Yeast Bombs?

tomtom · 09-20-2008, 06:10 PM

Today I am brewing EW's Haus Pale Ale. This will be my second AG batch and I botttled and saved the yeast cake. So I took one out of the frodge and shook it up to mix the trub with the beer that was seperated from it and decided I needed to bleed off some pressure. Well... it was a yeast foam bomb almost. i bled off a bunch of foamy yeast and put it back into the fridge. I guess it will be ok to pitch???? HELLLLPPPPP!I will need to pitch my yeast in about two hours.

**Chriso** · 09-20-2008, 06:15 PM

Yeast + Beer = CO2. Bottling the yeast cake = a small amount of CO2 in solution that can gradually equalize pressure with its environment. Shaking CO2 in solution + releasing pressure mechanism (cap) = Explosion of liquid.

In short... yes. You're fine. Use it. All is well. RDWHAHB. Now go focus on brewing that batch.

Next time, don't uncap till you're ready to pitch it. Spray the bottle and the bottle opener both with some StarSan / (insert your sanitizer here), let drip for a moment, then uncap the bottle directly over the bucket/carboy funnel/etc. Then, the foam goes where you want it to go.

Cheers!

Also - for an easier way, use sanitized 20oz plastic soda bottles, or 1-Liter tonic water bottles (that's what I use) - and leave 2" of headspace. Then you can twist to remove pressure, and quickly re-cap it as you see the mountain of liquid approaching the neck of the bottle. Less mess that way, and you don't waste any bottle caps!

tomtom · 09-20-2008, 06:49 PM

Kool, that looks like the ticket. I'll try that next time. Thanks for the quick reply.

**Chriso** · 09-20-2008, 08:17 PM

No problem!

How's the brew going? Nice day down there, or too warm? I'm sweatin' here and it's only 81*f.

tomtom · 09-20-2008, 10:27 PM

It went very well today. Beer's now in the fermentor in my shop. I have a 60 qt. Igloo Cube that it resides in and I keep a couple of 16 oz. bottles of ice in it to keep the temps down.
Right after I put the airlock on we had a nice evening shower that cooled things off a bit. My guess is that it was in the upper 80's today. Typical CFL afternoon. I'm ready for some cooler weather though. Time for another cold homebrew.