Blowoff tube or not

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Sat Nov 20, 2010 6:57 am

I've never used liquid yeast before, I've made a starter and will be putting it into a 5 gallon batch of belgian tripel at 1.080 in a 6 gallon carboy (yeast is wL530). Should I anticipate crazy activity and use a blowoff tube?

Peter Collins · Post by **Peter Collins** » Sat Nov 20, 2010 8:14 am

In a case like this I would always use a blow off tube. It's one of those things that's so easy to set up and could avoid a lot of mess and nastiness later on.

Use the blow off tube and keep an eye on it for a couple of days and if it looks okay switch off to the airlock.

Enjoy

matt7215 · Post by **matt7215** » Sat Nov 20, 2010 9:42 am

Peter Collins wrote:In a case like this I would always use a blow off tube. It's one of those things that's so easy to set up and could avoid a lot of mess and nastiness later on.

Use the blow off tube and keep an eye on it for a couple of days and if it looks okay switch off to the airlock.

Enjoy

^^this^^

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Sat Nov 20, 2010 8:32 pm

I smartly opted for the blowoff tube. For a few hours, very little action, then I went downstairs an hour later and it's creeping up near the top (I only pitched it 8 hours ago!)

phat matt · Post by **phat matt** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 1:20 am

I have learned to always play it safe and use a blow off untill after fermentation has quieted down. Hasn't failed me yet.

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Sun Nov 21, 2010 1:08 pm

Yeah, the thing is going crazy now

bufordsbest · Post by **bufordsbest** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 8:33 am

yeah i always go blow off tube now.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:57 pm

Yeah, that's not much head space.

Even the safety of that blow-off tube is questionable. I did the same thing on a bucket, and the combination of the yeast with whole and pellet hops clogged the tube and split the plastic bucket!

I've now got a larger plastic bucket with a loose lid (no airlock or blow-off).

phirleh · Post by **phirleh** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 1:15 pm

Derek wrote:Yeah, that's not much head space.

I ended up with way more wort than I expected. Filled a 6 gallon carboy to above the shoulder and a smaller 1 gallon carboy that I pitched some dry yeast into. It was all pellet hops and I ended up having to put the jar in another container last night since the jar was full of bubbling yeast and eventually overflowing.

icemachine · Post by **icemachine** » Thu Nov 25, 2010 1:47 pm

Rigged a blowoff tube on my Christmas Ale, first time I have done so as I had less trub/transfer loss than expected. Glad I did because it got angry. No pictures but it's rolling along still 5 days later.