Overactive fermentation. Do i need to get the paint ready?

Last night i finished up my Edmund Fitzgerald Porter Clone recipe from BYO and pitched my 1L White Labs WLP 013 London Ale yeast starter at 8pm. I made my starter on Friday night, and used my stir plate for the first time. The yeast was extremely healthy apparently as i have a fermentation going like i've never seen before. I just by happenstance rigged a blow off tube instead of the normal airlock since i didnt know how this yeast will behave. Good thing i did. I know overactive fermentations are normal and are a sign of healthy yeast. Im ok with it, but im wondering what to expect. Please take a look a this video and let me know if i need to change the water or increase the size of my blow off container.



It started off as clean Star San solution and was half full. Now the the bucket is almost a liter more full than i left it, and as you can see it has not intention to slow down. And advice is appreciated.

You might want to change the water if it's starting to get bad. The only reason behind this is it will start to get funky with a while yeast/mold growing in there. More importantly I would lower that blow off container to prevent it from siphoning back into your beer once the fermentation settles down. As of now this isn't going to happen as all the pressure from the ferment won't allow it.

Great point about lowering the container. Done! I think the overactive portion of the fomentation is over though. That was pretty cool though.

How warm did the carboy get? My guess is pretty damn warm...

its pegged at 72 degrees

Wow. Whats your ambient temperature? I had one beer do something like that on me and it rocketed past 80* on the exterior of my bucket in a hurry.

I'd guess the ambient temp would have to be around 55-62 degrees to keep a raging fermentor like that at 72... must be running the air conditioner!

I pitched a 1.5L starter of WLP002 into a Moose Drool clone last week. I pitched at about 62F and used a blow off with about the same crazy results. My ferm. temp never got above 67F, it was in our family room that has an ambient of about 60F.

The ambient temp was at 68F. I was using a portable heater in a washroom to keep the temp constant.

My beer was forever changed with a $15 investment: a Taylor brand digital probe thermometer.

http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-1470-Digital-Cooking-Thermometer/dp/B00004XSC5

I tape it to the side of the carboy, and surround it with an insulating layer of towel and bubble wrap also taped to the carboy. The area insulated is about the size of a shoebox lid, with the probe completely covered. That way, the probe measures the carboy temperature, not the ambient temperature. It was noted on the Jamil show that the temp difference between fermenting beer (as measured by a thermowell) and the side of a carboy is less than one degree (shocking) so this method is a highly accurate way to measure the fermenting beer's temperature, not the room temperature, which is about as helpful as the outdoor temperature.

bigbeergeek said:

It was noted on the Jamil show that the temp difference between fermenting beer (as measured by a thermowell) and the side of a carboy is less than one degree (shocking)

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I never would have guessed it would be that close. Do you happen to remember when or where it was brought up? I'd love to here the discussion.

I don't recall the first episode that mentioned it, but I've heard it mentioned a few times since. Jamil mentions it again in a recent (possibly the most recent?) Q&A episode in response to someone asking about buying a thermowell. Jamil said he doesn't bother with the minor contamination risk and uses a probe thermo, bubble wrap, etc on the outside of the carboy.

dub said:

its pegged at 72 degrees

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I had the exatct same thing happen last night and the temp pegged at 74!:fro:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/learned-lesson-regarding-blowoff-tubes-230629/