Massive Floating Yeast Cake

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Danam404

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Ever seen anything like this?

Low gravity blonde pitched on a Nottingham cake about 48 hour ago. Woke up this morning after no activity yesterday and saw this interesting situation.

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Gotta blow off tube on that right? Thats a vigorous fermentation.
 
Yep big ol blowoff. Never seen a cake that big sitting on top. It's probably 3 inches thick and almost the whole diameter of the carboy
 
I have something similar happening on my belgian witbier. used belgian yeast from wyeast. never seen anything like it before. its not that big but its about a half inch. my thoughts would be that I pitched a pretty big starter and the yeasties didnt have a chance to flocculate to clear that top part since there was so much action underneath it?
 
Unless you took out 2/3 to 3/4 or so of the yeast cake before placing a low-gravity wort on it, you probably way over-pitched. A big honkin full-size cake of Notty could likely handle an imperial stout.

Hope you have a blow-off tube on it and knock the temp down to about 60*F. Notty doesn't mind cooler temps (I've used it at 55*F with good activity), but is known to give off some yuckiness above 70*F.
 
I have something similar happening on my belgian witbier. used belgian yeast from wyeast. never seen anything like it before. its not that big but its about a half inch. my thoughts would be that I pitched a pretty big starter and the yeasties didnt have a chance to flocculate to clear that top part since there was so much action underneath it?

Same thing on my belgian wit from wyeast. How's your airlock?
 
So today the whole thing is broken up and fermenting like crazy. There's a bit of wheat in the blonde, seems like every time I brew with wheat I get vigorous fermentation.

I am of the school of thought that over-pitching is crap. It's a made up idea that some guy on here started pontificating on this forum or one like it, and eventually it became law. I pitch on full cakes all the time, haven't made a bad beer out of it yet.

The second batch I brewed right next to it, for example, was pitched on a full cake of s-04, and it's been quite tame. No blowoff tube needed.
 
Same thing on my belgian wit from wyeast. How's your airlock?

I had a case one time where I had brewed a wheat beer and had my bucket fermenter lid completely blow off. I dont think the airlock could keep up w the pace of the fermentation, since then i've been using a blowoff tube. both of those wheat beers have had VERY vigorous fermentations. the blow off in this last beer I mentioned was explosive almost.
 
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