First off, I want to personally thank you for visiting HomeBrewTalk.com and sticking around! Second, before reading this, please have an Ice Cold Homebrew or equivalent Craft Brew. No Coors allowed!
Now that the Intro is out of the way I found it necessary to submit this article for those looking for answers. A no BS approach so you dont have to siphon through countless threads of the "OH NO! MY KRAUSEN IS PIPING THROUGH MY AIRLOCK!"
Whether you are an experienced Home brewer or Beginner we ALWAYS have questions and worries. Simple or complex somebody has multiple ways of answering and rectifying any situation.
Lets Begin shall we?
So you finished brew day with a wonderful homebrewed wort in the carboy, bucket, etc. fitted with a airlock. You pitch your chosen yeast strain into your fermenter after proper aeration and let her sit. Now we can get into proper fermentation temperatures and the effects of such but that will be for another article! So now the waiting begins and you let the yeast do what comes natural to them, eat sugar and poop out booze!
Now if you are like me, you can't help but stare at your creation multiple times a day. You notice all the changes occurring to your now early fermented wort. It may have a nice little layer up top of some ugly looking foam, this foam is called "Krausen." If you have the day off you can actually watch it grow in the beginning stages of fermentation which happen to be the most vigorous! One BIG problem can occur during this stage of fermentation with a vessel not fitted with a blow off tube OR has enough head space where such a high krausen is formed it blows through your airlock! YOWZAH! The Key is to not allow this to happen.
Back to our day of viewing the krausen rise, if you have ANY feeling of it not blowing through your airlock then by all means sit back and relax. If you are like me, I HATE waking up to a gnarly mess and possibly infected beer due to my lack of putting on a blow off tube. Now the obvious thing to do here is simply affix a tube Right after pitching the yeast set it and forget it. But in a pinch where the krausen is just to high for your liking below I will show you how to handle it!
1. No Rinse sanitizer - Recommended
2. 3 Piece Airlock
3.5/8" OD / 1/2" ID silicone tubing - Lowes or Home Depot for ~$.48/foot
4. Bucket, Bottle, something to hold your sanitation solution
5. Water Filter and Or Bottled Water
6. Large Office Clip - Optional
7. Spray Bottle with Star San solution or No rinse substitute
Lets go!!!!
Now I brewed a Golden Ale. OG at 1.048, a little beer in my eyes, I did not think of using a blow off tube. Carboys are placed in my ferm Chamber Ambient Temp @ 15.5C and wort temp 16.2C. Take A look at the krausen 12 hours after pitching
Quite High for my liking. Now I never thought I would need a blowoff on this little Ale, nor do I like to question it so I ran out to Lowes and got the tubing 5/8" OD - 1/2" ID! Upon returning Home I noticed it had climbed again, very close to the top of my carboy. Not good! Now next are the few steps you need to do once you have everything on hand!
Step 1 - Connect your water Filter to the appropriate faucet or hose and fill up your bucket or bottle and add your no rinse sanitizer accordingly
Step 2 - Measure by eye or by measuring tape your blow off tube length. This is not a science at all, just don't cut it to short! You can't add material!
Step 3 - Place your Bucket/Bottle of sanitizing solution near your carboy at the correct length for your blowoff tube.
Step 4 - Clean your tubing!!! Clean it well. You dont know what it came in contact with while on the shelves at the hardware store. Once clean sanitize it! I do so by spraying my hands down first, then spraying the outside and inside really good.I place my thumb over the hose ends and swish the hose back and forth for a minute or two.
Step 5 - Spray the entire top area of the carboy including the 3 piece valve, bung etc. You can never be to careful, especially with young wort! If you already have a disaster scenario with krausen everywhere DON'T WORRY! Simply start cleaning up just the airlock first! we must secure the tubing as soon as possible.
Step 6 - Spray the end of your blowoff tube inside and out once again.
Step 7 - Remove the top plastic cap and clear slider from airlock and quickly place your blow off tube end over the male end of the airlock. Im not going to lie, this will not be easy for some. You need to wiggle the crap out of the tube to get it to slide OVER the male end of the airlock.
Like this:
Step 8 - Place the other end of the now affixed airlock blow off tube into your bucket or bottle with star san solution. Now you can do this vice-versa which I would recommend but if using a smaller bucket it could be hard to keep the end of the hosing in while finagling with the tube to get to slide over the male end of the airlock.
Optional Step 9 - Using an office clip and affix the hose submerged below the surface of the star san solution in your bucket or bottle.
YOU ARE DONE! If you have an excessive blow off scenario you should use clean buckets with a sanitizer solution in a sort of rotation. Using a spare! Below is an image of the little Golden ale almost Blowing off
Yes this is lengthy, But needed for those with questions! I may have answered many with this or just one, but as long as it helps other homebrewers I am happy!
