Yeast and wort are going nuts....

Making my first batch ever right. Put it into primary at about 4 PM EST. Get a call at work at about 11 PM EST from that wife saying that there is a lot of foam coming from the Air Lock and around the seal. What is going on? Any Comments or suggestions..

Active fermentation, its normal. You may want to rig up a blowoff tube. Take a piece of hose and onto the center piece of the airlock and put the other end it a bucket of sanitizer. This will keep the airlock from clogging.

Fermentation can get very active with some yeast, some types of beer, particularly higher gravity beers.

You are having what's called a blow off. You need to get the airlock off there or it may clog with foam and blow off the top of the fermentor with force.

Commonly people fassion blow off hoses for a beer they suspect may blow off foam. It's basically a hose off the top that is run into a container with water to allow the heavy foam to come out and run into the container. If you look it up you will find many examples.

alright i'll try that

What are you fermenting in? I bet it is too small. Why waste the beer to a blow off? You need to use a fermenter that can handle a 5 gallon batch even with a strong healthy fermentation (you want this on every batch). Did you use any yeast nutrients such as Yeast Fuel for this batch?

Forrest
Austin Homebrew Supply

Austinhomebrew said:

What are you fermenting in? I bet it is too small. Why waste the beer to a blow off? You need to use a fermenter that can handle a 5 gallon batch even with a strong healthy fermentation (you want this on every batch). Did you use any yeast nutrients such as Yeast Fuel for this batch?

Forrest
Austin Homebrew Supply

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fermenting 5 gal in a 6.5 gal bucket with grommetted air lock hole. nothing other the the yeast packet from the LHBS. i realized that i was getting really quick action out of my air lock (about every 10 seconds) within the first 2 hours. Just got off the phone with a buddy who got me into brewing. He told me that the particular recipe i was doing had a pretty high sugar content. Just to keep it as protected as possible and let it do its thing and replace the full air lock (i have a 3 piece) when i subsided.

So just a "big beer" with a lot of sugar.

You may get away with leaving the airlock in there, but if it clogs and blows off under pressure you will have beer everywhere. Much safer to make a blow off hose and not have to worry about it. After a day or two when the foam subsides then you can put an airlock back on.

There won't be any risk of infection, nothing getting in there with all that co2 coming out.

Better safe than sorry.

Zen_Brew said:

So just a "big beer" with a lot of sugar.

You may get away with leaving the airlock in there, but if it clogs and blows off under pressure you will have beer everywhere. Much safer to make a blow off hose and not have to worry about it. After a day or two when the foam subsides then you can put an airlock back on.

Better safe than sorry.

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yeah pretty much. here's the recipe. It's an Imperial Stout


4lbs dark syrup malt
6lbs dark DME
1/4lb black patent
1/2lb crystal
1/4lb chocolate malt
1/2lb roasted barley
1lb honey
1oz Challenger hops (60min boil)
1oz Cascade hops (30min boil)
1oz Cascade hops (15min boil)
Irish ale yeast (White Labs) or equivalent

Bring 1.5-2gal water to 150ºF, steep grains (in grain bag) for 15min.
Remove grains and bring water to boil.
Dissolve all malt extract and honey, and return water to rolling boil.
Add hops according to schedule above for total 60min boil time.
Add Irish moss at final 15min.
Pour into fermenter with 3gal cold water (top off to 5gal if necessary) and pitch yeast at approx. 80ºF.

I bastardized it a little. I subbed 1 lb of dark brown sugar for the 1 lb of honey. It's gonna be my "Little Irish Bastard"

I would take the 6.7 gallon pail and turn it into a bottling bucket. Buy one of the 7.9 gallon fermenters your local homebrew store has for winemaking. This way you can brew what ever 5 gallon batch you want and not have this problem. Blow off = lost beer. Ferment in a container that can handle the beer you make.

If you bought one of the kits that has a 6.7 for a primary and there is no secondary, just a bottling bucket, you can use the 6.7 as a secondary (you will want to have a secondary).

