Ummm, Maybe Going To Be A Big Ferment - Blow Off Tube?

[MVZOOM]

Well I did what I said I'd do.... put 27L into a fermenter. Basically I have 28L of SG 1050 wort, have built a starter of S23 and pitched at 20degC.

Made a boo boo with the reading yesterday out of the boil, thought I only had 1030 wort, so added 1kg of DME, which has pushed it to 1050 - but according to various calcs I must have actually had 1040 or thereabouts.

Anyway, no use crying over spilt DME....

So I'm expecting a fairly big krausen, should I put a blow off tube in? If so, what's the easiest way to make one quickly? It's on a towel just in case, but I don't want greebies going back down the airlock.

Cheers- Mike

 

[goatherder]

If you think it might be big then put one in. Cleaning up a fridge full of yeast isn't all that fun. It certainly won't hurt if it doesn't eventuate. I normally use the 2 piece airlocks. Remove the top bit and place a bit of hose over the middle post of the airlock. Run it into an open bottle of sanitising solution and there's your blowoff tube.

 

[Doc]

I haven't used S-23 in many years, but typically lagers I've done don't throw as big a krauzen as ales. You might be lucky and get away with it.
No hurt in putting a blowoff tube on though.

Doc

 

[MVZOOM]

Woops - edit, it's S04 I'm using - ale yeast. Will rig one up now - an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, I guess...

 

[Doc]

Ah, S-04. You're stuffed. Make sure it is at least a five litre blow off vessel

Doc

 

[Tony]

HEre are some pics of a 1.070 stout that i pitched in the middle of summer in 40 deg heat with some very VERY active 1084 irish ale yeast.

I have posted thhem before but there are a lot of new folk on here now that might learn form the experience.

I pitched (stupidly) at 29 deg as this was as cool as the chiller would get it. I was paranoid back then ( as most new brewers are) of infection from not pitching the yeast strait away.

DOnt belive it. seal it up, chill it to 20 deg in the fridge and them pitch. its less painfull.

anyway to start the story i brewed it with NZ fuggle hop flowers and some made it into the firmenter. BIIIIIIIIIIIG mistake.

one.... yep just one little hop flower blocked the air lock. this is what i found when i opend the fridge to check the firment the next morning. It was hissing like a snake. sssssssssssssssssssssss. no shit.



this is how swollen the firmenter was. im suprised it didnt split



I ....... stupidly removed the temp probe form the firmenter.

It spurted the roof (was still there when we sold the place a few years on hehe) and only took about 10 seconds to form this foam mushroom. It was going mad.



I took the lid off and in the time it took to put the lid down and pick up the camera the brew grew this much. note the ******* hop flowers :angry:



So i racked it through a filter bag (way before hop socks) i rigged up a blow off tube. I put an iodophur solution in a 2 liter coke bottle and after 2 hours it was full of stout and starting to make a mess of its own. I was really stressed by this point...... the brew was wrapped in a wet towl in a fridge and the brew temp waqs at 20 odd degrees...... and its still flowing out the top.

I emptied out the bottle and set up a second one with a 500ml iodophur solution as before. it started to slow thank god.... not so much temp but attenuation i think and its just the 1st day.

here is the 2nd blow off bottle



and i left it to sit. that night the yeast was firmenting what malt it pumped into the iodophur solution. tough yeast! :super:



all in all i lost 2 or 3 liters out the lid in foam.

beer turned out great would you believe. 7% IRS...... just a few bottles short.

cheers

 

[Tony]

my current brew is putting away at 19 deg with S-04 and i noticed thismorning 24 hrs in to the firment its hitting the lid.

i hope it doesnt grow any more. it had 200 or 300mm of headspace too.

cheers

 

[Fish]

I dug up this thread as I have just spent an hour cleaning my fermentation fridge and fitting a blow-off tube. I'm fermenting a 1.065 Foreign Extra Stout with a 2litre starter pitched at high krausen. Basically it has gone nuts. Exactly as per Tony's photos above. When I took the airlock out to give my egg-shaped fermenter some relief the pressure release was phenomenal.

I just have a couple of queries?

1. Can blow-off tubes ever end up sucking the water it is in back into the beer, i.e. as fermentation slows? I'm assuming not.

2. Do people get concerned re. the beer/foam, etc. that has climbed out of the air-lock and is stuck to the lid? I've cleaned it up fairly well but am confident it will still be a nice place for bugs to grow. I'm stuck between fiddling with my beer by taking the lid off to clean it OR just leaving it, as the fermenter is obviously well sealed.

Cheers
Fish

 

[reVoxAHB]

I just have a couple of queries?

1. Can blow-off tubes ever end up sucking the water it is in back into the beer, i.e. as fermentation slows? I'm assuming not.

I don't think so. Even if you were to cold condition the beer post fermentation with blowoff tube attached, I still don't think there would be enough change in pressure to suck water back into the beer, let alone at ambient (20C) ferm temp as you are implying. Also, I've never had it happen once in 10+ years of using blowoff, fwiw.

2. Do people get concerned re. the beer/foam, etc. that has climbed out of the air-lock and is stuck to the lid? I've cleaned it up fairly well but am confident it will still be a nice place for bugs to grow. I'm stuck between fiddling with my beer by taking the lid off to clean it OR just leaving it, as the fermenter is obviously well sealed.

Cheers
Fish

I would leave the lid in place, as the fermenter is well sealed. You would be introducing the possibility for bugs to grow by removing the lid, temporarily covering the ferm with glad wrap (presumably), cleaning/sanitation time on lid, etc. If you are really concerned, sterilise a second lid and swap over quickly (but I wouldn't worry about it).

Hope helps,

reVox

 

[darrell.wallace]

By the sounds of it you have a very active ferment. this means that there will be more than enough rising gasses from inside the fermentor to keep any bugs out when you take the lid off. while you have got this ferment it would be safe to leave the lid off as long as it is not in a place where things would fall into the top

If you are worried about having the gunk on the lid then i feel it would be safe to take the lid off to wash it.