OK, so I was never actually a boy scout. But it's still good advice. I brewed up a Russian Imperial Stout over the weekend. I took as many steps as I could to ensure a good brew and good fermentation. I prepared a half gallon starter in advance, I aerated the wort well, I brought the temp down to just below ferment temps before pitching, etc.
For every beer prior to this one, a standard airlock has been just fine. But in the back of my brain this weekend, I began to think that maybe, just maybe I should have a blowoff tube ready for this beer. So I had it out and sanitized and boy am I glad I did!
Sunday, the day after brew day, I checked on the stout early in the morning. It had a nice solid head of krausen on it at that time, nothing really too impressive, but nice. I did some chores for a couple of hours and decided to check on it before heading out to run some errands. Good thing too, the krausen had risen several inches and was just coming into contact with the airlock. I grabbed my blowoff tube and installed that in place of the airlock. 24 hours later, the tube is full of gunk. Gunk that would have been in my airlock, clogging it up.
Whew, disaster averted!
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