MacGyvering a Blow-off Tube in a Pinch

Several years ago, I faced an emergency situation. The hefeweizen I was fermenting at the time kept spraying yeast and beer out of the airlock, and all over the place. I needed to fix this and fix it fast. Unfortunately, it was late, and the brew shop was closed.

I found myself at Home Depot right before they closed to pick up what I needed to fashion a blow-off tube. There, I picked up some half inch flexible vinyl tubing. However, when I wandered over to the fittings section of Home Depot, nothing stood out as a way to attach the tube. As a result, when I got home, I was faced with the daunting task of attaching it to the carboy.

I was looking over what I had -- the tubing, the airlock, the bung, and the carboy -- when the light turned on in my head. I realized that with some finagling, I could fit the half inch diameter vinyl tubing over the half inch diameter hard plastic tube inside a three piece airlock. Bingo, the airlock fit in the bung like before, just with a tube coming out of it into a bucket of water, rather than being filled with water itself, and having the middle plastic piece cup the top of it.

After sanitizing the whole assembly, I attached the thing, and the foamy krausen pushed up through the airlock, like before. However, it gently went down the tube and collected in my gallon bucket filled with water, rather than spraying everywhere. I simply changed the water once a day. After a couple of days, the foam calmed down, and I was able to attach a normal airlock again.

All-in-all, it was just another day of solving the problems that face a homebrewer.