A stumble into foam control, or... ?

[pazu]

That was a great timelapse, QHB!

Yeah NB it's an inexpensive tent greenhouse with a picnic table in it. I made a huge tile table years ago, using it as a floor. Beans are all that grows, the kale is not doing well. I take photos and video of the insects in there, the 2 cats like it in there, my 11 yo boy tends it. I don't have a garage or cellar.

I've wondered whether the CO2 from the ferment, might help the beans.

Say, about the blowoff tube, does it appear to be set up correctly in the earlier picture? Trying to visualize it, seems to me the foam is still going to come out of the airlock first? Either way will be fine in my case, but is there a trick to how far down the hose goes in the bucket? I just want to get it right so that it actually works!

 

[LarryBrewer]

Say, about the blowoff tube, does it appear to be set up correctly in the earlier picture? Trying to visualize it, seems to me the foam is still going to come out of the airlock first? Either way will be fine in my case, but is there a trick to how far down the hose goes in the bucket? I just want to get it right so that it actually works!

Get a stopper with just one hole and plug the hose into that. I use a short piece of hard plastic tubing to make the connection between the stopper and the hose. Your LHBS will have it. Then make sure the other end of the hose is under the water level. I fill my catch basin with left over sanitizer solution.

 

[pazu]

I see, thanks! I'll empty some of the water in the pitcher, use sanitizer. Whichever end gives first, I still lose the material. As a noob, this bothers me, losing some of the beer to the process.

I guess I expected a mechanical solution, to keeping the krausen down. I get that with a good recipe & the right conditions, it can be controlled. A mechanical way might be contrived to do it, though the simplest solution, blow off tube, is probably best in the end. I will learn more about krausen as I go. I opened the cap of the approx. 1-1/2 gallon brew bucket that I have going as well, that one looked great. Tempted to try to bat that krausen down with a paddle or plastic spoon, to learn whether it collapses down, or remains in the same state, like whipped cream. In previous batches from long ago I never messed with it fearing contamination.

EDIT - Checked the batch after this post, right up to the top again, hadn't breeched the airlock so I put some plastic wrap under the airlock cap, and the flow diverted nicely to the sanitized blow off. Encircled the top of the carboy with ice packs.

What about sanitized paddles, on a cable that passes through the blowoff tube, nobody has tried that? Spin the cable with a crank on one end to turn the sanitized paddles, in the carboy ,on the other? Flexible plastic paddles like spokes or something? Sorry I'll soon run out of crazy ideas and it will be back to normal

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

all I can say is if you use sugar or something like it then yeast booster with a glass carboy, blow off will happen, just let it ferment and I know its hard to do but leave it alone don't touch it until all krausen is gone

 

[Nosybear]

Now that I know you're fermenting in a greenhouse, the attempts to cool the carboy make sense. An alternate to getting a one-hole stopper is just put the little white cap that came with that style of stopper back on one of the outlets. Basically what I do is just let the krauesen blow off through the tube. It costs me some beer but I never have to worry about a clogged airlock. Previous advice is correct: Stopper it, set up the blow-off and leave it alone.

 

[pazu]

Yes, thanks for all the advise, now that the hose is fitted properly I can leave it be. A bit of saran wrap between the top of the airlock & its cap is acting as a seal so that the only path pressure can take is blow off hose to pitcher. It is good!