New brewer here, only on my second ever homebrew. I'm making a Northern Brewer Bavarian Hefeweizen from extract. I think I pitched the yeast (from a starter) while the wart was too warm (approx 80-85°). I didn't realize my mistake until after I had already pitched the yeast. I moved the carboy to my basement where the temps are high 60's-70 at the highest. Fast forward 24 hours, I come home from work and the airlock has blown and the krausen has overflowed. Is my beer salvageable? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
No problem! Welcome to the krausen volcano dome ...clean it up and replace the airlock and next time cool it off a little more before pitching. Get ready for a banana bomb
Welcome to the BA site and to the Homebrewing forum (as well as to this great hobby). You pitched the yeast too warm and those little buggers like balmy conditions and go crazy. You may also have too little head space in your fermenter to handle the krausen, but you didn't mention your beer volume nor your carboy size. Your beer is salvageable, but there is a chance the warm fermentation will cause some off-flavors. You'll have to wait and see on that. If the krausen has stopped flowing out of the carboy, just clean and sanitize the airlock and re-install it. If the krausen is still flowing, install a blow-off tube to direct the flow of the krausen into a bucket of water or sanitizer, which is now your airlock. (Google blow-off tube to see which method is best for the equipment that you have on hand, and keep a blow-off tube in mind if you ever brew a beer that has an OG over 1.060.) Then clean up the mess on the floor.
Welcome to the blowout. Happens to everyone. Your beer is fine - the CO2 pushing out will keep anything nasty from getting in. PLus, with a hefeweizen, warmer temps actually aren't a bad thing, depending on the flavors you like (banana versus clove) How big a fermenter do you have? The times I've intentionally pitched warm with a yeast known to be active, I try to use bigger ones - 7 gallons plus for a 5 gallon batch, versus 6.5 gallons. I don't have anything bigger than that, but even those will blow if I'm not careful.
As others have said use a blow off tube and also, don't be scared to let your beer cool a little more before you pitch. Either spend more time with a chiller in it or let it rest in the basement overnight with an airlock in. As long as you practiced good sanitation, you shouldn't really have to worry about infection over the course of one night. Pitching at a proper temp is one of the most important parts of brewing because pitching hot can cause some bad off flavors. Also remember that when beer starts fermenting, it is going to be several degrees warmer than the room temp.
Thanks for all the advice! The OG was about 1.045, and I had about 1.5 gallons of head space on a 6.5 gallon carboy. I managed to put together a blow-off tube. Now we'll just have to wait and see how it turns out. How long would you recommend leaving it in primary for, before bottling?
