First all grain batch--fermentation bucket lid exploded

Does anyone know what caused my fermentation bucket lid to explode off during 2 day of fermentation? I placed my lid back on quickly back on and continued with the process...when i bottled the batch I saw that I only had about 1/4 inch of yeast sediment on bottom of bucket...I made a Heffe, was dark yellow in color but smelled a little wierd...could it have spoiled?


edogg23

Probably the krausen from the fermentation level. To prevent this, you can switch from an airlock to a blowoff tube run to a little bucket of sanitizer or you can buy some fermcap-s and add it to your wort before fermentation starts.

This is quite common.

You do have an airlock in the fermenter, don't you? To answer the second part of your question, yeast cake does smell kinda funky. As you get more brews under your belt you will learn what is usual.

So your saying my beer isnt spoiled it was the yeast cakes that gave the odor?

Thanks....Aiptasia and Shakes Beer

edogg23

Good news ! You brewed a potent batch of beer. Like they said you need a way to let air or co2 to get out of the fermenter. The yeast cake always smells weird. And lastly your beer is fine. It's pretty hard to screw it up.

edogg23 said:

Does anyone know what caused my fermentation bucket lid to explode off during 2 day of fermentation? I placed my lid back on quickly back on and continued with the process...when i bottled the batch I saw that I only had about 1/4 inch of yeast sediment on bottom of bucket...I made a Heffe, was dark yellow in color but smelled a little wierd...could it have spoiled?


edogg23

Click to expand...

As mentioned you need a blow off set up as the airlock got plugged up-if you did not have Ana airlock or some way to vent the gasses from fermentation then fix that!

Hefeweizen yeast can smell pretty nasty during fermentation but it should also be gone by the time you bottle. Did you verify the beer was done fermenting with a couple gravity readings?

When beer is done it should both smell and taste like beer even though its flat.

If it didn't smell right it may not have been done...