Furious on the ceiling.

[owenfi]

So I just made my biggest mistake in a while.

My brother and I started a Surly Furious clone a month ago. 8.5 oz of dry hops in a glass carboy (directly, no hop bag) two weeks ago. Racked to 5 gallon Korny keg. Cold crashed about a week ago. Gelatin a few days ago. Co2 for the last couple days at ~11 psi. Which brings us to me going for a slightly impatient first taste.

Tried the tap and nothing came out. Upped the pressure a bit, still nothing. Put the gas on the liquid post to blow any hop particles out of the dip tube. Gas flows but didn't loosen it up enough.

Take out keg, take off the post, the dip tube is clear but the poppet is jammed. I tried just cleaning it all and replacing but same result in a couple seconds.

Clean it up again and get the idea to take the poppet out. Leave the poppet out of the post. Figure out from this post (thanks. I guess.) how to take poppet/valve from the disconnect. Re-assemble everything.

I was smart enough to put the liquid line on first (to my little picnic faucet). I attached the gas, still heightened pressure. Finally I get some progress and take off 10-20 pretty dirty ounces. Okay, good, back to the kitchen to put things back. Hmm, the liquid disconnect looks like it's leaking a bit, I better be close to the sink. Okay, let's get that off there quick. Oops. No! No nonoonoono.

My gas was still at 25PSI and I put a pretty good amount of beer on the ceiling. In the light fixture (pretty lucky it didn't short circuit). Of course the floor had a big puddle. And my hat, shirt, counters, half my beer making stuff, clean dishes, plants, windows.

That was 2am.

It's now 5...

I might try putting a dip tube from a 3 gallon keg to see if it gets less crap.

 

[owenfi]

Here are some photos along the way.

1. Hops in the poppet.
2. Window washed in beer.
3. The sediment that finally came out.
4. A very flat version (the force-co2 line was apparently closed most of the time) of our final product.

 

[Stealthcruiser]

That's a nice touch on the window!

 

[ChemEng]

I had a similar experience when I pulled the liquid line off and the poppet was stuck open. Not a fun cleanup but at least it was in my garage. It smelled like beer in there for a few weeks.

Maybe a paint strainer over the suction end of the auto siphon would help keep the hops in the carboy and out of the keg?

 

[LandoLincoln]

Hmmm...

 

[1977Brewer]

Oh what a feeling, when there's beer all over the ceiling.

Thanks Lionel.

 

[owenfi]

That's a nice touch on the window!

Yeah, it wanted to be cleaned anyway.

Maybe a paint strainer over the suction end of the auto siphon would help keep the hops in the carboy and out of the keg?

I'd like to get the hops out, so I might try one more time without the poppet (and after sitting for a while to make sure most are at the bottom) and with much more care and supervision.

Then I'll add a strainer, do you think paint strainer's mesh is quite a bit finer than nylong bag used for steeping/mashing?

Oh what a feeling, when there's beer all over the ceiling.

Thanks Lionel.

I should've just put that on and I wouldn't have needed to climb up on the counter to clean the window and ceiling.

 

[owenfi]

I had a similar experience when I pulled the liquid line off and the poppet was stuck open. Not a fun cleanup but at least it was in my garage. It smelled like beer in there for a few weeks.

Yikes!

I tried to clean pretty well, and thought I got away with it, but this morning my roommate says "hey it smelled like beer all over" and I was about to explain, but he meant the beer that's currently brewing

 

[naturebrew]

Thanks man, I needed a good chuckle, hope the cleanup went well!

 

[Yooper]

You're not a real brewer until you've mopped your ceiling.

Welcome to the club!

On a related note, I decided to fill a couple of bottles with a homemade counterpressure bottle filler.

Apparently, I had forgotten all of the rules of physics, and the second part of the compound word "counterPRESSURE".

I used a racking cane through a bung, and it worked very well. Until I decided to stop filling the bottles. Since I had a bottle in my right hand, and the beerline in my left hand, I pulled the line off of the racking cane/bung set up.

