My Firmenter Almost Exploded

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Tony

Quality over Quantity
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I did an AG stout yesterday

1.072 and 25 liters of it.

Brewing with WLP 004

put it in a temp controlled fridge and hopped it would be bubbling in the morning

well this is what i found, a football sheped firmenter that was hissing like a snake
 
im not holding the firmenter in this one, its preasure blowing the base out and making it sit back !
 
I figured the airlock was blocked so i pulled the temp probe out of the gland and did i get a suprise

after the black froth stopped spraying me, the roof and anything else within 15 feet it did this.
 
I found a few hop flowers had made it to the firmenter and had blocked the airlock.

I quickly washed the lid off and found this, it only took about 30 seconds to grow out like this.

brew temp was 20.8 deg c
 
filtered it into another firmenter, fitted the lid and a blow off tube into a 2 liter coke bottle

I have changed 3 of these today and have lost about 1.5 liters of brew to the coke bottles thrugh foaming.

Its still foaming through the tube and it is now brewing at 17.6 deg c.

i might have a couple of stubbys left when its done.
 
I think you need to use larger fermenters. That's one hell of a ferment though.
 
Thats a 30 liter firmenter

will use the 60 liter ones for anything over 1.060 in future
 
Tony, i have a couple of 30L fermenters, and find them a bit small for batches over 20L with a good ferment. I have one that is about 35L that i tend to use for 23-25l batches that have a high gravity.
 
Wow thats awesome.


It is alive!!!!

cheers

johnno
 
That's scarey :blink: :unsure: :huh:

Batz
 
There is one thing you can be sure of when something like this happens. Everybody will think it tastes great & can't wait for you to brew it again-EXACTLY THE SAME.
Has the missus given her opinion of the gorgeous aromas yet?
Cheers
Gerard
 
It's always the stouts and wheats that do it to. You can count on it. :blink:

Warren -
 
top shelf ferment!
one of the best I have seen.... really just bad luck on the hop flowers, but that thing looks like it just won't die.




dreamboat
 
That thing was going off... Never had that happen on that scale before.. Whats the other thing on the lid. Is that just the holder for the temp probe?
 
I was going to shoot it with the shotgun but i think that would have just upset it :unsure:

I chilled it to 16.5 deg and that put an end to its destructive rampage.

Is now bubbling away nicely at 18 deg.

lost 2 liters out the top :angry:

oh well.

Bionic. that is the temperature probe. The big round thing is just a water tight cover that screws onto the probe to protect the terminals.

I use a 16mm cable gland (and that is the hole size you have to drill to mount it, not the probe size) to hold it in the brew and also seal it air tight.

Probe is ss and hooks up to an omron temp controller.
I use this temp controller to turn the fridge on and off as the temp rises or falls and set the fridge thermo at 10 deg.

This seems to keep ales to with 0.1 deg of setpoint during 40 deg days in summer.

cheers
 
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