Overflowing Airlock!

Hello all,
I brewed a clone of Allegash White yesterday and pitched the yeast at about 4pm. This morning I came down to check in on my airlock, not expecting to see anything yet, and it had overflowed! (covering the lid of the 6.5 gallon fermenting bucket with nastiness.) I cleaned it up and replaced the 3 piece airlock with a blow off tube. This happened on my last batch as well, and there are two possible reasons that I can think of. For both of these batches, I've started my yeast a couple of days before in a simple starter (2c water, 1/4c DME), so they should have a nice healthy yeast to get them going. I've also started keeping my fermenting bucket in a larger water bath and keeping the temp around 66-68.

When I told my wife about the overflowing airlock, she suggested "maybe you should stop doing that thing with the yeast." The allegash white OG is 1.052 and the previous batch, a green flash west coast ipa clone, was 1.074.

I did not have this sort of activity for my first 4 batches (no yeast starter or water bath), so is this sort of overflowing airlock normal? Is this a result of the higher OG, the yeast starter, the temperature, or all of the above?

Thanks,
John

There can be many variables in a blowout. Temp, yeast, gravity all play roles. I have personally had low gravity beer (1.040 range) blow out where a high gravity (1.080+) not. I like to think that blowouts just mean the yeast are having a hay day in your brew...which means you did something right!

Thanks for your comments...I guess I keep doing what I'm doing. Haven't tasted any of these 'explosive' beers yet, but I'm assuming that the crazy fermentation is a good thing.

The height of the krausen seems to vary somewhat by yeast strain as well. Some strains seem not to produce a lot of krausen, regardless of how active the fermentation is. I had one bad overflow, and ever since I ALWAYS use a blow off for the first 3-4 days. Then I switch to an airlock.
Also, keep making a starter for every batch. It ensures a good strong fermentation.

JohnK93 said:

Thanks for your comments...I guess I keep doing what I'm doing. Haven't tasted any of these 'explosive' beers yet, but I'm assuming that the crazy fermentation is a good thing.

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What temperatures are you pitching yeast at?

Rick

I cool the wort to 80F and top off with cool water after transferring to the fermenting bucket, so the wort is at 66-70F when I pitch. Yeast is at room temp, about 65 or so.

unionrdr said:

I've had blow off happen no matter whether pitched dry,starter,or rehydrated. When conditions are right,initial fermentation will be explosive.

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+1. Depends on a lot of things. I had a stout with an OG of 1.108 pitched onto a yeast cake from a previous brew (which I have heard is asking for a blowoff), with no issue. So it is obviously not just gravity.

You say it is in a water bath? What temp are you holding?

EDIT: Sorry, you said 66-68. If I was you I would try to hold it lower. Whatever the bottom of the ideal range listed is where I would keep it. Ie, if it says yeast is best from 60-68, keep it 60-62 if possible.

For now, this is about the lowest I can hold it. I'm using a fish tank heater that bottoms out at 68, although my thermometer floating in the bath reads 65-66 at this setting. If I turn off the thermometer (which I did today after the blowout), the temp at night will drop to about 60 or even a little lower.

Maybe I'll try using the thermometer only at night, I'm just trying to keep the temp as constant as I can. The yeast is a wyeast belgian, but I don't remember which strain. I'll check when I get home.

Any idea how low it will go if you don't use the heater at all?

I clicked on this thread totally looking for a photo.

I keep my house at 57 at night, so it could go somewhere south of 60.

I was in such a rush to clean up the mess and put in the blow off tube that I didn't stop to take a pic...wish I had!

I would take the airlock off... when it settles down put it back on.

With the "overpresure" occuring nothing is going down into it.

DPB

Hey from another CT brewer.

I too recently did an Allagash White clone a few weeks ago. I harvested the yeast from the four pack of bottles and did a stepped up starter to ensure I had enough yeast. Made a 5 gallon batch (probably around 4.5G based upon my estimation) in a 6.5G bucket. A tremendous amount of headspace! Even with that, my krausen reached teh lid of the bucket, and about a 1/4 inch up into the airlock (with blowoff tube connected). Mine was in my basement with an ambient temp similar to yours 63-68F.

I am not sure what yeast you used, but the one from the Allagash bottles is a monster.

JohnK93 said:

I keep my house at 57 at night, so it could go somewhere south of 60.

I was in such a rush to clean up the mess and put in the blow off tube that I didn't stop to take a pic...wish I had!

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Do you know the range listed for the yeast? If not, what's the yeast? I can likely find the ideal numbers.

There is a good chance that sitting in water your beer temp will not go below 60, especially during active fermentation. If it was me I would skip the aquarium heater.

The kit recipe said 68-70 degrees, but in my experience all the kit recipes I've used have said this. I don't have the recipe in from of me, so I don't recall witch yeast it was....one of the Wyeast belgian strains, but I don't remember which one.

I did some testing before I started using the heater, and the temp did drop below 60 at night, probably down to 58 or so. I also did a test that indicated the when the water bath temp said 60, the temp of the water in the middle of the fermenter (I used water for my test) was 5-6 degrees warmer, which I attribute to the fermenter being a closed vessel while the bath water has more exposure to the colder air surrounding it. Going to have to do some more testing to get the balance just right.

Keep making starters, maybe try a blow off tube.