Help! Vigourous ferment pressurizing bucket (w/blowoff hose!)

[disney7]

I've got a 1.100 OG stout that is going nuts. It is in a 7.9 gallon bucket and I have taken the three piece airlock apart and put a 1/2" ID hose on the stem. The other end is in a bottle of star san. I'm getting quite a bit of foam in the blow off hose and bottle and the lid of the bucket is popped up and is taunt. There are bubbles coming out of the hose and occasionally the hose end in the bottle erupts with a ton of bubbles for a few seconds. The fermometer on the bucket is reading 68 to 69 degrees.

Is this sucker going to blow up or will enough CO2 escape through the hose? It isn't obstructed as far as I can tell, but I can't see the end of the stem in the bucket.

Any ideas on what I can do to better vent it?

 

[Stix]

If bucket is expanding on the top; the blow off hose or air lock is clogged. Pop it off clean sanitize reattach. There is enough gas coming out to worry about anything getting in. Be careful taking it off. The whiff of gases can be brutal

 

[Grumpybumpy]

Mine do that all the time. It's a bit unnerving, but I haven't had an explosion yet

Edit: my guess is that the small clog in the blow off is the path of least resistance as long as your lid is secure

 

[Stix]

Mine do that all the time. It's a bit unnerving, but I haven't had an explosion yet

Mine did lol. The airlock tube would get clogged then enough pressure would build and bubble like crazy then stop until pop it could not clear the line anymore.

 

[RM-MN]

Since it is too late to help with this time, next time put your fermenter in a plastic tub and lay the lid of the fermenter on loosely. While you will get a mess to clean up on the outside of the bucket and the plastic tub, it is still easier than scrubbing it off the walls, floor, and ceiling. The only real reason for the lid on the bucket is to keep things from falling in like small children or the cat. The escaping gas will keep everything else out. When the ferment slows you can clip the lid on securely and let the airlock/blowoff tube take care of the last of the escaping gas.

 

[muthafuggle]

It might also help if you cut the "cross" off the bottom of your three-piece airlock. Or just thread the hose into the hole and skip the airlock altogether for the first couple of days.

 

[disney7]

It might also help if you cut the "cross" off the bottom of your three-piece airlock. Or just thread the hose into the hole and skip the airlock altogether for the first couple of days.

I'm not sure what "cross" you're talking about on the airlock. Can you elaborate?

I am using a 1/2" ID piece of auto-siphon hose which fit nice and tight on the stem coming up out of the center of the airlock. Is there a common hose size that is big enough to tightly fit the stopper hole in the bucket lid? It is probably at least a one inch hole, maybe bigger.

I found that if I fiddled around with the airlock (twist, push, pull), I could get some pretty furious bursts of CO2 in the blow off hose bottle. I did that until I got most of the pressure out and could remove the airlock from the stopper without making a mess. Looking down in there the krausen looked like it was an inch or so below the stopper. Not sure why/what was plugging the stem/hose but it was definitely making a lot of pressure in the bucket.

I shortened the blowoff hose from six feet to about four feet and situated it so that the bottle is below the bottom of the fermenter bucket. It seems a little happier... it had not blown up this morning. It was still bubbling away furiously and the bucket seemed to still be a little pressurized, but not like it was before.

The bucket is in a 5 cf Lowes/Holiday chest freezer, so if I left the lid loose it would be contained (or if it blows :cross. Hopefully I can avoid that. I need to figure out a good, preferably non-messy, solution as I like big beers so I'll probably have this problem again.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

 

[tre9er]

I think if you look in the stem of the airlock, a lot of times there is a "cross" of plastic that sort of stops large particles from coming up into the airlock. I'm guessing that's what it's for anyway. Point is to make as little resistance as possible coming out of the bucket, so long as nothing can get in...You might want to drill and bung another, larger hole to use in conjunction with the airlock. Then you can put a large diameter hose in that new bung and drop it into a bucket of star-san. Two relief systems may be warranted for your particular styles of beer.

 

[RM-MN]

They make 7.9 gallon fermenters that might help quite a bit with the extra head space. http://www.midwestsupplies.com/home...tion-equipment/plastic-buckets.html?limit=all

 

[disney7]

Hadn't thought about adding another hole in the lid. I'll try that next time and have a hose and plug set up for it.

I am using a 7.9 gallon bucket, so I'm surprised I had this issue.

My airlock doesn't have a cross in the stem. I'm glad, I'd say that would have stopped up badly.

 

[tre9er]

Use a larger diameter hose for the new bung too. As long as its a tight fit and in a bucket of star san, all should be well

 

[MotorcycleMatt]

Fermcap s will help with blow off next time too

 

[MotorcycleMatt]

Edit, double post.

 

[disney7]

Muthafuggle, you were right about the cross. I would have sworn my airlock didn't have one... but after the fermentation calmed down I removed the blow off hose to install a spare sanitized airlock and I saw this:

That is after I cleaned it out. It was stopped up fairly well. My other airlock didn't have that and now this one doesn't either :rockin:

Regarding Fermcap or the Star San Defoamer... do they affect the head on the finished beer? Seems like they would...

 

[ajm163]

how deep is the blow off hose in the starsan. the deeper it is the more pressure will need to build up in the ferm to push a larger volume of starsan out of the way. I think that is why you are seeing allot of bubbling for a few seconds until the pressure drop's to a point where the pressure on the starsan is greater than the pressure of the gas trying to escape. try using less starsan or moving the blowoff hose so it is just below the surface of the starsan. this should reduce the force needed to bubble and reduce the pressure in the ferm

 

[muthafuggle]

Muthafuggle, you were right about the cross. I would have sworn my airlock didn't have one... but after the fermentation calmed down I removed the blow off hose to install a spare sanitized airlock and I saw this:

That is after I cleaned it out. It was stopped up fairly well. My other airlock didn't have that and now this one doesn't either :rockin:

Happy I could help a brother out! I got that tip from a brewmaster at a local brewery who started with homebrew like us. Yet another miracle of the circle of beer :rockin: