"Yin-Yang Ale" blows its top...

The wife and I started our second batch last night.

Cooper's Dark hopped LME (3 lbs)
Coopers Light unhopped LME (3 lbs)
1 oz Amarillo hops (loose) @ 15 mins
2 packets Cooper's ale yeast- reconstituted/proofed.
OG 1.048
pitched @ 69 degrees F

We placed the wort in the fermentor (6.5 gal carboy) into a water bath and into the closet. This morning, expecting to see a good Kreuzen and an active airlock, I recoiled in horror when the airlock was full of wort, and it had slobbered considerably down the sides. The carboy was full of kreuzen!! Didn't see that coming... which tells me that the yeast of the last batch was half-dead (which helps to explain a good many things).

I reluctantly pulled the airlock and installed a blow-tube which immediately began to drain. This was about 8:30 am this morning.

At 1:30pm the kreuzen had diminished considerably, to about 1.5 inches above the waterline. I reinstalled a cleaned and sanitized airlock and the little bugger is hopping and popping as we speak. The yeast activity in the wort itself nearly resembles a rolling boil. Quite exiting!

My confusions:

I had read that a 5-gal batch in a 6.5 gal carboy had little to fear from a blowover, or any real need of a blow-hose.

Is this a NORMAL yeast reaction? Or more likely from pitching 2-packets of ale yeast?

Finally... the pitiful yeast performance of our first batch, when compared to this new batch, leaves me totally batffled. Until I take into account that although the tenth day of bottle condititioning/carbonating will be this Wednesday, one would assume that the beer would be fairly well carbonated. When it pours there is a good head and some fair effervenscence (sp?), but this lasts about 3 minutes and has the look of iced tea. Tastes great!! but just doesn't have the aesthetic mouthfeel (the bubbles) that one comes to expect. Very disappointing.

Our new plan is to dump all of the batch that is not EZ capped. Add 3-4 grains of new yeast to each bottle that is EZ-capped and give it another week. Any advice on this front?

So far we have decided between three names for our first batch, and this is contingent upon whether or not we can salvage it...

the first is "Pancake Wheat Ale", or...

"Flatliner Wheat", or...

"D.O.A. Ale"

Would love to hear some feedback and your comments.

GW

Primary: "Yin-Yang Ale"
Secondary: none
Bottled: A flat wheat yet to be named

GutWeizen said:

TIs this a NORMAL yeast reaction? Or more likely from pitching 2-packets of ale yeast?

Click to expand...

Sounds like a "blow-off tube necessitating" fermentation is not that uncommon, and can easily occur with 1 packet of yeast. That said, in my six batches so far, I've only had the krausen enter the airlock for one batch, and that happens to have been my first batch, and the only batch where I pitched two packets of yeast. So I imagine there is some statistical correlation there, although not a hard rule.

10 days for your bottled conditioned beer doesn't sound like enough time to consider dumping it. You might give all the bottles a roll around to wake up the remaining yeast, then wait a couple more weeks. No reason to toss good beer so soon. We had the same problems with our first batch (pilsner). We were very disappointed when we tried it at two weeks but we gave it a few more weeks, then it was just fine. Now, 48 batches later, we've learned to give it those batches enough time to really condition particularly the batches with less than explosive yeast.