First brew ever... Fermentation bucket bulging

I am of the school of thought that once started, see it through, and see what you get. Learn from the process, but don't just give up.

 

I have totally stop using airlock and carboys on my primary.
My fermented beer in the picture (belgian witbier 3944) is kicking CO2 out of a loss lead. Notice the red brick, keeping everything flowing one way, out.

To sum up my experience using airlock: Its looks grate, make's very relaxing sound but draw to much attention.
If you use plastic fermentation vessels, it's annoy to move the fermenter around. The liquid in it tend to pumped back into the fermenter and risking your beer. The last issue is that my fermentation chamber is under the kitchen table with very limit space, every time I move stuff around (under the table) I break or crack my air lock.

One more point in favor to bucket prime, after 5 days you can leave the hydrometer in it and have constant gravity reading.

 

Fair enough, but maybe he should hear about best practices. Temp control is the number one way to to make your homebrew better. Period. He doesn't need us blowing smoke to make him feel better. What he is doing is not ideal, not even close, and he should hear that seeing as yet another LHBS seems to be giving mediocre advice at best.

 

Except the 2nd reply reply already said that without making references to ruined, god-awful, unpalatable beer. The number one way to make your homebrew better is to not infect it by ensuring good sanitation practices.

Besides, beer fermented at 68 ambient is not going to exhibit a tremendous amount of temperature related yeast off-flavors. The high range of most ale yeasts is 72-75 - yeasts don't suddenly figure out they're 2 degrees over the number listed on Wyeast's site and start producing as many bad tasting esters as possible.

 

this could be you...

 

Basically I have the following advice for the OP:

1. Take the lid off the bucket. There must be a huge krausen in the bucket, so that will protect the beer for step #2.

2. Go to the sink and clean the underside of the lid and clean out the airlock. Place the airlock back into the lid and rest the lid back on the bucket, but do not snap it down/seal it on the bucket.

3. Sanitize a large spoon, such as one of these:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...rring-straining/21-stainless-steel-spoon.html

4. Use the sanitized spoon to scoop out a shitload of that krausen foam (thus making more head space).

5. Reattach/reseal lid. Monitor closely. Repeat steps 2-4 as needed.

Then next time, find a way to keep this beast cooler during fermentation or buy a larger fermenter. Honestly, I don't know why they make 6.5 gallon bucket fermenters anymore. Fucking useless on strong ales or anything fermented with a voracious strain of Belgian or German/weizen yeast. I long for the day when they will make 9 gallon HDPE fermentation buckets!

 

This is a really really really bad idea. Hydrometers are not designed to be left in beer/liquid. If you leave one in liquid for an extended amount of time, it will crack (usually very small cracks), and it will no longer read correctly.

Re the brick, I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole.

 

This happened to me this past weekend and I rigged up a simple blowoff like the one pictured above, except I put the bucket on the ground. Worked great.

Good luck!

Jeff

 

If he didn't have a method of making a blow-off, like his legs were broken and he couldn't get to an HBS...then i still would have a hard time advising this method. It would have to be the worst case scenario to implement that procedure.

No offense, but that's like breaking a window to access your house when you've locked yourself out...even though you've left a spare under your welcome mat.

 

So you advocate repeated removal of active yeast from the krausen, brilliant.

They do make 9 gallon HDPE fermentation buckets, they're called Spiedels.

 

You're comparing a incredibly thin walled hydrometer to a thick walled glass carboy, which is a pretty invalid comparison. One is designed for fermentation of liquid the other for measuring density, thus each has a very different thickness. I'm too tired and busy with my thesis and newborn to find the citation for developing micro cracks in hydrometers.

I went through four hydrometers in a very short amount of time, by leaving them in starsan on brew day in a separate small plastic bucket, each time, the hydrometer would crack when left in StarSan for extended periods of time.

 

I'm also on board with the don't leave your hydro in your damn bucket or carboy. Newbie move. It's a precise instrument. Leaving it your beer because your too cheap/not smart enough to make enough to cover your known losses during the process isn't a way to fix the problem.

It's more accurate to use it in the proper hydro tube, spin it to degas your sample and ensure it's not covered with a bunch of crap from fermentation.

But if you don't care to be accurate and your okay risking a batch because you break your hydro into it, then by all means.. leaving it in, is the way to go!

Oh and Ward, congrats on the baby buddy!!

 

Thanks! Congrats on your twins! I can't imagine the work required for two, as one is wearing me out.

Looking forward to December 18th when I brew her birth beer (a 11% English Barleywine), that I will hopefully brew every year until she turns 21 to have a 21 year vertical on her 21st birthday.

 

I'm doing the same. Brewing a big ol' RIS every year, labeling the bottles each year, with pictures of the boys on them. Will try to have a big vertical at 21 as well with both of them. All 3 of us, drinking a 21 year vertical would be epic, especially since I brewed it, and they'll eventually( hopefully ) help me brew it too.

 

Clear bucket? If not, don't worry.

 

The yeast that is down in the liquid is important. The yeast contained in the upper half of the krausen is just sitting up there doing nothing. I have taken some of that out many many times without any obvious effects on my finished beer. So long as you work in a sanitary manner, there are few worries. As an aside, commercial breweries that do open fermentation scoop krausen/yeast off all the time. Not saying what I was describing is better than a blowoff tube, I was just giving an option. So excuse the fuck out of me :-)

Does Spiedel make a 9 gallon fermenter? I was excited for a minute after I read that part of your post, but then I couldn't find any online. All I see are 3.2 gallon, 5.3 gallon, 7.9 gallon, 15.9 gallon, and 31.7 gallon options. No 9 gallon options I can find...

 

Agreed, you are absolutely correct. Obviously, certain chemicals, extreme temperature swings, and brute force can damage glass. I wasn't endorsing the idea of leaving the hydrometer in the fermenter long term. I was just saying that glass doesn't simply crack because it is left in a liquid such as fermenting wort.