Yeast Out the Top!

[mew]

I'm currently fermenting an american wheat for my girlfriend. This beer has to be passible at a minimum because it's a birthday present. There is also no margin for error, the due date is upon me. THIS beer must work!

It's now been 3 days since pitching a smack-pack of Wyeast 1010 american hefeweizen, and last night the yeast were going like crazy and the krausen was nearing the top of the better bottle. I wasn't too worried because I'd put 10 drops of foam control in at pitching time. Well, I woke up this morning and the airlock was gone and a good amount of yeast/beer was puddled around the carboy. What's most concerning is that the fermentation has slowed to a bubble every 3-4 seconds and the gravity is only down to 1.023 (starting gravity: 1.050).

I am concerned that the majority of the yeast were spat out and the beer may not reach the expected final gravity of 1.011-ish. Should I pitch another smack-pack or just wait it out? Anyone been in this predicament before, and how did it turn out?

 

[TipsyDragon]

RDWHAHB. the yeasties didn't make a break for it when they detonated the C4 and blew out the airlock. just sanitize the airlock and bung and put it back in. next time use a blowoff tube.

 

[Amity]

+1, especially with a wheat beer.

 

[Teromous]

Along with what the others have said, I'd also like to mention that one bubble every 3-4 is not that slow. I had one that was bubbling maybe one every 15-30 seconds so I took a gravity reading of about 1.011 and decided to rack into a secondary. When I did, later that day there was foam buildup and it ended up filling the airlock. I cleaned, sanitized, and replaced only to have the same thing happen the next day. I removed it and placed some tubing, which was fortunate because I ended up getting a lot of activity into the tube.

 

[jalgayer]

The yeast are fairly evenly distributed throughout the beer right? It usually looks like its churning all over the carboy.

I know some yeast are 'top fermenting' but I dont think that means they are all at the top... Right?

 

[TipsyDragon]

The yeast are fairly evenly distributed throughout the beer right? It usually looks like its churning all over the carboy.

I know some yeast are 'top fermenting' but I dont think that means they are all at the top... Right?

they are at the top of the water line not the foam.

 

[jalgayer]

they are at the top of the water line not the foam.

So then they are not below the surface churning away? What is all that churning?

 

[thesink]

RDWHAHB. the yeasties didn't make a break for it when they detonated the C4 and blew out the airlock. just sanitize the airlock and bung and put it back in. next time use a blowoff tube.

I've always wondered this, but what does RDWHAHB mean?

I agree with Tipsy...blowoff tube. I have a 5 gallon batch of the American Wheat brewing right now. She's an active one, she is, and I've got it sitting in a cooler surrounded by 60 degree water. I had a 5 gallon glass carboy nearly filled to the top, though. Everything I've read is that the 1010 is a vigorous sucker.

 

[Goingforsound]

Relax, Dont Worry And Have A Home Brew

 

[JoshuaWhite5522]

after a few days of fermentation the cell count of your brew is so high that any yeast that makes it out from the exploding airlock or from a blow-off tube won't really have much affect. I'd be more worried about the sanitation, and even then thats not too much to fret over. I had a completely forgotten to put an airlock on one of my carboys for two days once and was still ok.

RDWHAHB

 

[thesink]

Relax, Dont Worry And Have A Home Brew

Well, this is some good advice!

 

[suprchunk]

+1, especially with a wheat beer.

Exactly. Wheat is a huge contributor to this.

 

[mew]

Update:

The bubbling has only slowed a little since my initial post. I took a gravity reading today; it was down to 1.016, so I'm confident it'll make it down close to where it needs to be.

Thanks for the replies! Hopefully others can learn from this as well. To close the loop, I'll report again when it reaches final gravity.