How to set up a blow-off tube?

[dsaavedra]

Okay guys... I have this kit http://www.midwestsupplies.com/midw...261&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=avantlink and it includes 4 feet of what I think is 5/8" tubing for a blow-off tube. If you watch the video at the bottom of the page the guy picks up the tubing and says it goes right into the carboy stopper for a blow-off tube. The carboy stopper is just a regular ole drilled stopper that fits in a 6g carboy.

The thing is, I can't figure out how this is supposed to attach to the stopper to set up a blow-off tube? If I slip it over the raised portion in the middle of the stopper (that the hole is drilled into) it is a pretty loose fit (it won't even stay on if either piece is wet with sanitizer), and the hose is far too big to insert into the drilled hole. However, the 5/16" tubing that is supplied for the autosiphon fits quite snuggly in the hole, though I think it is a bit too narrow to be a proper blow-off tube.

So am I just missing something here or what? How can I make this blow-off tube work with the larger size tubing and the stopper?

 

[Ron_Blackhurst]

If you have a 3 piece airlock it should fit on the center part that goes in your carboy

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Ron_Blackhurst]

So just take the airlock apart and slide it over the center tube that comes up into the bowl on the airlock

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[dsaavedra]

I do have a 3-piece airlock but this hose doesn't fit on any part of the airlock, the hose is too large.

My carboy stopper looks just like this one

The hose does fit over that raised portion in the middle although I don't think it is a very good fit. It seems snug when dry but when I try and put it on there when either piece is wet with sanitizer it slips right off, no resistance at all.

 

[Ron_Blackhurst]

well next best thing is to buy a piece of hose that fits the middle of the airlock.

 

[dsaavedra]

Like I said, my 5/16" hose fits excellently inside the hole of the carboy stopper; this is actually what I used during the first few days of my last fermentation (very first brew!), though the krausen never reached the top of the carboy so I could have gotten away with just the airlock. After the fermentation started to slow down I popped my airlock in and let it sit for 3 weeks.

It just seems like the 5/16" hose was too narrow to be a sufficient blow-off tube should I have actually needed one. I want to use a blow-off tube on all future brews because it just seems safer to use one and not need it than to not use one and end up needing one.

Is the 5/16" too narrow for a sufficient blow-off tube?

 

[troy2000]

Okay guys... I have this kit http://www.midwestsupplies.com/midw...261&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=avantlink and it includes 4 feet of what I think is 5/8" tubing for a blow-off tube. If you watch the video at the bottom of the page the guy picks up the tubing and says it goes right into the carboy stopper for a blow-off tube. The carboy stopper is just a regular ole drilled stopper that fits in a 6g carboy.

The thing is, I can't figure out how this is supposed to attach to the stopper to set up a blow-off tube? If I slip it over the raised portion in the middle of the stopper (that the hole is drilled into) it is a pretty loose fit (it won't even stay on if either piece is wet with sanitizer), and the hose is far too big to insert into the drilled hole. However, the 5/16" tubing that is supplied for the autosiphon fits quite snuggly in the hole, though I think it is a bit too narrow to be a proper blow-off tube.

So am I just missing something here or what? How can I make this blow-off tube work with the larger size tubing and the stopper?

My two bits: if the 5/16" tubing is a snug fit, use it. It isn't likely you're going to get such a geyser that the smaller tubing can't handle it....

 

[Hankins2010]

I take a length of 1 1/8 " clear hose and shove it into the mouth of my carboy.

 

[TheHogue]

However, the 5/16" tubing that is supplied for the autosiphon fits quite snuggly in the hole, though I think it is a bit too narrow to be a proper blow-off tube.

This should work. Your blow of tube doesn't need to be very big. It's just to catch the (possibility of) excess krausen/CO2 that would plug up or over flow an airlock causing a sticky mess. After the bubbling slows swap it out for your airlock, or don't it doesn't really matter, the blow of tube into some fluid (water, sanitizer, whatever) is still an airlock.

I use my old non-autosiphon racking cane as my blow-off tube.

 

[SDUqualitywines]

I have been using the foam control from northern brewer with great success. Didn't even need a blow off tube for a big russian stout I made a few months back. But yeah blow off tubes are great insurance.

 

[troy2000]

I ran out of time while boiling my last batch of Belgian Saison-style ale, because I had a couple of glitches along the way and was about to be late to work. I was also greedy, and didn't want to waste anything I had mashed, lautered and boiled.

So I poured 5 1/2 gallons of wort into one of my old 5-gal water cooler carboys, and added a rehydrated pack of Danstar's Belle Saison dry yeast. I had left my StarSan back where I brewed, so I just ran a blow-off tube into an empty whiskey bottle.

When I got home from work 24 hours later, the whiskey bottle was half full. I emptied it, expecting it to keep filling, but it didn't; it has remained dry ever since. And when I went to replace the blow-off tube with an airlock, I realized I had left them behind too....

I've religiously kept the door to my fermenter closed ever since; I figured there's no sense in adding even more potential sources of contamination. But tomorrow morning I'm planning to open it and get a gravity read
. In descending order, I figure these are the possibilities:

1. The beer will be perfectly normal.

2. It will be infected, but with whatever delightfully infected one bottle out of my last batch - which was a very tasty bottle of sour beer.

3. It will be garbage, and have to be dumped. Cal me a Pollyanna, but I doubt that's going to happen....

But when I'm done checking the gravity I'll stuff the end of the blow-off tube into some StarSan, before I start cold-crashing the batch. I think it's long enough to keep the StarSan from sucking all the way back into the carboy...

 

[bigken462]

If you're using a 3 piece airlock, just slide some 1/2" tubing over the center hole.

 

[fuelish]

I take a length of 1 1/8 " clear hose and shove it into the mouth of my carboy.

This ... plenty of room for anything to blowoff without clogging