Limiting Blow Off

Brewed my first stout yesterday with a OG of 1.092. Made a three litter starter with from White labs english ale yeast. Added the starter when the beer was at about 78 deg. Looks like fermentation started within a couple hours.

For blow off I used 1/2" hose into a 1/2 gallon bucket with a couple of inches of water. When I woke up this morning it was overflowing and I had gone from about 5.25 gal to 4.5. My guess to keep this from happening in the future would be to pitch the yeast at a colder temp, say 68-70. Any other suggestions? Sucks loosing almost a gallon of brew.

Get a bigger fermenter. For me, stouts have always had massive amounts of blowoff.

Yikes.... Maybe 62-65F & Fermcap-s.

+1 on lower temps and Fermcap. Works for me. I've never had to use a blowoff tube.

I also did use fermcap in the boil and then added a couple more drops to the fermenter before pitching the yeast. The bottle says do not freeze on it though and it sat on my doorstep in neat zero temps. The carboy is a 6.5. I guess next time go with a much lower pitching temp.

Hope I don't really like the brew since I will be a gallon short.

naamanf said:

Hope I don't really like the brew since I will be a gallon short.

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I am not sure that will make you feel any better if the beer comes out cr@ppy. I used a powdered fermcap in an erlmyer flask and was very pleased not to have to clean the stove afterwards.