Blow Off Hose? How to use?

Ok this is my newbie question. I’ve brewed two batches successfully but I’ve seen a lot of folks mention using a blow off hose. My question would be what is this? I got the deluxe kit and it came with a large diameter plastic hose that I didn’t know what to do with. Is this the blow off hose? If so how do I use it? I don’t see how I could hook that up to my carboy and use the airlock at the same time.

The blowoff hose replaces the airlock. Stick one end of the hose into the top of your carboy after pitching your yeast and the other end submerged in a bucket of water beside your carboy like this. I use this setup for every brew for the primary. You can take it off after fermentation slows down a bit and replace with the airlock or you can leave it until you are ready to transfer out of the primary carboy.

:cheers:
Rad

I looked at the deluxe kit and the picture, the equipment list in teh deluxe kit state the following;

6 Gallon Primary Fermentor, Fermometer, Bung, Airlock, Blowoff Assembly5 Gallon Secondary Fermentor, Fermometer, Bung, Airlock
6.5 Gallon Bottling Bucket, Bottling Spigot, Bottle Filler, Bottling Tubing
Auto-Siphon, Siphon Tubing
Beer Bottle Brush
Bottle Capper, 60 Caps
Instructional Getting Started in Homebrewing DVD
PBW Cleaner
Star-San Sanitizer
Carboy Brush (Glass Only)

It does not appear that you get a primary fermenting bucket, but instead a carboy. so you would want to use a blowoff tube

how to use it is easy. stick the hose in the bung (first), bung goes in the carboy. pressure of carboy “locks” in the tube. stick the other end into a 1/2 gal jug of water or something else that would seal the air flow. I usually use 1/2 gal milk jug filled with water.

Awesome guys, thanks for the quick responses! I think I’ll try this on my upcoming brew.

honestly if you are using a carboy I kind of think you have to. otherwise the foam will creep up like in Rad’s photo, will block the very small hole in the airlock, and pretty soon you have a bottle rocket flying through the basement and beer all over the place

and BTW a firehouse pickle bucket is about 1,000 X’s more cool than the borning milk jug I use. color me jealous ha ha

It has worked out very nicely for me plus buying from them helps support local fire departments which is pretty sweet but man alive did it take some work to remove the pickle smell emanating from the barrel. :wink:

:cheers:
Rad

I thought the same thing!

I put a piece of tubing over the inner post of a two piece airlock and that slips nicely into the bung of my bucket.The other end goes into a bourbon bottle. Of course I drank the bourbon and replaced It with star San. I noticed you guys use a pretty big tube, is that because of the carboy?

Best solution once you get more into brewing is to get a bigger fermentor vessel. It obviates the need for any blowoff hose.
(Haven’t used a blowoff hose at all since at least the late 1980s)

The home brew store keeps suggesting I move up to a wine fermentation bucket. They are, I believe 8gals so no need for blowoff tube with five gallon batch.

[quote=“The Professor”]Best solution once you get more into brewing is to get a bigger fermentor vessel. It obviates the need for any blowoff hose.
(Haven’t used a blowoff hose at all since at least the late 1980s)[/quote]

Yes I usually use a fermentation bucket versus the carboy. I bought a better bottle once only because I wanted to “watch the majic” and it is pretty cool. but I find myself using it less and less for the very reason you mention above.