Let me start by saying that this was a partial mash kit for an Irish Stout. It was a kit and came with the grains pre milled, (locally) and 7lbs of Dark LME. This is the third kit that I have used from my LHBS and the first two turned out ok. I only say Ok because the first was way too hoppy for our liking, and the second turned out great. My third brew was apple juice and yeast, it was not so great.
Anyway, I have been experiencing low yield's with the first two kits so i measured exactly what 5 gallons of water looked like in my 5 gallon carboy and used that as the standard, it seems that in the past I had not been adding enough water to compensate for what evaporated during boiling and was only using 4 gallons of wort. Anyway with this batch I solved that problem and added the appropriate amount of water to make about 4.7g of wort.
Brewing was easy, chilling went as expected, threw it all in a 5g carboy and added yeast. Great right!!!
I should mention that in the past I have brewed and only seen about 1"-1.5" of krausen on the top of the wort at its peak fermenation, which usually takes at least over night, and with my current set up there was 3"-4" of head room, no problem right?
WRONG, boy I could not have been more wrong. Within 1 hour of adding the yeast this thing is bubbling like a S.O.B. and has filled all of the head room, the air lock and has made a mess of the room that I store it in during fermentation. I about crapped my pants when I saw this and Leaped into action, I removed the airlock, and BOOM, all of the backed up pressure was released blowing krausen all over the ceiling and room and my head, but never fear I was equipped with the knowledge of Homebrewtalk.com and I grab my 5' of 1/2" tubing and a 32oz nalgene bottle filled with 10oz of water and get a blow off tube set up, now I'm good right?
Wrong!!! The amount of foam coming through the tube has acutally filled all of the nalgene and is ready to start flowing on to the floor, not good, SWMBO will not like beer on the floor over night. So I get my trusty home depot 5g bucket and place the nalgene bottle in it and just allow the foam to do its thing.
This was all done yesterday 5-1-2010, when I wake up this morning there is 1/2" of wort and foam covering the bottom of the bucket.
Just wanted to share with you all my story, problem has been solved, at least for now, and I will keep you updated, you know incase there happens to be 5g of foam coming out of that sonofabich!
I got a laugh out of myself
C
Anyway, I have been experiencing low yield's with the first two kits so i measured exactly what 5 gallons of water looked like in my 5 gallon carboy and used that as the standard, it seems that in the past I had not been adding enough water to compensate for what evaporated during boiling and was only using 4 gallons of wort. Anyway with this batch I solved that problem and added the appropriate amount of water to make about 4.7g of wort.
Brewing was easy, chilling went as expected, threw it all in a 5g carboy and added yeast. Great right!!!
I should mention that in the past I have brewed and only seen about 1"-1.5" of krausen on the top of the wort at its peak fermenation, which usually takes at least over night, and with my current set up there was 3"-4" of head room, no problem right?
WRONG, boy I could not have been more wrong. Within 1 hour of adding the yeast this thing is bubbling like a S.O.B. and has filled all of the head room, the air lock and has made a mess of the room that I store it in during fermentation. I about crapped my pants when I saw this and Leaped into action, I removed the airlock, and BOOM, all of the backed up pressure was released blowing krausen all over the ceiling and room and my head, but never fear I was equipped with the knowledge of Homebrewtalk.com and I grab my 5' of 1/2" tubing and a 32oz nalgene bottle filled with 10oz of water and get a blow off tube set up, now I'm good right?
Wrong!!! The amount of foam coming through the tube has acutally filled all of the nalgene and is ready to start flowing on to the floor, not good, SWMBO will not like beer on the floor over night. So I get my trusty home depot 5g bucket and place the nalgene bottle in it and just allow the foam to do its thing.
This was all done yesterday 5-1-2010, when I wake up this morning there is 1/2" of wort and foam covering the bottom of the bucket.
Just wanted to share with you all my story, problem has been solved, at least for now, and I will keep you updated, you know incase there happens to be 5g of foam coming out of that sonofabich!
I got a laugh out of myself
C
