New PET 6 gallon carboy

[MicheleE63]

Need some answers from the pros:
I'm a newbie and only on my 2nd batch. I bought a 6 gallon PET carboy to use as my primary fermentation container instead of the pail that came with my kit because I wanted to be able to see the brew during fermentation. So I brewed the White House Honey Ale last night and put it in the carboy, put a stopper in with a bubbler airlock. I checked it this morning before I left for work-everything looked great. I got home from work to find a huge mess. Beer, foam everywhere. While I was mopping, the whole stopper blew off completely. So, I hooked up my siphon hose and and have the other end sitting in a pan with starsan in it. Right now I would say its "vigorously" fermenting. Bubbling like crazy and noisy as hell. Lots of foam. So, is it the carboy, the airlock, or the beer? First batch in the pail fermented slow for 2-3 days, no issues, and is now bottled and carbonating. It was a Red Ale. I like the clear carboy but I don't want to clean up this mess again. What's up?

 

[aiptasia]

It's the yeast. Blow offs are very common, and the honey ale has a lot of fermentables in it. An aggressively fermenting yeast can cause a blow off in no time. You did nothing wrong, you did everything right. Your yeasts love that wort and are going to town. Sorry for the mess, but it happens. Welcome to brewing.

For future reference, that foam you see is called the Krausen and it will begin to crash in a few more days. Continue to use the blowoff tube method on future beers (especially malty ones) or add a few drops of fermcap to your beer to prevent the krausen from getting out of control.

 

[airving]

volume, volume, volume. How big (gallons) was your bucket? And how many gallons of wort did you put into the carboy? It's always a risky proposition when you've got only about a gallon of headroom left. Being proactive with a blowoff tube is a good idea. Cooling down your fermentation (if it's at room temperature) might also reduce the vigor a bit.

But I'll second the statement that you did good: obviously the yeast are very happy. Typicaly response you might get here is "pics or it didn't happen". We want to see the carnage . Browse for pics of explosive fermentations that have hit the ceiling...

 

[MicheleE63]

Airving: I brewed 5 gallons of Honey Ale and my carboy is a 6 gallons, so I must be short of headroom. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the carnage, but next time I will for sure. Believe me, it definitely happened! I'm guessing it will happen again. 2 batches and I'm hooked for sure, so many more messes to come. So, I guess I'll be in the market for a bigger carboy. I like the 5 gallon amount for now, so if it's more room I need, so be it! Good to know all is well with this brew. As I'm writing this I can hear it in the spare room - sounds like babbling brook in there. Thanks for the quick response and advice - I'm trying to read as much as possible but there is SO MUCH information to learn...

Also thanks to Aiptasia for your help - I love this forum! Lots of info and knowledge for the idiot beginners like myself.

 

[jbaysurfer]

Airving: I brewed 5 gallons of Honey Ale and my carboy is a 6 gallons, so I must be short of headroom. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the carnage, but next time I will for sure. Believe me, it definitely happened! I'm guessing it will happen again. 2 batches and I'm hooked for sure, so many more messes to come. So, I guess I'll be in the market for a bigger carboy. I like the 5 gallon amount for now, so if it's more room I need, so be it! Good to know all is well with this brew. As I'm writing this I can hear it in the spare room - sounds like babbling brook in there. Thanks for the quick response and advice - I'm trying to read as much as possible but there is SO MUCH information to learn...

Also thanks to Aiptasia for your help - I love this forum! Lots of info and knowledge for the idiot beginners like myself.

Generally speaking, 1 gallon of headspace is enough in a 6G carboy, but every fermentation is different. I use blowoff tubes exclusively now for the first week of fermentation and I had 4G of beer in a 6G carboy blow a pint of gunk into the blowoff jar with starsan.

San Diego Super yeast in high gravity beers does this all the time. And remember this: blowoffs don't discriminate. This could've happened just as easily in your bucket fermenter.

 

[Yooper]

It's possible that a very active fermentation got very warm, and fermentation itself produces heat, and in a warm room it could get explosive! Try to keep the fermenter under 70 degrees, and the lower 60s is even better. You probably will still need a blow off tube with a 6 gallon carboy, but it might be more manageable if you keep it cooler.

Yeast love warm temperatures, and go crazy when the temperature is warmer. the best flavors in an ale come from lower fermentation temperatures, though, and 65-68 degrees is almost always ideal depending on the yeast strain used.

 

[MicheleE63]

Yooper - I live in Northern Illinois and I can tell you for certain it is NOT warm here today. 60's all day and I left the window open in the beer room " formerly the spare room". Thanks for the info on fermentation temps though - I wasn't sure if the yeast needed warmth to do it's job, but from your info I guess the answer is no. I can see I will need to invest in a few blow-off hoses to keep this from happening again. I've read a lot of your posts and they have helped a lot, so keep posting-we need you!

 

[Yooper]

Yooper - I live in Northern Illinois and I can tell you for certain it is NOT warm here today. 60's all day and I left the window open in the beer room " formerly the spare room". Thanks for the info on fermentation temps though - I wasn't sure if the yeast needed warmth to do it's job, but from your info I guess the answer is no. I can see I will need to invest in a few blow-off hoses to keep this from happening again. I've read a lot of your posts and they have helped a lot, so keep posting-we need you!

A cheap and easy way to keep an eye on fermentation temperature is to buy a few of those "fermometers". They are thermometer strips that you can stick on the carboy and they give you a good idea at a glance of the actual fermentation temperature. If you don't have a homebrew store near you, you could buy aquarium strips from a place like Walmart. You want to show the temperature from 59-75 or so.

I've personally seen beer be 10 degrees warmer than the ambient temperature, so even in a cool 65 degree room, the fermentation temperature is almost always over 70 degrees, but also could be approaching 80 degrees with a vigorous fermentation, especially if the wort wasn't cooled below 65 before adding the yeast.

 

[MicheleE63]

Yooper - I didn't realize the brew temp could be so much higher than the room temp. The temp strips sound like a good idea. I have one on my original pail fermentor, but didn't get one for this new carboy. Ahhhh, so much to learn, but I'm lovin' it so far! Thanks again for the help!