First All Grain/fermentation question

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by YeastYam, May 9, 2019.

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  1. YeastYam

    YeastYam Initiate (0) May 9, 2019 Wisconsin

    I brewed my first all grain beer recently. I messed up the fly sparge….it rinsed in 20 minutes so I missed my gravity goal. Due to this I added 1 lb. of DME at the end of the boil with the goal of keeping the color of the beer light...brewing a Hefeweizen. I pitched WLP380 starter....super aggressive and Krausen oozed out through the blow off tube and into blow off vessel quite a bit. I put an airlock on once fermentation settled down and I noticed a fair amount of sediment in the bottom of my blow off vessel. My question is do you think this is yeast blow off, DME residue, or both and do you think it will affect the integrity of my fermentation results....fermentation activity was super aggressive for 3-4 days and then fell off a cliff....no bubbling after 4 days. Thanks for any input anyone has.
     
    #1 YeastYam, May 9, 2019
  2. minderbender

    minderbender Initiate (0) Jan 18, 2009 New York

    The sediment is probably a mix of yeast and hop gunk. It is unlikely to be DME residue (unless you just mean trub), since the DME should be dissolved in the beer.

    This is a pretty common experience and there's no reason to think it will have any noticeable effect on the beer. Everything you describe sounds consistent with a healthy fermentation.

    For what it's worth, fly sparging is a bit of an advanced technique and I would recommend batch sparging or using the no sparge technique. Actually I see little reason for a homebrewer to fly sparge at any point. Breweries do it for the efficiency, but the savings are minimal at the homebrew scale.
     
    #2 minderbender, May 9, 2019
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  3. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,375) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Society Pooh-Bah

    The blow off residue should have no impact on the continuing fermentation of your beer.

    I fly sparge and everything works out just fine.

    Cheers!
     
    #3 JackHorzempa, May 9, 2019
  4. YeastYam

    YeastYam Initiate (0) May 9, 2019 Wisconsin

    [
    Thanks....after some research, I came to the same conclusion as you recommend...I will definitely batch sparge my next beer....thanks for the help and response
     
    #4 YeastYam, May 9, 2019
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  5. YeastYam

    YeastYam Initiate (0) May 9, 2019 Wisconsin

    Thanks...where in Pennsylvania are you? I was born in Clearfield....family moved to Wisconsin when I was 5.
     
    #5 YeastYam, May 9, 2019
  6. JackHorzempa

    JackHorzempa Grand Pooh-Bah (3,375) Dec 15, 2005 Pennsylvania
    Society Pooh-Bah

    The 'burbs of Philly.

    Cheers!
     
    #6 JackHorzempa, May 10, 2019
  7. NorCalKid

    NorCalKid Initiate (0) Jan 10, 2018 California

    Fly sparging is sort of a dance. Technique mixed with jazz.

    Keep at it and you’ll become obsessed with the hobby.
     
    #7 NorCalKid, May 10, 2019
    GormBrewhouse likes this.
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