[koop3700]

My buddy convinced me, well was not much convincing when ill give you half if we use your equiptment is the deal. So only my third time round with all grain and were doing 11 gallons strong scotch ale. I could not have asked for a better day all steps on time no kinks great brew day was hoping for 1.091 but came in at 1.084 awesome i feel considering i did no adjustments for efficiency for this gravity,using this for base line. Any how my question is i found that after 16 hours the airlock plugged and the lid blown off glad i have an hour for lunch. I made a quick blow off tube with some extra hose to the air lock and run up the wall then down to container of sanitized well beeritized water. I went a little heavy in the fermentor bout a gallon high so how much can i lose and still have good outcome? going to dump blow off container again before bed that will be half gallon total not expecting too much more hopefully.She is going strong.Might dub this one William Wallace

[gymrat]

I use a 5 gallon bucket for my blow off container. And I never use an air lock anymore. I just use a blow off hose from the start.

[a10t2]

The biggest factor here is probably temperature, if that gets high blowoff can become a concern. Generally speaking an ale should stay under 68°F for most of fermentation. For high gravity beers, lower is better. High pitching rate could be a factor too, but that would require a serious over-pitch, like racking the wort onto a previous yeast cake.

If you don't let those get out of control, 20% headspace is usually enough and 30% is almost always good.

[koop3700]

The 5 gallon bucket may be a good idea 2.5 gallon min.This morning is going very well, getting the temp. under control bout 69 degrees trying to keep it cool as she is chugging right along.I have been searching for just the right deal on a freezer to build a chamber,the post of what to spend money on from start up really put an emphasis on keeping the fermentation temp under control as a must. Thanks for the input my beer would not be as good without this forum!