It happened again!

[FedoraDave]

I went downstairs this morning to check on the batch I brewed on Sunday, and it had blown off the bung again! It didn't seem that active yesterday afternoon when I checked it, but I guess it took off during the night. And I didn't even have a chance to make a yeast starter.

But now I'm wondering if I'm not making a mistake with my blow-off. I've got the tube running from the bung to a regular water bottle that I fill about 1/3 full with Star San, making sure the tube is completely submerged. In order to hold it in place, I drilled a hole through the bottle cap and ran the tube through that. But I also screw the cap back on completely, and I wonder if too much pressure is building up during the early stage of fermenting, and it backs up into the carboy, causing the bung to go. Anyway, I've loosened the cap on the water bottle, and maybe I'll even drill small holes or file a couple of channels in the threads to help release pressure in the future.

[John Sand]

I think you're right. It's funny how hard it can be to seal something airtight when you want to. But you can do it by accident. I was bottling last week, and halfway through, some of the English bottles wouldn't fill. It was because their slightly narrower neck fit the spigot body so neatly that the air couldn't escape. Lowering the bottle half an inch solved the problem.

[ssorck]

Sounds like you hit the nail on the head.

Any reason you are capping the blowoff jar other than to keep the hose in place?

[Gymrat]

I think you are on the money here Dave. You don't have to be air tight to create back pressure. If that was the case you wouldn't need a blow off tube because an air lock is not air tight. That's why I like using a bucket for my blow off. You can take the tip off of your bottling wand and put that on the end of your tube as a weight to hold it in place.

[Kealia]

Dave,

FWIW I don't cap my blowoff container either. I use a growler and just drop the hose into the StarSan in the growler and let it go to town. I would think that sealing the blowoff would absolutely cause the bung to blowoff.

Sometimes I use foil to help hold in place, but other times I don't.

[FedoraDave]

Sounds like you hit the nail on the head.

Any reason you are capping the blowoff jar other than to keep the hose in place?

That's the only reason; to hold everything in place. But it'll stay in place if the cap is just resting there, as I left it this morning. So in the future, I'll just do it that way, and maybe loosely wrap some sanitized foil around it to keep it covered.

[Brewbirds]

If all that white stuff in the bottom of Kealia's blow off jar is yeast I'd be tempted to use a wort instead of Star San, instant starter.

[Kealia]

Yep, it was yeast. I was going to harvest it but then remembered that it was US-05 on that batch which I find cheap enough to not harvest.

In the future, with strains like Pacman or others that I want to wash/harvest, I will use a sanitized growler like this one, but fill it with boiled & cooled water instead. Then, once the yeast settles in I can simply decant and store. Presto!

[John Sand]

Yep, it was yeast. I was going to harvest it but then remembered that it was US-05 on that batch which I find cheap enough to not harvest.

In the future, with strains like Pacman or others that I want to wash/harvest, I will use a sanitized growler like this one, but fill it with boiled & cooled water instead. Then, once the yeast settles in I can simply decant and store. Presto!

Great idea!

[Gymrat]

This is how I set up my last blow off tube. I did have the lid on the bucket to keep Ralph out of it. He showed no interest in it but I just like playing on the safe side. The lid is just sitting on there and I left it slightly askew so there was a fair size crack along the top.

[Brewbirds]

Holy cow and I was just joking but you can actually do that.

Looking at your jar it was so white and pristine that looking at it reminded me of all of Screwy's posts about yeast washing. I wasn't very successful at washing trub in my attempts.

Now I am thinking that I have some lids from AHS containers that fit on an LBK so maybe I could cut a hole in one for a bung and use a blow off tube to collect some yeast from an LBK sized batch.

[FedoraDave]

Birdie, check out this video on yeast washing. It's helped me a lot, and I refer to it as a refresher when I'm ready to wash my yeast. It may be that you were, as I was, not taking enough time with it. Yeast washing is a little time-intensive, but the results are worth it, especially if you get a strain you really like and you know you're going to use it frequently.

http://billybrew.com/yeast-washing

[BeerRust]

Birdie, check out this video on yeast washing. It's helped me a lot, and I refer to it as a refresher when I'm ready to wash my yeast. It may be that you were, as I was, not taking enough time with it. Yeast washing is a little time-intensive, but the results are worth it, especially if you get a strain you really like and you know you're going to use it frequently.

http://billybrew.com/yeast-washing

Nice , there is another thing a got to give a try....

[Brewbirds]

Birdie, check out this video on yeast washing. It's helped me a lot, and I refer to it as a refresher when I'm ready to wash my yeast. It may be that you were, as I was, not taking enough time with it. Yeast washing is a little time-intensive, but the results are worth it, especially if you get a strain you really like and you know you're going to use it frequently.

http://billybrew.com/yeast-washing

Thanks FD I have that one somewhere on my GoogleBar (I think, it is quite full and all brew stuff ) just seeing the yeast from the blow off was what got me

[FedoraDave]

Yeah, I think I'm going to do the same thing and use boiled water in my blow-off bottle, rather than Star San. It seems a shame to let that potential gold mine of yeast go to waste.