Will my blowoff tube blow off? Hops in the krausen

AsharaDayne

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I got a brew going in one of those 1gal carboys, fitted with a blowoff tube. Now I purposefully left a good part of the hop pellet gunk in the cooled wort, thinking to maximise aroma extraction. After 24 hours, fermentation went nuts and the foam started pushing the hop debris out through the blowoff tube. It's not quite clogged, but close to it. I didn't expect the hops to rise out so much (there's not too much headspace neither)
So I guess my idea is somewhat suboptimal. Since the hops get pushed out, I'm not getting that much aroma, plus I run the risk of clogging. I'll try again very scientifically with less gunk and more headspace.
 
How much do you expect from the hops post boil ?
If the pressure gets high enough it'll either clear the blow off tube or the bung ! interested to hear how this goes for you
 
I got a brew going in one of those 1gal carboys, fitted with a blowoff tube. Now I purposefully left a good part of the hop pellet gunk in the cooled wort, thinking to maximise aroma extraction. After 24 hours, fermentation went nuts and the foam started pushing the hop debris out through the blowoff tube. It's not quite clogged, but close to it. I didn't expect the hops to rise out so much (there's not too much headspace neither)
So I guess my idea is somewhat suboptimal. Since the hops get pushed out, I'm not getting that much aroma, plus I run the risk of clogging. I'll try again very scientifically with less gunk and more headspace.

It will only last a little while so you're probably almost in the clear. You could just remove the bung and cover loosely with aluminum foil until it slows down then replace it after cleaning. When blowing out like that there is not much chance of any baddies getting in but it should be replaced as soon as can be trusted.
 
Hard to do much in 1 gallon jugs...there's just not much room for things to happen. Whether it clogs is a matter of how big the tube is. Find one that just fits jammed into the neck of the jug. I've left hop-sludge in the wort plenty of times. Not certain it helps with hop aroma and flavor, but it stands to reason that longer contact with the hops will extract something.
I think you'd be better off to add new hops to cooled wort for primary fermentation though, if you really want to maximize hop aroma. Apparently dry-hopping in active fermentation gives a really different reaction than waiting until beer is still to add the hops.
 
Yeah, it didn't get completely clogged, the gas still mamanaged to squeeze through and the blowoff tube held, barely.J Krausen dropped and I've put the airlock in place now.

I add a lot of hops post-boil, so I do expect some aroma impact. We'll see how this turns out!
 
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