Beer Explosion!!
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 8:55 pm
Had a first in beer experiences today. I actually had a batch of beer in the primary fermenter EXPLODE!
It was a batch of Southern Tier's Creme Brulee Imperial Milk Stout. I brewed it this afternoon and pitched it around 3:30pm. The IG was offscale on my hygrometer. Beer Smith put it at 1.099. It was pitched onto a yeast cake of White Labs English Ale (WLP002) from a batch of Moose Drool that I had just transferred to secondary. It started working within half-an-hour. During dinner preps about an hour later, I heard a loud BOOM. It sounded like it was outside, so I first went to the patio door and listened outside - nothing. After dinner around 7:30pm, I went to the basement to check on the beer. The place was a freaking mess!!! The entire airlock assembly, rubber stopper and all, had blown out. There was wort splattered everywhere. It was even on the ceiling - about 4 1/2 ft above the carboy. The airlock inner cap was busted, as it had actually hit the ceiling. Note: the carboy was directly below the patio door upstairs, so that's why it sounded like the explosion was outside.
I estimate that I've lost at least a gallon of beer, as the level in the carboy is about 2 inches lower than where it started.
Lessons learned: this was only my second batch where I pitched on top of an existing yeast cake. The first time was 2 weeks ago and that beer also had an aggressive fermentation, but not explosive - it only popped the cap off the airlock after about 3 hours. Messy, but not horrendous. Second, this batch was the highest IG that I've ever done. The first batch that I re-pitched was only a 1.067 IG.
Moral of the story - Big Beers on Big Yeast Cakes = Blow Off Tubes, not Airlocks!!
It was a batch of Southern Tier's Creme Brulee Imperial Milk Stout. I brewed it this afternoon and pitched it around 3:30pm. The IG was offscale on my hygrometer. Beer Smith put it at 1.099. It was pitched onto a yeast cake of White Labs English Ale (WLP002) from a batch of Moose Drool that I had just transferred to secondary. It started working within half-an-hour. During dinner preps about an hour later, I heard a loud BOOM. It sounded like it was outside, so I first went to the patio door and listened outside - nothing. After dinner around 7:30pm, I went to the basement to check on the beer. The place was a freaking mess!!! The entire airlock assembly, rubber stopper and all, had blown out. There was wort splattered everywhere. It was even on the ceiling - about 4 1/2 ft above the carboy. The airlock inner cap was busted, as it had actually hit the ceiling. Note: the carboy was directly below the patio door upstairs, so that's why it sounded like the explosion was outside.
I estimate that I've lost at least a gallon of beer, as the level in the carboy is about 2 inches lower than where it started.
Lessons learned: this was only my second batch where I pitched on top of an existing yeast cake. The first time was 2 weeks ago and that beer also had an aggressive fermentation, but not explosive - it only popped the cap off the airlock after about 3 hours. Messy, but not horrendous. Second, this batch was the highest IG that I've ever done. The first batch that I re-pitched was only a 1.067 IG.
Moral of the story - Big Beers on Big Yeast Cakes = Blow Off Tubes, not Airlocks!!