Can fermentation be too vigorous?

I have brewed two 5 gal all grain batches of the Dogfish 60 IPA clone with an OG of 1.068-1.070 using WLP001 with a 1 liter starter at 67* and good temp control. Both times the 3ft long 1" blow off tube has done the trick, but I wound up with a 1/4" to 1/2" of yeast in the bottom of the blow off container filled with starsan. Seems a little much. Am I looking at off flavors or other issues from this almost explosive fermentation?

Not unheard of at all. More likely to have off flavors if you have sluggish yeast activity. Big beers along with healthy yeast additions, will often require blow off tubes.

Thanks. I am still new to this hobby jumping right to all grain and trying to read anything and everything I can. Still there are questions and I thank the "old hands" for being patient with the noob.

Prolly too little headspace, if you made that much of a mess.

But ... no harm, no foul.

Don't think it is too little headspace since it is 5.25 on a 6.5 conical. No mess since everything ended up in the bubbler container. Did get hop residue all 3 ft to the end of the blow off tube. For whatever reason, it seems this beer makes the yeast go wild. Yooper's Doghead fish 60 IPA clone. Tastes even better than it ferments!

triletter said:

Don't think it is too little headspace since it is 5.25 on a 6.5 conical. No mess since everything ended up in the bubbler container. Did get hop residue all 3 ft to the end of the blow off tube. For whatever reason, it seems this beer makes the yeast go wild. Yooper's Doghead fish 60 IPA clone. Tastes even better than it ferments!

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I have made it twice and both times the ferment was wild.

triletter said:

Don't think it is too little headspace since it is 5.25 on a 6.5 conical. No mess since everything ended up in the bubbler container. Did get hop residue all 3 ft to the end of the blow off tube. For whatever reason, it seems this beer makes the yeast go wild. Yooper's Doghead fish 60 IPA clone. Tastes even better than it ferments!

Click to expand...

The smartass in me says obviously it WAS too little headspace.

But seriously, your biggest concern with "too vigorous" of a fermentation would be that your temps could get out of control, since the yeast are generating heat. As long as you keep temps under control, you should be fine.

Discnjh you are obviously correct in the too little headspace; now I have an excuse to get a bigger vessel so I do have enough headspace.

I have a controller on the fridge so she stays pretty consistently at the 66-67* mark. I guess I could chill those little yeasties down a bit, but still need them to do their thing.

Sounds like OHIOSTEVE has some pretty good ferments on the same brew so I don't think I screwed anything up.