Help a newb with explosive fermentation!

[KBR97]

Ok so yesterday afternoon I got everything together for my 1g batch of Caribou Slobbber. Boiled water, added, extract, hops...ect ect. Pitched the yeast after wort cooled. I put the 1g carboy of wort with airlock into a 5g brewing bucket just for safe storage while it does its thing for the next couple weeks. Good thing because I had a little bit of overflow.

It wasn't to bad of a cleanup but now I'm stuck with this.....

Should it knock it back down with a sanitized butter knife or something? I don't want to contaminate anything and not really sure what to do next.

 

[m3n00b]

If you don't have a blow off tube then I would put a sanitized piece of foil over it til it calms down a little. What yeast and temp?

 

[KBR97]

It seams to have calmed down quite a bit. The yeast I cant remember the name, Ill have to scrounge around for the wrapper. Its whatever yeast comes with caribou slobber kit.
The temp is a bit high. Low 70's. I'm in a apartment with a portable AC, the temp is what it is. Can't really get it any lower.



Edit...I'm 99% sure it is this yeast...

 

[m3n00b]

It seams to have calmed down quite a bit. The yeast I cant remember the name, Ill have to scrounge around for the wrapper. Its whatever yeast comes with caribou slobber kit.
The temp is a bit high. Low 70's. I'm in a apartment with a portable AC, the temp is what it is. Can't really get it any lower.



Edit...I'm 99% sure it is this yeast...

70 ambient is too hot for Windsor yeast. I wouldn't want ambient temps to be any higher than 63 at the start of fermentation with that yeast. The temp inside a smaller fermentor like that could be 3-4F higher than ambient during the most active time. You can try cooling it in a bucket or ice chest of chilled water switching out frozen water bottles as needed. Not only will this help control blow off but it will reduce off flavors and fusel alcohols.

 

[J187]

And what M3 is saying could be compounded by the fact I think you've pitched too much yeast for your batch. Provided the yeast is healthy, 2g of yeast should do well in a gallon of 1.052. If you pitched the entire 5g packet, that's twice what you need. This could result in a very fast take off and more vigorous fermenation, in turn producing more heat than normal even... I'm not really sure how it effects such small batch sizes, but over pitching isn't a great thing to do - albeit not as bad as under pitching... but you can rob the yeast of the growth phase in which they produce certain desired characteristics of the particular strain.

 

[dstranger99]

Put it in a small cooler with some ice............

 

[KBR97]

I pitched half the packet as per the brewing instructions.

I'm going to try 3 frozen water bottles to cool it off a bit. Like I said the 1g carboy is sitting inside a 5g bucket, so the frozen bottles should fit perfect between the two.

 

[MasonDixon]

I pitched half the packet as per the brewing instructions.

I'm going to try 3 frozen water bottles to cool it off a bit. Like I said the 1g carboy is sitting inside a 5g bucket, so the frozen bottles should fit perfect between the two.

One suggestion I've seen on a forum here somewhere was to put the fermenter into a tub of water and leave it there. This supposedly drops ambient temp a bit from room temp and slows any temp change effect rising/falling room temp. Never tried it but might work.

 

[uatuba]

Even in humid Alabama, which makes swamp coolers less effective due to slower evaporation, I can lower the temperature by 11* of my fermentation using a tub with 4" of water and a towel wrapped tightly around the fermenter.

It is very easy, and it will make better beer.

 

[KBR97]

Even in humid Alabama, which makes swamp coolers less effective due to slower evaporation, I can lower the temperature by 11* of my fermentation using a tub with 4" of water and a towel wrapped tightly around the fermenter.

It is very easy, and it will make better beer.

Are you using any ice or just the water?

I set mine up in the bucket with some water and a soaked t-shirt draped over it. I'll see how that does.

 

[uatuba]

Are you using any ice or just the water?

Water only. Obviously, there is a limit to the low you'll be able to reach based on ambient room temp. I should have mentioned that I also use a cheap oscillating tower fan to blow across the wrapped fermenter.

 

[BridgewaterBrewer]

Sounds like the right approach. A lot of water will keep it at whatever temp is in the room. I've done this when fermenting in a bucket in a cool room but simply trying to keep temp from rising. A swamp cooler in contrast is a few inches of water and a rag or tshirt on top and will actually keep it a little lower than room temp especially if you have a fan on it. I've done this for small containers when the room temp is too high. Can do even better with either approach by adding frozen bottles. It might be a little late to prevent all the off flavors but let us know how it goes. That beer should be somewhat forgiving.

 

[KBR97]

I just got back from the pool supply store. I picked up a floating thermomerter to keep an eye on the water temp. I have some frozen water bottles ready to go in if need be.
Thanks for all the advice. Hopefully its not ruined lol.