Excess blow-off??? Now even the blow-off is fermenting...

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beowulf

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Greetings,

Brewed what I hope to be a delicious Old Ale (in the style of Fuller's 1845) yesterday, and fermentation is officially off the charts. Yes, this is a good thing. However, I was a bit taken aback when I noticed that the blow-off container (1/2 gal growler) was about 1/2 full.

Now my growler has a layer of yeast about 2" thick, and the beer in the growler is fermenting wildly (mini snowstorm, just like in the carboy). I realize that there is probably enough yeast left in the carboy to finish things off, but I'm wondering if anyone has had the same experience, and if the end result was favorable. Seems like a lot of yeast to end up in the growler, but what do I know...


By the by, I added a pretty big starter (Wyeast activator pitched to a 1L starter, stepped up to 3L, then chilled and poured off) to a 1.070 wort, so I would hope that there's enough yeast left.


As an aside, since my 7.5 gallon bucket is currently occupied, looks like I may invest in a 6-6.5 gallon carboy or another 7.5 gallon bucket and leave the 5 gallon for a secondary.


Regardless, this is one of the things I love about brewing...seeing those yeasties in a feeding frenzy :)
 
All normal. I've seen it happen before, though it's usually not as obvious. You'll have plenty of yeast in the carboy to finish the job.
 
I recently had one where I blew off a lot of yeast and the beer got stuck, but you pitched a lot more yeast in the first place than I did. I think you'll be fine, but definitely get a bigger primary fermenter than a 5 gallon carboy.
 
Thanks for your responses....definitely getting another larger-sized fermenter.
 
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