I bought the Arrogant Bastard clone kit a few weeks ago along with a few items to assist in making starters for future heavy beers. I didn't realize it when I ordered, but apparently it's not normal to make a starter using dry yeast. I read several threads on this site and decided that I would go ahead and do it anyway. I used approximately 4 oz of extra light DME with 2 cups of water. There was obvious evidence of fermentation, and I swirled it every so often. There was eventually a half inch or so of yeast cake at the bottom of the beaker, so I cold crashed it in the fridge to allow me to siphon off the extra liquid. I left just enough to allow me to swirl it and create a slurry for pitching.
The brew went well and I used my wort chiller to cool the wort to 76° in about 15 mins. I hit the expected OG of 1.074. I then pitched my starter slurry and waited. About 8 hours later it was bubbling, and then another hour or two later I checked and it had foamed up through the airlock. I changed that out in favor of the blowoff tube. I put everything in my swamp cooler bucket, which was a good decision because it continued to foam through the night and made quite a mess inside the bucket. After 28-30 hours, it was obvious that it was no longer foaming, so I put the airlock back in and cleaned everything up. It was still pretty active with 3-4 bubbles per second. Now here we are 4 hours later (so the 32-34 hour mark) and it's down to about 1 bubble/second.
The unfortunate part of the whole thing is that I lost about 0.25 gallons due to all the foaming.
I'll keep the thread updated as time goes along. If anyone has any tips on how to control the foaming, I'm all ears. I love AB, so assuming this kit turns out well (which the reviews say it will), I will be brewing this again.
The brew went well and I used my wort chiller to cool the wort to 76° in about 15 mins. I hit the expected OG of 1.074. I then pitched my starter slurry and waited. About 8 hours later it was bubbling, and then another hour or two later I checked and it had foamed up through the airlock. I changed that out in favor of the blowoff tube. I put everything in my swamp cooler bucket, which was a good decision because it continued to foam through the night and made quite a mess inside the bucket. After 28-30 hours, it was obvious that it was no longer foaming, so I put the airlock back in and cleaned everything up. It was still pretty active with 3-4 bubbles per second. Now here we are 4 hours later (so the 32-34 hour mark) and it's down to about 1 bubble/second.
The unfortunate part of the whole thing is that I lost about 0.25 gallons due to all the foaming.
I'll keep the thread updated as time goes along. If anyone has any tips on how to control the foaming, I'm all ears. I love AB, so assuming this kit turns out well (which the reviews say it will), I will be brewing this again.