hey brewers. 24 hours after pitching my yeast for my NEIPA my airlock had filled with beer/Krausen. After switching to a blow off tube that was bubbling extremely violently the tube began to fill with krausen as well. I read to loosen the lid on the fermentation bucket to help release some of the Co2, which I did. This morning I woke up to a huge blowout of krausen on the towel and side of the fermenter. I’m worried that I may have lost too much yeast and that the beer might be ruined. Does anyone have experience with a complete krausen blowout. What should my next steps be? I’ve ensured extreme sanitary practices during the cleaning/switching of airlocks and blow off tubes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Your beer will be just fine. Having krausen run down the sides of the fermentor is no different then having it go through your blowoff into a bucket or jar of water (well other than a big mess to clean up!) . You'll still have plenty of yeast to keep the beer going so as the saying goes RDWHAHB
Ha. Yes. Ever brewer who has a few batches under their belt. Now you do as well. It happens to everyone eventually. Typically with wort on the ceiling, floor, rug and your dog lapping it up so you are doing well. Still plenty of yeast to get the job done. Krausen in contact with atmosphere is a conduit for infection but not too much to be done now. And the hyper activity of the yeast offers a fair amount of protection against nasty bugs. Again. RDWHAHB. Cheers.
You dudes are awesome! I really appreciate all the help I get on here. This is my third batch and definitely the most intense fermentation I’ve had yet! Thank you!
I ran into this for the first time with one of my last brews as well. I was using a heating pad for the first time, and might have gone a little heavy on yeast nutrient (also for the first time using nutrient). Walked in after work and it was fine, one hour later had an airlock full of krausen. Wasn't sure what to do so turned the heat down a few degrees on the heating pad and an hour later had no issue. Swapped out the airlock with a new one and called it good.
I’m not sure my problem was ferm temp, both thermometers read 69 degrees. I’m assuming there’s probably a laundry list of things that cause this occurrence?
Can you please provide more details about your two thermometers? Are you measuring the temperature of the fermenting wort? Cheers!
Two words. Head Space. More of it equals less chance of overflow. Since you are not going to be brewing smaller batches, get some bigger carboys! A big Krausen is good. It means the yeast are doing what they do. Incidentally, if you are brewing two beers in a short space, skim the Krausen and use it for the next wort. The yeast in high Krausen are really ready to fight and will make great beer. Cheers.
Fermenting too warm, too little head space in the fermentor, an OG that produces much greater activity than expected, etc. Since my first episode I began using a 1" dia. blow-off tube jammed into the mouth of my carboy whenever I have an OG higher than 1070. That tube doesn't get clogged like the quarter-inch version might.
Yes. I have the reptile cage sticker thermometer on the side of the bucket as well as an analog thermometer.
I almost never have blow offs, which is fortunate, because I find blow off set-ups tiresome. One more thing you have to wash. Of course, better to wash that than the living room carpet or all the shoes in your wife's closet or whatever. But instead of a blowoff, I shoot for about 30% headspace and put my fermenters inside a plastic tote as secondary containment. So four words, + Secondary Containment
