Blowoff in less than 12 hours after pitching

1. Don't worry about the fermentation being too fast. Even though the airlock or blowoff is slowing doesn't mean it's done already or stalled out. Just let it ride like you we're planning and take gravity readings.
2. Just leave the krausen that's caked to the top alone. It won't hurt anything and will have no impact on the final product.

 

What yeast did you use? I'm guessing american style.

Don't be worried about low lag time, did you make a starter? What temperature was it fermenting at? Also, airlock activity isn't the best sign of fermentation.

Leave the krausen alone, swishing the beer at this point could oxidize it. I always leave it and never had any problems.

 

The longest lag time I have ever seen has been a couple hours. I pitch my starters at high krausen so they are already hungry little buggers when they hit the wort. So a fast start up is really just a side effect of healthy yeast. As for the gunk on the carboy, leave it. Don't swirl or swish or aerate the beer in anyway unless you want some nice cardboard notes... mmmmm, pizza box porter... But I digress, after you rack it to fermenter number two or bottle the beer up you can go back and clean it. And now you know why there are so many carboy cleaners on the market.

Explosive airlock activity is a great sign of fermentation...

 

This is too high for the vast majority of yeast strains. Expect lots of fruity esters and (possibly) fusel alcohols in your finished beer. It may well be drinkable though. And it will be beer.

You didn't expose it to much oxygen by doing this.

Edit: I'd read this if you haven't already: www.howtobrew.com

 

A high fermentation temperature like 78°F can result in increased levels of higher alcohols (fusel oils). These higher alcohols can result in harshness. You may want to let the beer sit in the primary for some time (1-2 weeks) once primary fermentation is compete to permit the yeast to metabolize the excess higher alcohols (assuming they are present).

Cheers!

 

It went ape shit because of the high temp. 78 is way, way, WAY too high. The fermentation started and went fast because of it.

You can try and let it sit to clean up the fusel mess, but chances are, and from experience, that stuff ain't really going anywhere soon.

 

Hey, for your first batch I think this will end up very acceptable for you. It will have some off flavors but we all know you're not going to have the patience to wait a couple extra weeks to clean up the fusels (if it ever happens).
Chalk this up to your first lesson: lower fermentation temps are better, in almost all cases. 65-67 is about spot-on. And that's beer temp, not room temp. Very important distinction--if you're saying your room temp during fermentation was 78 then your beer temp was easily into the mid-80s.
When in primary it's OK to open the system to switch from blowoff tube to airlock. As long as it's active fermentation, the positive pressure of the CO2 being created will keep O2 and bad microbes from getting in. Mostly.

Many of your beers will end up looking like your photo. Brewing is a messy business. Don't attempt to 'collect the solids'. If you left your beer completely alone, it would do exactly what it needed to do to be beer. No swishing, stirring, collecting, etc necessary. Let it be alive.

 

Just to add to this, if you can only keep your beers this warm for whatever reason, start looking into Saison (WLP565) and some other Belgian yeasts. They LOVE high temperatures and make great beers at warm temperatures.

 

Let it do its thing. You'll probably have to let some of the ester and fusel heat settle out but it should still be a good beer in time. I wouldn' expect anything unitl the 3 or 4 month mark. I made my first few beers too hot and they settled down. I just needed to get more bottlse for bottling than I expected. It looks like a porter or stout, yea? They age well!

 

towels and bathtub next time. lol your in the south. its near 81f in my house a lot. and its hotter outside. brew ales that like the heat.

 

If you intend to conduct a secondary, I would recommend a looooong secondary.

Cheers!

 

Inchrisin posted: “I wouldn't expect anything until the 3 or 4 month mark. I made my first few beers too hot and they settled down.”

There is no accurate way to assess how much conditioning time you need. It is a function of the amount of higher alcohols (fusel oils) that were produced and how ‘efficiently’ the yeast metabolize the higher alcohols during the secondary. The best answer I have is months; perhaps the aforementioned 3-4 months.

Cheers!

 

You secondary it to clean up that mess until it taste good to you. If you feel it's fine, then give it a go at carbing it up and trying it out. It's really up to your tastes, honestly.

 

As long as it takes to clean up the fusel alcohols. You should be able to tell by tasting. Not to scare you, but in the unlikely event that you have a real fusel bomb on your hands, it may never clean up. Yes, yeast convert fusels to esters, but it takes time and there are other compounds needed for the conversion that could be a limiting factor.