I’m new to home brewing and just made my first batch yesterday afternoon. I was woken up to the sound of my air lock shooting off of my fermentor and bouncing around in the closet. I quickly sanitized the blow off hose and placed it in the fermentor. Now my air lock has a bunch of gunk inside.
A. How do i clean the air lock?
B. Should I leave the blow off hose for the whole duration of the fermenting period?
any suggestions and any advice from you more advanced home brewers would be highly appreciated
My faucet for the brewing sink is a 8" of 5/8" diameter milk line with a garden hose barb fitting for attachment to the hot/cold mixer line. The stem of my airlock fits inside the milk line. I use hot water under pressure to clean the inside of the airlock. So far only had to do it once.
Are you fermenting a 5 gallon batch in a 5 gallon fermentor or just some very active yeast? High fermentation temperature causing aggressive yeast activity?
I am fermenting a 5 gallon batch but using a 6 gallon fermentor. I brewing a bavarian hefewezien beer. After making the wort and placing the pot in a ice bath. I noticed the with the thermometer that the bottom of the pot was below 100 F but the top was reading between 120-130F. I placed the wort in the fermentor and pitched the yeast when the fermentor was cool to touch.
I think that may have been the problem with the over active fermentation.
I love hefes and brew one every 4 to 6 weeks. They always have a very active fermentation. I use a blow off hose for 3 to 4 days, then switch to an air lock on all my batches.
