Blow Off Tube Become Suction Tube

[ktheavner]

Made a rookie mistake on my Honey Larger yesterday. I had raised the temp up to 65 for a D rest for 5 days and then started bringing it down slowly to lager temp. before I left for work yesterday I dropped it down the last 5 deg to a nice chilly 34 deg only to come home to an empty 1/2 gallon blow off container of sanitizer, so now I have Honey Lager that has been sanitized. What options are you using to prevent this from happening. Thanks, KT

 

[Hawkbox]

I generally swap from a blow off tube when it comes time to cold crash, that sucks but your beer should be very clean.

 

[Nosybear]

Funny.... Aside from a bit of extra tartness and a tendency to foam, your beer should be okay. Options to prevent: 1) don't cold crash. It was the thermal contraction that "sucked" the sanitizer in. 2) Don't immerse your blow-off tube in anything before the beer is cold, see 1) for the reason. 3) switch from tube to airlock when cooling the beer. It'll still suck the sanitizer in but there's not as much of it. Bottom line, there's no way to avoid the thermal contraction when you cool the beer so you'll have to minimize what it can "suck" in. There's an option 4): Manage your fermentation in such a way that a d-rest is not needed. That means adequate pitch at or below fermentation temperature with sufficient oxygenation. Then you're cooling from fermentation temps (around 50° F) rather than from d-rest temps (around 65°).

 

[ktheavner]

Thanks Guys for the replies. I usually catch it before it sucks the solutions all the way up the tube. I was just in a hurry (still asleep) when I dropped the temp and didn't let the solutions drain out of the hose. I was just looking for options. I saw an article in a magazine along time ago about someone used 2 jars and built something to eliminate this problem but I cant find anything on it now. Thanks again. KT

 

[J A]

I always put cheap vodka in the airlock.
If you have a closed stainless or plastic fermenter, the ultimate answer is to pressurize slightly with CO2 during cool-down. For carboys you could fill a sanitized garbage bag with CO2 and rubber-band it to the neck.

 

[Head First]

An S type bubbler if not overfilled will work equally well for air out or air in. And use vodka just to be safe. I always switch to a bubbler befor chilling. To many bad stories. Can be easily avoided.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Check out brulosoph Grill on on their blog.
I've seen the 2 canister type airlock big it's 2 mason jars I saw same place brulosoph

 

[Mase]

Thanks Guys for the replies. I usually catch it before it sucks the solutions all the way up the tube. I was just in a hurry (still asleep) when I dropped the temp and didn't let the solutions drain out of the hose. I was just looking for options. I saw an article in a magazine along time ago about someone used 2 jars and built something to eliminate this problem but I cant find anything on it now. Thanks again. KT

Found this:

For what it’s worth, I use a a Stainless Steel Brew Bucket from Spike Brewing and the lid of the Brew Bucket has blowoff hole that allows me to use 1/2 blowoff tube. When fermentation is complete, I remove the blowoff tube and simply fill the hole with a Star-San soaked paper towel and wrung dry so it won’t drip into the fermenter once I put the Brew Bucket into the cold crash chamber. Eliminates all suck back! But hey... to each his own. Remember... RDWHAHB!

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

this is what everyone needs"if you use this type of fermenter" which I don't but i would if I did

 

[Shepington]

The guys at Norcal brewing have a mason jar setup to stop suckback.