Never have explosive fermentation

I've made somewhere around a dozen batches now, give or take a few, and I've yet to get anywhere close to clogging up my airlock. I've never really had more than a few inches of krausen. I read so much about blow off tubes being essential but the one time I decided to use one (a high abv beer with a big starter) it turned out to be completely unnecessary.

I'm using a combination of glass carboys and buckets with at least 6-8 inches from the wort to the top of the carboy lip. I think my glass carboys are 6.5 gallons each and I brew 5 gallons. Is this more head space than most people have?

I'm not really complaining here - I've probably saved myself a lot of hassle - but I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. What are some factors that contribute to particularly volatile fermentation?

You're wondering if something is wrong because you haven't had an explosive fermentation?

There are many factors involved in fermentation vigor, not least of which include pitching rates, temperature, wort composition and yeast strain. If you stick with it for a while, you'll certainly get a messy fermentation at some point or another, but there's nothing to be worried about that you haven't so far.

So a few questions for you (the factors):
How much krausen is 'a few inches'?
What temperatures do you ferment at?
Do you make starters?
Do you add yeast nutrient / energizer?
Do you aerate or use oxygen?
Do you sacrifice small animals to the beer gods?

On a recent batch (still in 6gal fermenter), I have about 3 inches from the wort to the shoulder of the BB, or something close to 6 from top of wort to lip of the vessel. Of course, it narrows very rapidly from the shoulder to the top, so there's not much useful volume there. With starter and yeast energizer, the airlock launched. Blowoff tubes for me from now on.

Fermentations that are too hot can lead to very active fermentations that may blow off. Some yeast strains are more active than others, so if you use one or two yeast primarily they just may be low foamers that don't create a very large kreausen.

However, each fermentation is unique, and while one may be extremely active and blow off, another might be quite the opposite.

If you haven't had a blow-ff yet, don't fret,all is well., Having said that, it is a good idea to hook up your blow off rig every time for the first few days, so when it does happen you have saved yourself a lot of trouble.

Schnitzengiggle said:

If you haven't had a blow-ff yet, don't fret,all is well., Having said that, it is a good idea to hook up your blow off rig every time for the first few days, so when it does happen you have saved yourself a lot of trouble.

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+1 to this..

I've brewed for a year or so.. OG's ranging from 1.095 to 1.040.. I had never had a blow off until my most recent porter (OG 1.056) it clogged my airlock and ended up exploding.. Air lock hit the ceiling..

Just consider yourself lucky... And always use a blow off tube

Each and every fermentation is different. You never really know what is going to happen. I have bigger brews (1.087) just chug along slowly and had one of the most violent ferments I have ever seen from a relatively low gravity (1.052) brew. It went crazy and blew off for a couple of days. All at proper ferment temps.

As a precaution I routinely hook up a blow off tube.

MalFet said:

You're wondering if something is wrong because you haven't had an explosive fermentation?

There are many factors involved in fermentation vigor, not least of which include pitching rates, temperature, wort composition and yeast strain. If you stick with it for a while, you'll certainly get a messy fermentation at some point or another, but there's nothing to be worried about that you haven't so far.

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What is it about new brewers needing something to worry about? They're like my mother, they're not happy unless they're stressing out about something. Next thing you know is that they're going to be worried if they're not worried about something. :fro:

Revvy said:

What is it about new brewers needing something to worry about? They're like my mother, they're not happy unless they're stressing out about something. Next thing you know is that they're going to be worried if they're not worried about something. :fro:

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When you read about all the brewing disasters on HBT, i.e. beer painted ceilings, dumped batches, ruined equip, stuck fermentations, yadda yadda... I guess you just figure if you haven't had one of these, you're living on borrowed time.

S04 was only yeast so far i needed a blowoff for.

Try a high gravity Belgian with 3787 and pitch onto a yeast cake from a Patersbier. Even plenty of Fermcap S couldn't hold that beast back. It's something I won't forget. Lesson learned on blow off tube for certain fermentations.

