I have 2 batches that I brewed Sunday and they have been fermenting since Monday morning. Yeast is US-05 started and maintained at 58 degrees until yesterday when I let them come up to 60 and this morning I let them come up to 62. They’ve both maintained a steady fermentation but nothing crazy. The Honey Rye has been more vigorous even though they’ve both had about a 2" krausen.
All of a sudden the Honey Rye got out of control with krausen (still at 62 degrees) and the krausen came up into the 3 piece airlock. It looked like it came up and went back down so I thought it was past the peak fermentation. (The IPA is still calmly bubbling along with the same 2" krausen.)
I took off the airlock, covered the bung with sanitized aluminum foil, cleaned and re-sanitized the airlock, then replaced it and went to school this evening. Just got home and found it had another blow off. I repeated the same cleaning process 10 minutes ago and it already happened again.
Not sure what to do. I just switched to better bottles and I don’t think the blow off tubes for my glass carboys will fit on the better bottles. (I’ve used US-05 many times at these temps and never came close to a blow off before.)
Any ideas on what I can do until tomorrow when I might be able to get a blow off tube at my local homebrew supplier?
Any chance I’l contaminate the beer if I keep repeating the process of cleaning and sanitizing the 3-piece airlock each time until the fermentation calms down again?
Try not to worry as there is so much C02 blowing off it’s almost impossible to contaminate. As long as it’s this active just leave it alone, maybe cover with sanitized aluminum foil loosely on top, you will be fine until it slows down, then put a regular airlock on, or when you get around to a blowoff.
I forgot to say, the more you mess with it, you have more chances at contamination. your best bet is to let it calm down on it’s own, then regular airlock. If you do a blowoff tomorrow will be soon enough, but you should not have anything to sweat. Beer is only vulnerable when ferment is nearly finished in my experience.
Thanks man.
I just improvised and discovered that if I take apart a 3 piece airlock, high temp hose (like you use to drain wort from a kettle) fits nicely on the hard inner tube of the main piece of the airlock.
I’ve already got it all rigged up and it seems to be working fine.
The only concern is if the inner diameter of that tubing is too narrow for use as a blow off. I think it’s 1/2" ID. I’m going to keep a close eye on things and investigate further in the morning.
You’ll be fine - lots of people use a hose on a 3-piece airlock for a blow-off. It’s a nice way to do it, and kudos for figuring it out on your own. Now step away from the carboy and quit futzing with it!
Sweet. Thanks!
I’m backing away from the carboys…
I use the stopper that isn’t a solid chunk of rubber, rather has the indent with a nipple to put the air lock into. Well, I find a 1/2" tubing, when wet will slide over that nipple and thats how I start with my fermenting…. Sneezles61 :cheers:
The only additional thing about the airlock is it has an ‘x’ on the end that can clog. You may want to break that ‘x’. It will not ruin the airlock.
Thanks man.
After porkchop mentioned other people do this, I did a quick search and came across posts that mention the problem you point out. Luckily, my 3-piece airlocks do not have that constrictive piece at the end of the tube.
Good catch - I’ve removed it from all of mine as well. It is still possible for the smaller ID hose to clog, so probably best to keep the hose as short as possible.
