Very foamy, can't rig blowoff until tomorrow, suggestions?

[Zaarin]

Hi all. First post here. I am making my third beer. It is an IPA kit that I got from my local HBS. Well, I made the wort, put it in the primary, pitched the yeast, and came home from work today, and damn. Lots of foam and krausen coming through the airlock, enough to where I think I need a blowoff tube. I went to home depot and got some 5/8 inch outer diameter hose, but I have a crappy s-type airlock, so I need to wait until tomorrow (since my HBS closes early) to get a three piece airlock which I will be able to attach the hose too.

Do you guys have any suggestions until I can rig my blow off tube tomorrow? I tried doing it with my s airlock, but it's not airtight. I'm OCD and fear contamination and/or explosion!

 

[jiggs_casey]

Cut the bottom of the S-type off and attach the hose to it. I wouldn't worry about it being airtight. As long as you have enough pressure to force krausen out, you'll be okay.

 

[trevor_b]

Aren't you suppose to use either or? Not both? i.e. Take the air-lock off and replace with blow off?

 

[ryandlf]

He means, cut the bottom of the airlock off so you can fit the hose over it and stuff it into the stopper.

 

[SD-SLIM]

Hello, I would boil some water...place your house in the water, to soften it up and to sterilize it...then while the hose is soft, shove it in your stopper...nothing will make that hose pop out!

 

[trevor_b]

He means, cut the bottom of the airlock off so you can fit the hose over it and stuff it into the stopper.

I was referring to the original post where he said he "could attach the 3-piece airlock to the tubing".

 

[Petho]

This happened to me once, I sanitized a piece of foil and fixed it over the top of the carboy overnight. The beer tasted great.

 

[Zaarin]

Cut the bottom of the S-type off and attach the hose to it. I wouldn't worry about it being airtight. As long as you have enough pressure to force krausen out, you'll be okay.

That is a good idea, but I just yanked the airlock to see if it would hopefully be somewhat snug with the hose on the bottom, and it's not even close. Right now I have the hose connected to the top of the s-type airlock, it's pretty close, but like I said, not air tight.

I'm hoping I should be ok 'til tomorrow afternoon once I can replace the airlock with a three piece which I can hook up to the hose. It's brewing like mad so I am thinking the CO2 should keep it safe.

 

[KevinW]

This happened to me once, I sanitized a piece of foil and fixed it over the top of the carboy overnight. The beer tasted great.

We have a winner:rockin:

At least this is what I would do!

There are brewers who do not use airlocks or even blowoff tubes, just something to keep the bugs from coming in and the CO2 from building up pressure!

 

[troub]

Yep, I did the sanitized foil thing on my bucket fermenter -- taped a piece of foil down so that it covered the hole in the bucket lid (I only used tape so that it wouldn't float away on a passing breeze, on a carboy you can wrap it down around the neck of the opening a bit and it won't go anywhere). I did this because my airlock got plugged, so I put a blowoff tube through the hole, but it got plugged and almost blew the lid off. Once it settled down I put the airlock back in (a day or two).

 

[unionrdr]

I think what the OP is talking about is an idea I had as well. Take the lil white vented cap off the airlock,remove the inner valve cup. Get plastic tubing big enough to tightly fit over the riser tube inside the airlock cup. Then run the other end into a bucket filled just enough to keep the tube end submerged. I like the idea myself. No dropped grommets that way.