Active fermentation is actually pretty exciting until you have to clean one off your walls, your ceiling, or you have to rewash all the clothes in your closet. Oh, and the 'cleaning one of your walls' part? Yeah, real p.i.t.a. They don't just wipe off. You have to stand there with a warm rag, waiting for it to soften up, only to be able to wipe down that small section... repeat.. over, and over...

Are you using really soft water? Yeast like calcium and magnesium, if you've got really soft water they might not be getting enough nutrients.

My water is low in calcium and magnesium but I still get a lot of krausen and regularly need blow off tubes.

Had a RIS that I put into gallon carbouys, (2 gal. batch split between 3). When shaking up after first 14 hours to add more oxygen it got a nice foam, next day it had got to the airlock! It was only just over half full as well!

solbes said:

Try a high gravity Belgian with 3787 and pitch onto a yeast cake from a Patersbier. Even plenty of Fermcap S couldn't hold that beast back. It's something I won't forget. Lesson learned on blow off tube for certain fermentations.

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Exactly my experience. Mine was a Belgian Dubble partial mash with yeast from my Patersbier. I made a starter though. It blew pretty good.

My winter ale with WLP023 Burton's Ale yeast REALLY blew and I used plenty of Fermcap S in both. They were just a tad over 5 gallons in a 6 gallon Better Bottle.

My oatmeal stout with wlp 023 burton ale yeast went crazy on me too!

Hey thanks for all the replies.

I'm not really complaining or worried as much as curious! I keep hearing about "crazy krausen" and "clogged airlocks" but haven't experienced either. Obviously this is a good thing! Your stories, good and bad, help me become a better home brewer.

The yeast strain is the number 1 factor. Each one behaves differently. If you ever use Weihenstaphen Weizen and don't need a blowoff tube then you have a problem.

Cellarbrau said:

The yeast strain is the number 1 factor. Each one behaves differently.

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I've used the same strain in different beers and have gotten totally opposite reactions. Similar temperatures and one will have a lot of activity and another one will have very little. I think there are a lot of variables and maybe the yeast have minds of their own!

kh54s10 said:

I've used the same strain in different beers and have gotten totally opposite reactions. Similar temperatures and one will have a lot of activity and another one will have very little. I think there are a lot of variables and maybe the yeast have minds of their own!

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do you use starters?

i'll just throw this in the kitty, but i've heard/read somewhere that using whirfloc compared to not using it can result in smaller krausen/less violent seeming fermentation... can't remember where it was, but i seem to remember it was an experiment they did between BYO and basic brewing radio. it was a long time ago.

Almost on cue I had my first "explosive" fermentation last night. Brewed around 6pm, woke up at 6am and the top had blown off. I used Wyeast Weihenstephan Weizen 3068. The batch is 2.5 gallons and the OG is 1.050.

NICE!!! Now if you hadn't posted about it, it would never have happened.

I brewed last night and installed a blow off tube because I remembered this thread and my one and only explosion. Pitched an IPA onto 1/2 of the washed yeast cake from my Pale Ale. So far so good.

gurrback said:

Almost on cue I had my first "explosive" fermentation last night. Brewed around 6pm, woke up at 6am and the top had blown off. [...]

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Obviously, you were a marked man for starting this thread, it was just a matter of time

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

Obviously, you were a marked man for starting this thread, it was just a matter of time

Cheers!

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The beer gods have extracted their vengance. Where's the Beer porn?

gurrback said:

Almost on cue I had my first "explosive" fermentation last night. Brewed around 6pm, woke up at 6am and the top had blown off. I used Wyeast Weihenstephan Weizen 3068. The batch is 2.5 gallons and the OG is 1.050.

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Same thing happened to me except I had a blowoff tube.

On another note, is an explosive fermentation related to higher temps? I would think at some level you wouldn't want it because it would be harder to control the fermentation temperature. I wouldn't want to have it take a long time to start, but in my mind, a controlled and steady fermentation seems beneficial. Anybody?

For the first 12 hours it was at about 70f ambient. Now it's in a swamp cooler at 64-66f. I'm planning on leaving it there for a week or so and then transferring to secondary with some oranges.