July 07, 2008 - Exploding Blackberry Beer - Dan Krill's BLOG on BinaryBedlam

Exploding Blackberry Beer
July 07, 2008 11:22:31 PM

     Batch number 5 may not turn out to be a batch at all. Only 36 hours into the primary fermentation and there was an explosion!
     So Khine has been wanting to pick fruit for a while and we had no big plans for the 4th of July so we finally went. We went to 2 orchards and picked peaches and blackberries. I was also thinking of brewing over the 4th weekend, so I thought this would be perfect! We can pick extra berries and I'll brew a blackberry hefe-weizen.
     I was all psyched, I was ready to make the best beer ever made. I bought a glass carboy for secondary fermentation, expensive yeast specifically for wheat beers, and 1.5 lbs of hand picked blackberries from a farm over 40 miles away!
     On brewing day, everything was normal. The wort boiled evenly, no big boil overs, Khine pureed the berries, and we bucketed just like any other time. The only thing I thought was odd was that it took a little longer for the bubbling to start. Well, that obviously wasn't going to be the problem. I go to work the next day, and when I come home....BAM! There was beer all over my dinning room. Apparently once the yeast took off, it TOOK OFF! The reaction must have gotten so violent that the foam rose all the way to the top of the bucket. It somehow managed to clog the air lock bubler, and pressure started rising. With no where for the C02 to go, the lid blew off.
     The lid was at least 10 feet from the bucket, the thermometer landed in the kitchen, the airlock was completely filled with hardened dead yeast and berry skins. There was beer on the walls, the ceiling, and the carpet. As soon as I saw this, my first reaction was DEAR GOD! So I lept at the lid and put it back on the bucket very first thing. I then cleaned out the airlock and stuck that back in. It wasn't until I started cleaning up that I realized I should be photographing this, this is why the lid and lock are back on in the picture below.
     I don't know how long the lid was off. I slept over at Khine's Sunday night, went straight to work in the morning, and didn't see this till Monday evening. If it was off too long it is more and more likely I will suffer an infection, but if it was only for a little while maybe the beer is still ok? There was still 3/4 of the beer left in the bucket and we spent a lot of time and effort on this batch, so I hope it's still alright.
     Let this be a warning. When adding fruit, which has tons of fermentable sugars, and a super yeast, which reacts more dramatically, stick around! Watch your stuff! And don't use a regular airlock, use a blow off tube or something that wont clog so easily.

These are the berry picking pictures:

               Berry Picking Pictures HERE

These are the brewing pictures and explosion:

first		Newer Older		last
page 279 of 417

first		Newer Older		last
page 279 of 417