Please don't take this as me trying to sell you something. Just trust me on this one. You can buy it at your local store. They will know which 7.9 gallon fermenter I am talking about.

Forrest
Austin Homebrew Supply

Austinhomebrew said:

I would take the 6.7 gallon pail and turn it into a bottling bucket. Buy one of the 7.9 gallon fermenters your local homebrew store has for winemaking. This way you can brew what ever 5 gallon batch you want and not have this problem. Blow off = lost beer. Ferment in a container that can handle the beer you make.

If you bought one of the kits that has a 6.7 for a primary and there is no secondary, just a bottling bucket, you can use the 6.7 as a secondary (you will want to have a secondary).

Please don't take this as me trying to sell you something. Just trust me on this one. You can buy it at your local store. They will know which 7.9 gallon fermenter I am talking about.

Forrest
Austin Homebrew Supply

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I bought a 7 gal glass carboy for the secondary. I had a buddy with me who has been brewing for about 7 or 8 years helping me put a kit together. I will look into a 7.9 though. I have been going through Kennebec Home Brewing Supplies in Farmingdale, ME. I saw some up there today. I'll definitely grab one next time i'm up there.

r3dn3ckstyl3z said:

I bought a 7 gal glass carboy for the secondary. I had a buddy with me who has been brewing for about 7 or 8 years helping me put a kit together. I will look into a 7.9 though. I have been going through Kennebec Home Brewing Supplies in Farmingdale, ME. I saw some up there today. I'll definitely grab one next time i'm up there.

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What you really have is a 6.5 gallon glass carboy and a 6.7 gallon "Ale Pail".

Keep them both. Buy the 7.9 fermenter for a primary and use the carboy for the secondary and use the 6.7 gallon fermenter for a bottling bucket.

You have to trust me on this. If you ask 10 brewers you get 12 answers.

You will thank me later. Your friend probably doesn't know the 7.9 is an option. The 7.9 is a little pricey but you can use it for years and years if you take care of it.

Forrest

Austinhomebrew said:

What you really have is a 6.5 gallon glass carboy and a 6.7 gallon "Ale Pail".

Keep them both. Buy the 7.9 fermenter for a primary and use the carboy for the secondary and use the 6.7 gallon fermenter for a bottling bucket.

You have to trust me on this. If you ask 10 brewers you get 12 answers.

You will thank me later. Your friend probably doesn't know the 7.9 is an option. The 7.9 is a little pricey but you can use it for years and years if you take care of it.

Forrest

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i'll keep that in mind. as for now, i don't think it'd be too safe to re-rack my primary, huh? might as well let it do it's thing for this one.

r3dn3ckstyl3z said:

i'll keep that in mind. as for now, i don't think it'd be too safe to re-rack my primary, huh? might as well let it do it's thing for this one.

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Keep an eye on the temperature! A vigorous fermentation in the summer can get HOT. Do you have a stick-on thermometer on the outside of the bucket? With an Irish ale yeast, you want the temperature inside to be 65-68 degrees. Any higher and you'll have a very fruity stout.

Right now its sitting right at about 67.5 Degress

r3dn3ckstyl3z said:

Right now its sitting right at about 67.5 Degress

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The room or the brew?

the brew is 67.5 degrees. I've got one of those Liquid Crystal thermometer stickers on all of my buckets and carboys.

r3dn3ckstyl3z said:

the brew is 67.5 degrees. I've got one of those Liquid Crystal thermometer stickers on all of my buckets and carboys.

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That's a good temp for that yeast, so you should be all set.

YooperBrew said:

That's a good temp for that yeast, so you should be all set.

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yeah i calmed down a good bit after about 14-16 hours. I removed the blow off and replaced my air lock. Now it's bubbling away happily.

I've found that brewing beer is like making a good smoked pork. Its nerve racking at first but if you just be patient and let it do its thing it will be worth it in the end.