Different kind of Blow Off

Northern Brewer General
1

[attachment=0]Dry hop blow.jpg[/attachment]I had a feeling this would happen. I generally Dry Hop in my kegs, but I transferred a recent Dead Ringer and a Black IPA batch into carboys for a week or two of secondary because my kegs are all full. They have been aging for a week in the carboys so I tested the gravity, mostly to taste and to pull some beer out of the carboys to make room for the hops.

Well, both batches exploded with foam, C02 and whatever. Tried to contain the mess, but I have no choice but to let it go until it settles down and put the airlocks back on.

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What about a blow off tube?

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What about a blow off tube?[/quote]

Not sure it is worth it for a 20-30 minute event. The clean up would take longer than the problem. I figure not much can get in if foam is coming out.

The dark one has settled and the airlock is back on. The other is not quite done.

4

Kinda new to home brewing so maybe a dumb question but what caused this? They were already well into fermentation, in a secondary? I had no idea a blow off could happen at this point.

5

Someone will surely have a more scientific answer, but fermented beer has quite a bit of co2 in it that is absorbed in the beer. The hops are dry and compressed and when they hit the liquid they expand creating a lot of foam. Also, something about hops, have you noticed that when you add hops to a boil, it boils up? When I did extract in smaller pots, I had to always watch for a boil over every time I did a hop addition.

6

Ahh, I didn’t realize that it was a result of adding the hops into the secondary. I thought it just started foaming over after sitting for a couple weeks.

Thanks!

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Hi 560sdl,
I have been thinking of trying dry hopping for the first time in a secondary like yours on my next brew. (Looks like a 5 gal BB).
You used pellet hops correct?..And if so how many oz and how did you put them in the secondary…bag them or just dump in?
Asking so I can be prepared if a blow-off were to happen. I agree about the boil-up when hops are added in the boil.
Thanks.

8

I’ve actually never had my beer foam up as a result of dry hopping (have used both pellets and flowers, usually 2 ounces of late), let alone blow off like this. 560sdl, are you sure the beer had finished fermenting when you threw the hops in?

retsp2, if we’re talking a 5 gallon batch, 1 - 2 ounces is probably “standard,” but I’ve read about people adding up to 4 ounces. I don’t typically bag mine, but I do tie a muslin bag to the end of the autosiphon hose when racking to the bottle bucket. Also, I just dry hop in primary after 2 weeks.

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Absolutely, positively sure it was done fermenting.

4 week Primary for the Black IPA - FG = 1.011

3 week Primary for the DR - FG = 1.013 but stable for a week.

Both have been in the secondary for over a week and have been very stable, with only tiny bubbles at the top.

The Black IPA had 2.5 oz of dry pellet hops
The Dead Ringer had 1.5 oz

Edit - Sorry I did not answer one question. Both had hops in a hop bag, weighted down by a large sanitized stainless steel bolt

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I think it has something to do with nucleation sites that the hops provide for the carbonation. I’ve had it happen before too.

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[quote=“560sdl”]Absolutely, positively sure it was done fermenting.

4 week Primary for the Black IPA - FG = 1.011

3 week Primary for the DR - FG = 1.013 but stable for a week.

Both have been in the secondary for over a week and have been very stable, with only tiny bubbles at the top.

The Black IPA had 2.5 oz of dry pellet hops
The Dead Ringer had 1.5 oz

Edit - Sorry I did not answer one question. Both had hops in a hop bag, weighted down by a large sanitized stainless steel bolt[/quote]

Thank you for sharing that info. Appreciate it.

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The only way I could see to avoid this would be to put the hops in a bag and put in the carboy first, then rack on top. That might give it time to foam up while filling. However, I intentionally wanted a week of aging before dry hopping, so …