Beer that goes bang in the night

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stevic

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After reading clibits excellent post for simple AG brew i decided to give it a go a couple of days ago. Kept it simple (and cheap) 1kg Maris Otters, Target hop pellets (reduced), Wilkos yeast and off i went.

It all went well and managed to get a reasonably full, but not to full imo, demijohn with a reading of 1050 though not sure how accurate the hydrometer is. Pitched the yeast at 6pm Tues, left the hydrometer in the demijohn, rigged up a blow off tube into a bottle as i wasn't sure what fermentation i was going to get and left it near our small multi fuel stove, just on tick over, at the front of the boat to let it get on wi' it.

Gets up Wed morning and not much happening but by dinner time it is bubbling away nicely with a nice krausen forming. By bedtime its continuous bubbling and krausen going along the tube. Wraps it in a towel and goes to bed.

This morning my wife is out of bed first and goes through to the front of the boat and shouts through that i had "best come and have a look at my beer".

When i got there the bung had blown from the demijohn with the towel covered in krausen as well as splatter to the surrounding area. I thought i had heard something in the night but living on a boat you get use to strange noises like the boat contracting or birds landing on it and think nothing of it.

Anyway what had happened is that the hydrometer had some how been forced up into the bung and formed a seal in the blow off tube causing the nocturnal eruption. Is this a common occurrence? Was this a schoolboy error?
 
Why did you leave a hydrometer in the demijohn?
As i didn't need it for owt else for a while i could see no harm in keeping it in there to see how things were progressing. I was wrong! I seem to recall reading on here that someone always left it in, albeit in a FV.
 
The attenuation of the wort converting sugar to alcohol has made your hydrometer​rise and cause your blockage.

Sent from my ALE-L21

My hydrometer normally drops as the yeast does its thing.
 
Finally someone is focused on the important factor..

It could have been worse...there is a utube of a brewbucket (no airlock) with a bulging lid under pressure going POP! and a cat sat close by gets spooked and ends up jumping in the brew..
Catspiss 😋

Sent from my Hudl 2 using Tapatalk
 
😂 I'm sorry, but this did make me laugh. As soon as I read that you had put the hydrometer in there I thought hmm that could block the hole in the bung.
 
I agree with the build up and such a violent egress, I doubt anything would (or even could) ingress to cause trouble, the only risk I could imagine if exposed krausen ect ended up returning into the beer but a clean up sanitse of the airlock and you should still be good!!
 
My hydrometer normally drops as the yeast does its thing.
That was my reasoning but summat sent it up there.

Obviously a schoolboy error on my part one not to be made again.

Any road. Beer and hydrometer are fine which is more than can be said for the curtains and the towel smelt lovely.
 
After reading clibits excellent post for simple AG brew i decided to give it a go a couple of days ago. Kept it simple (and cheap) 1kg Maris Otters, Target hop pellets (reduced), Wilkos yeast and off i went.

It all went well and managed to get a reasonably full, but not to full imo, demijohn with a reading of 1050 though not sure how accurate the hydrometer is. Pitched the yeast at 6pm Tues, left the hydrometer in the demijohn, rigged up a blow off tube into a bottle as i wasn't sure what fermentation i was going to get and left it near our small multi fuel stove, just on tick over, at the front of the boat to let it get on wi' it.

Gets up Wed morning and not much happening but by dinner time it is bubbling away nicely with a nice krausen forming. By bedtime its continuous bubbling and krausen going along the tube. Wraps it in a towel and goes to bed.

This morning my wife is out of bed first and goes through to the front of the boat and shouts through that i had "best come and have a look at my beer".

When i got there the bung had blown from the demijohn with the towel covered in krausen as well as splatter to the surrounding area. I thought i had heard something in the night but living on a boat you get use to strange noises like the boat contracting or birds landing on it and think nothing of it.

Anyway what had happened is that the hydrometer had some how been forced up into the bung and formed a seal in the blow off tube causing the nocturnal eruption. Is this a common occurrence? Was this a schoolboy error?
So are you saying that the hydrometer forced its self into the bottom of the bung, creating a air tight seal, thus causing the bung to blow?
 
So are you saying that the hydrometer forced its self into the bottom of the bung, creating a air tight seal, thus causing the bung to blow?
More or less. I have a stem of rigid plastic tube which fits into the bung hole which i then connect to my flexible plastic blow off tube. So the hydrometer had actually sealed in the stem.
 
Please dont take offence, but I have to clear this topic up. Are you stating tyhat your hydrometer blocked the blow off tube, causing your demi-johns to explode?
 
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