I immediately had a beer fountain, shooting with great force up to the ceiling. With the intelligence of a gnat, I did the thing I could think of with my hands full. I put my mouth over the racking cane to "catch" the beer.

I can chug a beer with the best of them, but apparently the 'pressure' in the word counterpressure means that the entire bottle will be disgorged with pressure, and quickly.

I do believe that no human being could have done what I tried to do. I almost drowned, plus my ceiling, clothes, computer, and room were covered with beer. Twelve ounces of beer, under pressure, is not as easy to contain as you might imagine.

 

[1977Brewer]

You're not a real brewer until you've mopped your ceiling.



Welcome to the club!



On a related note, I decided to fill a couple of bottles with a homemade counterpressure bottle filler.



Apparently, I had forgotten all of the rules of physics, and the second part of the compound word "counterPRESSURE".



I used a racking cane through a bung, and it worked very well. Until I decided to stop filling the bottles. Since I had a bottle in my right hand, and the beerline in my left hand, I pulled the line off of the racking cane/bung set up.



I immediately had a beer fountain, shooting with great force up to the ceiling. With the intelligence of a gnat, I did the thing I could think of with my hands full. I put my mouth over the racking cane to "catch" the beer.



I can chug a beer with the best of them, but apparently the 'pressure' in the word counterpressure means that the entire bottle will be disgorged with pressure, and quickly.



I do believe that no human being could have done what I tried to do. I almost drowned, plus my ceiling, clothes, computer, and room were covered with beer. Twelve ounces of beer, under pressure, is not as easy to contain as you might imagine.

This is awesome.

 

[owenfi]

You're not a real brewer until you've mopped your ceiling.

Welcome to the club!

Oh man, "Ceiling Moppers" would be a great home brew club name.

 

[Stealthcruiser]

You're not a real brewer until you've mopped your ceiling.

Welcome to the club!

On a related note, I decided to fill a couple of bottles with a homemade counterpressure bottle filler.

Apparently, I had forgotten all of the rules of physics, and the second part of the compound word "counterPRESSURE".

I used a racking cane through a bung, and it worked very well. Until I decided to stop filling the bottles. Since I had a bottle in my right hand, and the beerline in my left hand, I pulled the line off of the racking cane/bung set up.

I immediately had a beer fountain, shooting with great force up to the ceiling. With the intelligence of a gnat, I did the thing I could think of with my hands full. I put my mouth over the racking cane to "catch" the beer.

I can chug a beer with the best of them, but apparently the 'pressure' in the word counterpressure means that the entire bottle will be disgorged with pressure, and quickly.

I do believe that no human being could have done what I tried to do. I almost drowned, plus my ceiling, clothes, computer, and room were covered with beer. Twelve ounces of beer, under pressure, is not as easy to contain as you might imagine.

Amateur................

 

[MEPNew2Brew]

I have taken to cold-crashing all my drop-hopped beers before I keg because I had the same poppet-jamming problem. Thankfully, I did not have the same geyser result!

 

[TallDan]

Thanks @owenfi and @yooper that was some great reading.

I am also a member of the HBT ceiling mopper club. Second or third batch I made was an Imperial Stout extract kit. I had read about how i should use a blowoff tube, but wasn't smart enough to heed the warnings. I was at least smart enough to put the fermenter into the second shower that was infrequently used. I was woke up at 2AM by a loud pop sound followed by the sound of a bung and airlock hitting the shower floor. Cleanup in the shower was easy enough, just turn the shower on and spray around. cleanup of the walls above the shower and the ceiling, not quite as easy. :smack:

 

[owenfi]

I was woke up at 2AM by a loud pop sound followed by the sound of a bung and airlock hitting the shower floor.

At least you didn't have glass shards to contend with!

 

[chickypad]

I immediately had a beer fountain, shooting with great force up to the ceiling. With the intelligence of a gnat, I did the thing I could think of with my hands full. I put my mouth over the racking cane to "catch" the beer.

OMG, I wish we had video. My beer explosion episodes seem so boring now.