Thank you
-Don
Now that the Intro is out of the way I found it necessary to submit this article for those looking for answers. A no BS approach so you dont have to siphon through countless threads of the "OH NO! MY KRAUSEN IS PIPING THROUGH MY AIRLOCK!"
Whether you are an experienced Home brewer or Beginner we ALWAYS have questions and worries. Simple or complex somebody has multiple ways of answering and rectifying any situation.
Lets Begin shall we?
So you finished brew day with a wonderful homebrewed wort in the carboy, bucket, etc. fitted with a airlock. You pitch your chosen yeast strain into your fermenter after proper aeration and let her sit. Now we can get into proper fermentation temperatures and the effects of such but that will be for another article! So now the waiting begins and you let the yeast do what comes natural to them, eat sugar and poop out booze!
Now if you are like me, you can't help but stare at your creation multiple times a day. You notice all the changes occurring to your now early fermented wort. It may have a nice little layer up top of some ugly looking foam, this foam is called "Krausen." If you have the day off you can actually watch it grow in the beginning stages of fermentation which happen to be the most vigorous! One BIG problem can occur during this stage of fermentation with a vessel not fitted with a blow off tube OR has enough head space where such a high krausen is formed it blows through your airlock! YOWZAH! The Key is to not allow this to happen.
Back to our day of viewing the krausen rise, if you have ANY feeling of it not blowing through your airlock then by all means sit back and relax. If you are like me, I HATE waking up to a gnarly mess and possibly infected beer due to my lack of putting on a blow off tube. Now the obvious thing to do here is simply affix a tube Right after pitching the yeast set it and forget it. But in a pinch where the krausen is just to high for your liking below I will show you how to handle it!
1. No Rinse sanitizer - Recommended
2. 3 Piece Airlock
3.5/8" OD / 1/2" ID silicone tubing - Lowes or Home Depot for ~$.48/foot
4. Bucket, Bottle, something to hold your sanitation solution
5. Water Filter and Or Bottled Water
6. Large Office Clip - Optional
7. Spray Bottle with Star San solution or No rinse substitute
Lets go!!!!
Now I brewed a Golden Ale. OG at 1.048, a little beer in my eyes, I did not think of using a blow off tube. Carboys are placed in my ferm Chamber Ambient Temp @ 15.5C and wort temp 16.2C. Take A look at the krausen 12 hours after pitching
Quite High for my liking. Now I never thought I would need a blowoff on this little Ale, nor do I like to question it so I ran out to Lowes and got the tubing 5/8" OD - 1/2" ID! Upon returning Home I noticed it had climbed again, very close to the top of my carboy. Not good! Now next are the few steps you need to do once you have everything on hand!
Step 1 - Connect your water Filter to the appropriate faucet or hose and fill up your bucket or bottle and add your no rinse sanitizer accordingly
Step 2 - Measure by eye or by measuring tape your blow off tube length. This is not a science at all, just don't cut it to short! You can't add material!
Step 3 - Place your Bucket/Bottle of sanitizing solution near your carboy at the correct length for your blowoff tube.
Step 4 - Clean your tubing!!! Clean it well. You dont know what it came in contact with while on the shelves at the hardware store. Once clean sanitize it! I do so by spraying my hands down first, then spraying the outside and inside really good.I place my thumb over the hose ends and swish the hose back and forth for a minute or two.
Step 5 - Spray the entire top area of the carboy including the 3 piece valve, bung etc. You can never be to careful, especially with young wort! If you already have a disaster scenario with krausen everywhere DON'T WORRY! Simply start cleaning up just the airlock first! we must secure the tubing as soon as possible.
Step 6 - Spray the end of your blowoff tube inside and out once again.
Step 7 - Remove the top plastic cap and clear slider from airlock and quickly place your blow off tube end over the male end of the airlock. Im not going to lie, this will not be easy for some. You need to wiggle the crap out of the tube to get it to slide OVER the male end of the airlock.
Like this:
Step 8 - Place the other end of the now affixed airlock blow off tube into your bucket or bottle with star san solution. Now you can do this vice-versa which I would recommend but if using a smaller bucket it could be hard to keep the end of the hosing in while finagling with the tube to get to slide over the male end of the airlock.
Optional Step 9 - Using an office clip and affix the hose submerged below the surface of the star san solution in your bucket or bottle.
YOU ARE DONE! If you have an excessive blow off scenario you should use clean buckets with a sanitizer solution in a sort of rotation. Using a spare! Below is an image of the little Golden ale almost Blowing off
Yes this is lengthy, But needed for those with questions! I may have answered many with this or just one, but as long as it helps other homebrewers I am happy!
Thank you
-Don
