high risk for fermenter blowoff?

[txtaquito]

Im making a really stout brew and it will have lots of fermentables. All I have is an air lock and Im concerned the fermentation on this one will blow the lid off my fermenter. I am not going to aerate or oxegenate the wort but is there still a concern? should I put in an blowoff hose and drain bucket? Thanks.

TxT

 

[Hugh_Jass]

Im making a really stout brew and it will have lots of fermentables. All I have is an air lock and Im concerned the fermentation on this one will blow the lid off my fermenter. I am not going to aerate or oxegenate the wort but is there still a concern? should I put in an blowoff hose and drain bucket? Thanks.

TxT

TXT-or you should have your camera ready

It's a good idea to have a blow off rigged during the active fermentation phase. Think of it as an insurance policy. You may never need it, but if you do, you'll be glad you have it.

If you do an advance search for blow off, there should be some pictures of different ways to rig a blow off.

Cheers.

edit: here's a thread with a blow off picture in it.

 

[jescholler]

Not aerating your wort is a bad idea. The 2 keys to getting an active fermentation are your pitching rate and the oxygen in the wort. If you don't aerate your wort, you risk a sluggish or stuck fermentation.

What is the SG of your recipe?

If the SG is high, the risk is higher.

 

[txtaquito]

Yep, I have made two batches of brew and so far, only the air lock has been sufficient because it was a brown ale and a bock. I didnt think the fermentation would be violent enough to use a blowoff hose. This stout though has me a bit on the "worry wort" side and think I should this time. Lots of sugars in this stout and the vids and pics of blowoff Ive seen got me thinking I may have a nuclear device when its fermenting just ready to blow. How long do I leave the blowoff hose in there? for the entire primary fermentation process and then use the airlock for the secondary? Thanks

TxT

Brewing: Imperial stout (added in .5lb rye malt & 1lb honey)
Bottled & ageing: Shiner Bock clone
Enjoying: New Castle clone

 

[jescholler]

It's not a problem to leave the blowoff tube in there the entire primary.

You are correct that it is pretty safe to switch to the airlock for secondary. I think that's what most people do (including myself).

 

[pizzaman]

Regarding the blowoff tube in this thread, that's all well and fine but I would strongly advise against putting the blowoff container above the fermentation container as this is just asking for nasty suckback to go into your beer. Prevent suckback, stick your blowoff container on the floor.

 

[txtaquito]

The only aeration I give my wort is when I pour the wort from my boil pot into the fermenter. Then I pitch my yeast at about 70-75 degree. I havent used a hyrometer yet so Im not sure of the SG of my other brews. The imperial stout Im about to make should be about 1.100 OG. May be higher once done since I am adding in honey and more malt to the recipe and I will be using a hydrometer on this one....

TxT

 

[jescholler]

With a OG of 1.100+, you definitely want to be aware of how much yeast you pitch. Here is a good calculator for doing that:
Mr Malty Pitching Rate Calculator

I ran the numbers using an OG of 1.100 and a volume of 5 gallons. The calculator says you need 17 grams of dry yeast. If you use 1 pack of liquid yeast, you would need to make a 3.63 liter starter (assuming you intermittently shake it).

The Basic Brewing podcasts have some good episodes discussing yeast and the important factors of fermentation. Here is the link to the podcast:
Basic Brewing™ : Home Brewing Beer Podcast and DVD - Basic Brewing Radio™

Some good episodes on yeast are 10/27/05, 11/3/05, 11/10/05, and 4/5/07.

Another thing to consider is if you brew a batch prior to your stout and it uses the same yeast, you can reuse the yeast. Your situation is perfect for that. You just rack your stout wort on top of the trub left in your primary from your previous batch. The 11/1/07 Basic Brewing podcast does a great job of discussing that.

I hope all this helps.