An unfortunate freak accident caused what must have been one of the biggest MEAs ever tonight, leaving the bar and myself covered in mead.
I figured out what happened. Today I topped it up with water. However, being the newb that I am, I overfilled it. It foamed into the S style airlock and started oozing out. What I didn't notice was that a raisin happened to get positioned just right so that it blocked the airlock. The pressure built high enough to force it into the first water chamber, then into the second. It pushed it all the way to the final narrow part of the airlock where it stayed. The pressure behind it built up quite a bit.
I, of course, did not know this at the time. Thinking I could simply remove, clean, refill and replace the airlock after lowering the must level, I grabbed the bung and pulled.
...Now friends, I think we can all imagine what happens when something under high pressure suffers a rapid pressure drop. It vents very quickly. That mead shot out of the carboy like a volcano erupting. It went *everywhere*. All over the bar surfaces, the floor, into the living room and, of course, all over me.
Now this was bad enough, but have any of you seen what a raspberry fruit cap looks like when it needs to be swirled back into the must? With all the seeds and brownish smashed fruit, it looks just like hamburger meat. Now do you know what this looks like spewing out of a carboy? Exactly like projectile vomiting.
I still can't get that raisin out of the airlock, no matter how hard I blow. I'm going to take an air compressor to it.
Short version, my mead got sick and threw up all over me.
I figured out what happened. Today I topped it up with water. However, being the newb that I am, I overfilled it. It foamed into the S style airlock and started oozing out. What I didn't notice was that a raisin happened to get positioned just right so that it blocked the airlock. The pressure built high enough to force it into the first water chamber, then into the second. It pushed it all the way to the final narrow part of the airlock where it stayed. The pressure behind it built up quite a bit.
I, of course, did not know this at the time. Thinking I could simply remove, clean, refill and replace the airlock after lowering the must level, I grabbed the bung and pulled.
...Now friends, I think we can all imagine what happens when something under high pressure suffers a rapid pressure drop. It vents very quickly. That mead shot out of the carboy like a volcano erupting. It went *everywhere*. All over the bar surfaces, the floor, into the living room and, of course, all over me.
Now this was bad enough, but have any of you seen what a raspberry fruit cap looks like when it needs to be swirled back into the must? With all the seeds and brownish smashed fruit, it looks just like hamburger meat. Now do you know what this looks like spewing out of a carboy? Exactly like projectile vomiting.
I still can't get that raisin out of the airlock, no matter how hard I blow. I'm going to take an air compressor to it.
Short version, my mead got sick and threw up all over me.
