First blow out

[Thedude907]

Gah made a batch on Thursday and left friday. When I checked friday it was active. Somewhere between I'd say Saturday and Sunday she overflowed. I'm really not into dumping it. I'm thinking just let her go and see how it turns out. I sanitized everything. And put a lean airlock.

Anyone have blowovers and still made a decent batch from it?

 

[jschein]

Yes we have all had the issue. Make a blow off hose and the problem is solved.
Your beer should be fine.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

I just had my first volcano 2 days ago. Scared the hell out of me but I got some good advice from a member. (I did not have a blowoff tube at the time and all the stores were closed so there was nothing I could do about it at the time) I was instructed to sanitize, pull the airlock and lay a sheet of sanitized foil over the hole and weight it on both sides (I put a sanitized beer bottle directly over the hole and it worked very well) until I could get a piece of tubing (5/8" OD 1/2" ID) to attach to my airlock (I use a 3 piece airlock, I'm not sure if those dimensions are correct for an 'S' tube airlock) Once my blowoff tube was attached and submerged in water it has just been bubbling away for the past 24 hours.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/beginners-guide-blow-off-tubes.html

^^that is a very handy link if, like me, you saw the overflow and panicked

One mistake I made that could have been hazardous if I didn't get lucky and solve it is, the end of the tube that is to be under water opposite the fermenter, only submerge it an inch or so. I had close to a foot of my tubing under water and it couldn't function as it was intended. It built up HUGE amounts of pressure and almost literally blew the lid off my fermenter bucket lol. Sorry for such a lengthy reply, hope it helps though!

 

[Thedude907]

Hahaha. I totally panicked when I saw it. I wanted some assurance that everything will be fine. We are sitting in a blow off tube now. And she is still bubbling away. It just sucks that this happened while in was gone. I also feel a sense of accomplishment now having this under my belt lol. Let's hope she turns out

 

[jmartie13]

I brewed a brown ale in April, it was getting late and I had a few beers in me, so I stuck an airlock on it with plans to put a blow-off tube on in the morning....didn't make it, sounded like a gunshot went off about 4am. Brown ale all over our newly painted white ceiling, walls, and beams. haha. I'm drinking one right now, it's delicious. It's definitely not ideal, but I've had it happen several times over the years and haven't dumped one yet.

 

[Sbe2]

Welcome to the club. I run a blow off for the first 48 usually

 

[kh54s10]

It should be OK.

Blow off tube at the beginning of EVERY fermentation!

 

[Thedude907]

Lesson learned. Blow off for every new batch. Must have gotten lucky for my first two.

 

[MaryB]

Been there done that cleaned up the mess and life goes on RDWHAHB!

 

[TGFV]

Had a few close calls with most of my early batches and usually do a blow off for the first 1-2 days of every beer ferment now. Especially with certain yeasts.

Even then though it pays to take care in watching the bucket. My current batch I put an airlock in for the first few hours while I searched for one of my tubes, re-cleaned it (am mildly paranoid of the tubes ever since my BIL who was helping out used a dirty one) sanitized it and installed it. In just an hour and a bit the airlock was foamed over and ready to blow so I ended up just having the lid open as the wort bubbled. And when then for the next 2 hours even with the blow off tube I ended up having to take the lid off periodically until I gave up and open fermented for 6 hours.

 

[IslandLizard]

The blow off is not the real problem, high fermentation temps that caused it are.

Try to control your ferm temps, closer to the lower side of a yeast's range. It makes for much better beer.

 

[kh54s10]

The blow off is not the real problem, high fermentation temps that caused it are.

Try to control your ferm temps, closer to the lower side of a yeast's range. It makes for much better beer.

Not always... I have controlled the temperature of every batch that I have made for the last 5 years. I use 6 gallon better bottles so there is 1/2 gallon less headspace than a carboy or standard bucket.

Some will blow off and others won't. Even when using the same yeast. Most blow enough that the extra 1/2 gallon would not prevent it.

There is a trade off. You can go for a bigger headspace, but then you have more oxygen exposure.

 

[ncbrewer]

I've had the stopper blow out even with a blow-off tube. The tube was the size of the airlock hole, and I transferred much of the hops to the fermenter. The hops plugged up the tube. So I started using a large tube that fit snugly into the top of the carboy. But I just never felt confident about getting the tube perfectly clean. For a while, I used a 6.5 gallon bucket, but with the lid set on loose for the first two days. That worked fine, but I didn't feel good about the loose lid. So I started using a 7.9 gallon bucket for 5 gallon batches. That works well.