Boy, that was close! (A Cautionary Tale)

[FedoraDave]

So I brewed up a cream ale yesterday. I figured it was still too chilly in the basement for good fermentation, so I put it in the beer closet. By the way, this is the maiden voyage for my new 3-gallon Better Bottle carboy.

Anyhoo, I checked it last night before bed, and it was starting to work. Checked it again this morning, and it was churning pretty good. Not crazy, but good.

Had a rough end of the day at work. Got home later than usual, tired and dirty, and just wanting dinner and some R&R. Well, I don't know what it was -- maybe Ninkasi watching over my beer-making efforts -- but I decided to check on the cream ale, and it's a good thing I did.

The airlock wasn't bubbling, so I figured something was wrong. I quickly set up another airlock and then removed the original. Sure enough, it was clogged with gunk. Had I not checked it and changed airlocks, it might have blown overnight. But no harm, no foul.

It also spurred me to rack my batch of Kingpin IPA to a secondary and dry hop it. I've already turned down the temperature in the lager fridge to the mid-30s so I can cold crash on Thursday in preparation for Saturday's bottling. So much for a quiet evening doing nothing!

But here's the thing: I was never a Boy Scout, but I've learned it pays to be prepared. When I bought the new carboy, I also bought another bung and airlock. I told myself I had enough of these things; one for each carboy. But a voice in the back of my head told me to get them. JUST. IN. CASE.

Yes, had I not had it, I would have sanitized a piece of aluminum foil and placed it over the carboy's mouth, no harm, no foul. But this was so much easier, and makes me feel better about how the situation was handled. There are always those homebrewing incidents that call for quick decisions and kludging something to get through a crisis. And we do that, because homebrewers are resourceful. But it's pretty neat when a little bit of pre-planning - just in case - makes life that much simpler.

[Yankeedag]

Hey. We need an "attaboy" button....

[zorak1066]

it's a good thing being prepared!

one of my early early batches ... all 2 years ago, yeah I know I'm quite the brew master now (smirk)... it was a diablo ipa modified. pitched the yeast, had a standard airlock.. walked away. came back a couple hours later..nothing. hmm. checked an hour later.. nothing. came back 5 hours later and holy crap! I had a krausen volcano!!!

luckily I had done my research ahead of time. I rushed and grabbed some hose, shoved it in the airlock and stuck it in a jug full of water and sanitizer. voila! a blow off airlock! then the only thing I had to deal with was the clean up and the bruises from my wife bashing me on the head with a stick for using her good bath towels to sop up the krausen mess... j/k.. the verbal abuse was sufficient.

so cheers to being prepared!

[Gymrat]

I have follows Denny Conn's example and stopped using air locks altogether. I use nothing but blow off tubes

[duff]

I always check my fermenters a couple of times a day during active fermentation just because something might happen. Of course I also find the sound of the airlock bubbling relaxing.

[FedoraDave]

I have follows Denny Conn's example and stopped using air locks altogether. I use nothing but blow off tubes

I probably should, also. I use a blow off tube with my fivers.

But I figured, with a 2.5 gallon batch in a 3 gallon carboy, there should be plenty of head space, and indeed, from the looks of it, the krausen only just got high enough to cause the clog before receding.

Also, I'm lazy, and I don't like cleaning out the blow off tube.