Question about blowoff tubing

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neohistory

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So I just made my 2nd batch ever, it was a similar recipe as before but made a little more "correctly." I happened to fill it a little too full into a 1 gallon, so the krauson didn't have enough space to expand as the first one. I decided to do the blow off airlock for obvious reasons but then I got to thinking:

Is there a minimum size for the tubing? I think I grabbed the 1/4ths inch diameter tubing but then I got to thinking about dried stuck particles blocking the C02 leading to a 1 gallon glass jug bomb. What size do you guys typically use? Plus I just shoved the tubing (it fit snugly enough) down into the stopper with the hole for an airlock, and it doesn't seem to be leaking) but if I went bigger I might not be able to do that. So should I just have 2 tubes and swap them out to keep it clean???
 
No worries, probably not a "bomb" with glass shards, however it could get rather messy.

I use half inch tubing for mine, dedicated to the job, so when it stains and smells funky, that's okay, because "blow off" is it's only job.

Your system may be designed however works for you.
I use glass carboys, and so I use a modified stopper for my my blow offs, then switch stoppers to accommodate the airlock later.
 
Find a tube that will fit snugly into the opening on your fermentor and just do that minus the stopper. For a 5 gallon carboy, if I remember, I use a stopper and a 1/2" tube...could be a little bigger.
 
I use a length of 3/8"id tubing with the cut off end of my old "S" type airlock stuck in one end. The other end in an old 1/2G vodka jug 1/3 full of water to which I add a splash of star-san. I just stick it in the airlock grommet,then into the jug & walk away. Works great!
But if you want to put the airlock in,you take off the cap,remove the center piece,& put a length of 1/2"id tubing on the center tube,then into the blow off jug.
 
I use a 1/2" ID vinyl tubing over the big port of the orange carboy caps. I use better bottles and for some reason I don't think the 1" tubing works like it does with the glass carboys.
 
does anyone use baloons instead of an air lock? I remember my grandma making wine as a kid and she used to put a baloon over the carboy.
 
huge1s said:
does anyone use baloons instead of an air lock? I remember my grandma making wine as a kid and she used to put a baloon over the carboy.

I was forced to do this once after a broken airlock. Just finished brewing, was heading out on a trip next day and lhbs was closed. Took a balloon and stretched over carboy opening. Next morning it was inflated. Didn't have a problem with the brew afterward. (I did however switch to an airlock when I got a new one about 5 days later )
 
Basically anything tubing will work. But smaller tubing stands better chance of getting plugged, and blowing out just like an airlock, than larger tubing.
No don't ask why we thought a gun went off in the house one night.:eek:
 
I don't know,my 3/8" blow off tubing hasn't done that yet. & I just used it on my Burton ale that had 28g of re-hydrated ale yeast in it. Blow off bubbles lasting some 20 seconds or more. With really big bubbles,like a dinosaur fart in a bathtub big.:drunk::D
 
like a dinosaur fart in a bathtub big.:drunk::D

LOL that's how my kids describe the fermenting Caribou Slobber bubbling away in the dining room.

DS(9) had his friend over, and his friend said "What the heck was THAT noise?" and DS said "oh just mom's beer farting in the dining room."
 
one the size of a pick up truck gets some big nastie ones after eating bbq. He just lets it all hang out. Strange that it has a sweet smell?...
 
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