When you work really hard to make wort you want to ferment it right. You prep yeast and give it lots of love and care before you pitch it. You shake, aerate or oxygenate your wort and add that yeast knowing you’ve done all you can to give those microbes a nice nutrient bath. Then those yeasties reward you with what… a big blown off mess of an airlock or worse.
We’re talking about high krausen and yeast blow off in your fermentors. Nothing worse than thinking all is well with your latest brew then to come home and see that thing foaming over and the airlock is across the room. Actually, what IS worse is having your wife or girlfriend call you at work and tell you your beer is messing up her nice bathroom.
How do you deal with these situations? What causes this mess in the first place? And how to prevent it in the future?
We discuss the use of Big Bore Blow Off Tubes! Sticking a one inch tube into the neck of your carboy and putting the end of it in a bucket of water or sanitizer. Making the monster truck version of airlocks. But how do you clean that damn tube later for reuse?
John says it can be done. I say I am not interested. Watch the video and leave a comment.
Its all about Blow off Tubes!
BREW ON!
Jerad
Hey Dudes,
Nice blog. If you guys haven’t come up with a solution yet, here is what works for me: For the first 5-7 days of fermentation I stick a piece of tubing same size as my autosiphon tubing, into the better bottle stopper instead of my airlock. The other end goes into a growler with starsan. It’s not big bore, but I’ve never had a blow out. I bought a 100′ of 3/8 vinyl tubing roll from morebeer for $29.95, use about 1.5 feet each time, and throw it out after each brew….roughly 50 cents to prevent a blowout, and no hassle with cleaning the tube either. It works great!
John
Awesome suggestion – I may try it.