better Bottle likely wouldn't have exploded (just painted your ceiling but at least all would not be lost).

 

[Alaska325]

Thanks for the input. Yeah I was thinking that a bucket would have been better. Will have one for the next batch.

 

[solbes]

Just glad you didn't get peppered with glass shards.

I made one raspberry wheat last fall. Primaried in bucked and racked onto the raspberries. I did get a little krausen with it, but luckily had enough headspace to avoid a clog. Will keep this in mind when fermenting fruit with glass.

I've had two bucket bombs where the cover was relocated about 6 feet away, so I'm not immune either.

 

[BrewThruYou]

Weird. I would've thought the blowoff tube would've been shot out before the glass exploded. Sorry for your loss.

 

[gcdowd]

Sorry about the brew. On a separate note, epic first post.

 

[hopsalot]

forget about the beer, you are a lucky man

 

[helibrewer]

Might consider puree or smashed fruit next time.

 

[Jayhem]

Weird. I would've thought the blowoff tube would've been shot out before the glass exploded. Sorry for your loss.

This never made sense to me either. I mean it is pretty easy to pull your blow off tube out of the stopper and easier still to pull the stopper out of the carboy. maybe people are pushing their stoppers too far into the carboy? It should pop like a cork gun not explode.