Bubble over during fermentation.

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by Fenderbender12, Jun 21, 2018.

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  1. Fenderbender12

    Fenderbender12 Initiate (0) Jun 20, 2017 Ohio

    Hello,

    I am fermenting a double IPA in a fastferment conical and using a lot more yeast than I am used to. Day 2 of fermentation I checked and the beer had fermented outside the lid. I can't attach a blow off tube to this conical so, My response was to remove the lid and clean it /resanitize the parts not touching the beer. To achieve this I had to whisk away the top layer of krausen as it was still coming over. I took only what was necessary to get the re sanitized lid back on. Day 4 now and I'm not seeing bubbles in the airlock. Which I expected to resume very quickly. Do you think I ruined the beer in doing this? Or did I gist release some pressure that ultimately willl have little impact? My fear is oxidation and total loss of my co2 layer, but the beer was bubbling so aggressively during while I cleaned even that I expected any loss to quickly be replaced.

    Thanks,

    Mike
     
    #1 Fenderbender12, Jun 21, 2018
  2. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    Sounds like a normal fermentation to me. If the lid was off temporarily, and only while krausen was overflowing, I wouldn't worry.

    ETA: BTW, if your fermenter takes a standard 3-piece airlock, you can take one and modify it to work as a blowoff. It won't be as wide a typical blowoff tube, but it's better than a stock airlock if your fermentation is expected to be vigorous.
     
    #2 VikeMan, Jun 21, 2018
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  3. Fenderbender12

    Fenderbender12 Initiate (0) Jun 20, 2017 Ohio

    Hmm. I never considered just using a smaller one! I'll definitely look into that. All my prior beers have been on the order of 5% and lower volume. Decided to go for something around 8 or 9% with more volume with my first all grain batch.

    Thanks for the idea!!
     
    #3 Fenderbender12, Jun 21, 2018
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  4. Prep8611

    Prep8611 Savant (1,208) Aug 22, 2014 New Jersey

    Your beer will be fine assuming you sanitized the lid properly. Your beer is prolly almost done fermenting on day 4 judging that you said you pitched a lot of yeast. What temp did you ferment at? That could also be the reason for your yeast activity explosion.
     
    #4 Prep8611, Jun 21, 2018
  5. Fenderbender12

    Fenderbender12 Initiate (0) Jun 20, 2017 Ohio

    Unfortunately I pitched at like 77F and have been fermenting at 74. I need to get a good way to control the temp. I had a terrible time getting the immersion chiller to cool this batch. Im used to cooling 4 gals or so and this was like 6.5 gals haha.
     
    #5 Fenderbender12, Jun 21, 2018
  6. Prep8611

    Prep8611 Savant (1,208) Aug 22, 2014 New Jersey

    What yeast? Sounds like a very warm pitch and most likely for the rapid explosive yeast activity.
     
    #6 Prep8611, Jun 21, 2018
  7. Fenderbender12

    Fenderbender12 Initiate (0) Jun 20, 2017 Ohio

    Whitelabs California ale yeast. Pitch was very warm! I could not get the temp down on such a large batch this time! I really have to rework my chilling process before such an ambitious brew next time. Took probably 1.5 hrs to get to that temp using the immersion chiller and about 1 hr in, a hose split so I just removed the chiller and tried to let it come down naturally. First time doing all grain presented some trials haha! Oh well, work in progress.

    My buddy had the idea of sinking a pond pump into a cooler of ice water and pumping that through the wort chiller, but it didn't pump fast enough for heat transfer. We swapped to the sink halfway through and it still took forever!
     
    #7 Fenderbender12, Jun 21, 2018
  8. GreenKrusty101

    GreenKrusty101 Initiate (0) Dec 4, 2008 Nevada

    A lot of times, too high of ferment temps is cause of blow-off...not too much volume, high gravity or over-pitching...try manually stirring with your wort chiller and a swamp cooler set up with t-shirt, fan, ice bottles, and Walmart tub will certainly help some...especially in the summer.
     
    #8 GreenKrusty101, Jun 21, 2018
  9. PortLargo

    PortLargo Pooh-Bah (1,831) Oct 19, 2012 Florida
    Pooh-Bah

    Here's is what your yeast is doing:

    [​IMG]

    It's a long read, but here's what is going on in your primary:
    https://www.morebeer.com/articles/conditioning

    How big is your conical? If it is sized for 5 gal batches and you put in 6.5 your headspace is probably inadequate. Typically you want about 30% of the primary to be empty headspace to allow normal krausen build-up . . . a little more space never hurts.

    It's not uncommon to be cleaning up your blow off around high krausen, from that point on the fermentation is downhill. Best to have your blow-off in place before you go to bed that night. You can attach a vinyl tube to the center post of your air lock to manage this. Here's what it looks like (just use a larger blow-off bottle than me!):

    [​IMG]

    For some laughs, search Google Images for "fermentation blow off" . . .

    Not sure I follow you here. This is a typical arrangement, I use a submersible pump to chill my wort every brew day. Pumping slowly increases the contact time between the chilled water and and hot wort. Initially the cooling water will come out very hot, but believe me this heat is coming from your wort. Gradually the cooling water will exit the chiller at a lower temp as the wort cools . . . this is normal. Cooling your wort to correct pitch-temp is vital, suggest you put your effort in this area (aka, the Joy of Brewing).
     
    #9 PortLargo, Jun 21, 2018
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2018
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  10. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    It does, but faster flow will cool faster, because the avg temperature difference between the wort and the chilled water is greater. Slow flow is efficient, but fast flow is effective.
     
    #10 VikeMan, Jun 21, 2018
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  11. GreenKrusty101

    GreenKrusty101 Initiate (0) Dec 4, 2008 Nevada

    #11 GreenKrusty101, Jun 21, 2018
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