I think I made Vodka Beer

[rwmiscik]

I made a dortmunder export a few weeks back as my first lager and it had a blow off tube on it that was going into a bottle of cheap vodka. Now I crashed it down to 40 degrees a couple days ago. I checked on it today and all of the vodka in the bottle was gone. Then it hit me that the cooling created a vacuum and sucked all the vodka in! It was probably a solid 2 or 3 pints of vodka and now I am worried that it is just going to be a slight beer flavor with an overwhelming alcohol flavor. Does anyone have any input on this situation?

[adamK]

2 to 3 pints of suckback seems like a hell of a lot to me. I haven't seen that much suckback before, but I guess it is possible. I would think you are just going to have to try it and see if it is too much.

Good Luck!

[rwmiscik]

Thanks. yeah Im not really sure how much it was that was just my guesstamate. But if that is correct its gonna be about an 8.5% dortmunder haha. Maybe it will work. I am sure it will be drinkable but this was going to be one of my NHC entries and I have a feeling its not going to be good enough to enter now. But i have a delicious robust porter I can enter in its place so its all good. Ill just drink this imperial Dortmunder and make a run at DOTW

[Stinkfist]

How low is your blowoff container sitting compared to the beer? If you put it lower it will require more pressure to create the suck back. Think of it as a straw if your drink is on the floor how much harder do you have to suck...

[spiderwrangler]

Crash cooling with large headspace in your container will give you lots of suckback as the CO2 in the fermentor cools. Cold crashing with as little headspace as possible will give you less suckback as the liquid will not change a whole lot in volume. 3 pints of vodka is probably more than is strictly necessary for a blow off... hope it was covered and hadn't picked up fruitflies and other fun stuff that got sucked back in!

[Ozwald]

Crash cooling with large headspace in your container will give you lots of suckback as the CO2 in the fermentor cools. Cold crashing with as little headspace as possible will give you less suckback as the liquid will not change a whole lot in volume. 3 pints of vodka is probably more than is strictly necessary for a blow off... hope it was covered and hadn't picked up fruitflies and other fun stuff that got sucked back in!

I use a small bucket when I need a blow off tube - probably a couple gallons or so in there. I think it's more important to have your container sitting low (mine sits about 2.5' below the bottom of the fermenter) & not having an overly large headspace. The worst I've done is pull liquid a foot or so up the blow off tube.

I also think that process is more important. Why are you crash cooling with a blow off tube in the first place? You can leave a blow setup in place for the entire ferment, but why not switch to an airlock after the first couple days? Why not switch the airlock to a piece of foil before crashing so quickly?

Over all, my biggest worry would be just what Spider pointed out - what was in the vodka that got sucked back in. All in all, it's probably fine but I'd expect some small off flavors at the very least.

This whole deal is one of the reasons I cold crash in kegs instead of the fermenter. For the small cost of half a pint per keg, totally worth it.

[spiderwrangler]

The other concern with crash cooling with a large head space is you will be pulling in lots of ambient air... oxygen, wild yeast, bacteria...

[Ozwald]

The other concern with crash cooling with a large head space is you will be pulling in lots of ambient air... oxygen, wild yeast, bacteria...

Exactly. If you're set on doing it this way, why drag that air through your blowoff setup? More than likely you're pulling in more crap than if you just used foil.