starter explosion!

i just brewed my 6th batch yesterday. and normally i just pitch the yeast straight then put the fermentation lock on and thats good enough.

however, the day before i decided to try my hand out at making a starter. everything seemed to go well and i pitched it feeling very confident. But when i took a look this morning, krausen had blown out of the fermentation lock and all over the carboy. its a 6 1/2 gal. better bottle. the krausen had never gone more than an inch high before, so i find this a bit surprising.

my questions are can i expect this to happen everytime i add a starter?

is there any disadvantage to it having started so fast?

and maybe i should get a blow off tube setup for the first few days now?

i must admit though, i am very impressed with how quick the starter worked.

overall a very positive experience so far with little extra work.

How big was the batch?
What temperature was the wort when you pitched the starter?

Both things have a huge impact on your krausen on your ceiling.

I always just use a blow off tube for all of my batches. As for the question about starters....well I've found the amount of krausen just depends on how much yeast you're pitching, the temperature that you're fermenting, and how much you've aerated. Higher numbers for all of the above *usually* means more krausen (and it also depends on your OG as well). You can try keeping your fermentation temp to be around 65, which does usually cut down on some of the krausen....but it's good practice to just stick with blow off tubes.

it was a 5 gal batch in a 6.5 gal better bottle.

and the wort was about 75 when yeast was pitched.

im having difficulties keeping fermentation temps under 70 degrees F even in an ice bath with tshirt over the carboy..