Hyperdrive Ferment?

[vincanis]

Hey all,

On Friday (1/20) I started a True Brew Porter kit. I waited until I saw signs of fermentation about 3 hours later, and threw in yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. As soon as the mixture hit the beer, it instantly kicked the ferment to go into hyperdrive and it almost foamed over right there.

I threw in a blowoff tube and let it go to town. Over night it blew off probably 2 quarts of liquid, and then yesterday between 10 am and about 3pm it blew off probably another 1-1.5 quarts and then slowed down enough to put an airlock on it.

When I checked it at 9am it was going a lot slower, but by now it has stopped (or at least as far as I can see it has). Should I let it sit and see what happens?

 

[frazier]

Yes you should let it sit. You can see what has happened in another three or four weeks.

Sounds like a healthy fermentation - this is why you need headspace in your primary.

Cheers!

 

[Skyforger]

Why, what else would you do? It's not going to be ready yet, even if all the sugars are fermented. Just let it sit for a while to settle/clean up. For a porter I'd let it sit two to three weeks at least in primary before doing anything with it, except in some rarefied circumstances.

 

[vincanis]

.
this is why you need headspace in your primary.

Yeah...I didn't mean to leave such little room, but at least it didn't all go on my floor. That would've been a pain to get out of the carpet.

And to Skyforger: I don't know. There could've been a crazy suggestion.

And a question about racking to a secondary, should I do that in two weeks or one after the start date?

 

[Skyforger]

Yeah, always worth asking I guess. But I would just leave it sit for a while.

A lot of people, myself included, don't use secondaries anymore - except in special circumstances, like for fruit additions or very strong beers we won't bottle for months. It's completely unnecessary, and it adds another step for something to go wrong (i.e, oxygen damage or infection). I would just wait three weeks, take two gravity readings two days apart to make sure it's done, then bottle it with a bottling bucket (If you have one).

If you do want to use a secondary, I would wait two weeks, rack it to secondary, then wait two more before bottling.

 

[vincanis]

I do have a bottling bucket luckily. I got the True Brew kit with the 5 gallon carboy. Thanks for the response.