Crazy vigorous fermentation

Hey all,
So I'm still newish to brewing though I've done about 7 successful batches. I've always done them roughly the same way and they've all been extracts

I just brewed a Sierra Nevada clone. I couldn't for the life of me get the wort to cool down so after an hour and a half of trying I ended up pitching the yeast at 95 degrees f. I know I shouldn't have but i had to be up for work in 6 hours so I did it.

Next morning I check it out and it's fermenting pretty good within the first six hours. Then my wife calls me and said some is coming out of the air lock, then she calls and said its blown. So I got her to quickly set up a sanitized blow over tube into a pitcher of water. And it is now still vigorously fermenting 20 hours later

So should I call it? Is this batch just screwed from the get go or I should I ride it out?

 

Let it ride. Pitching at 95* will cause a lot of esters to be produced. What yeast are you using? Always pitch at the proper temperature (62-65 degrees is optimal). If you have to let it cool overnight that's fine. I've done it many of times with no issues.

It's also pretty vigorous because pitching at that warm of a temp the yeast probably got to work very quick and made lots of other yeasties when multiplying.

The fact that the top blew is fine. The yeast were probably still making enough CO2 to keep any unwanted air out and the yeast had been to work on the wort already so I wouldn't worry about infection.

Let it ride for awhile. Maybe 2 weeks or so in the fermenter. That'll give the yeast time to "clean up" what's happened but the esters will be there to stay I believe.

 

I've pitched at this temp before and it still tastes good (in my opinion at least haha) is it a hard and fast rule that pitching at higher temp causes off flavors or is it just a crap shoot?

Oh and it was wyeast 1056. It was the first liquid yeast I've done

 

In the future let it cool even if you have to leave it until it cools on it's own. Also start every fermentation with a blow off tube.

Let this one ride and hope for the best. There will probably be off flavors. How bad they are only time will tell. I did my first one a little warm, low 70s and I don't know if it was still an Irish Red ale or a HOT Irish Red. It was pretty good but I don't know if it really tasted like it should have.

 

Ok, thanks for the replies. I guess I gotta just wait it out :-/

 

It's ok. Good learning experience. We've all done it probably. Next time seal up the beer with your bung/airlock or bung/blow off tube and put it in a place to cool down to the proper temp. As long as you have a clean vessel and is properly sanitized nothing will get in there and bother it.

Also, rereading your original post, don't put a blowoff tube in water only. Make sure it's a StarSan mixture. Same would go for your airlock if you use that.

 

I had a similar thing happen. Beer tastes great! Don't worry about it, us new guys don't know what its supposed to taste like, so I think we enjoy it more even if it has a few "off" flavors. Its still gonna be beer!

 

jackpot! That's kind of my philosophy. I'd rather be ignorant and enjoy my beer than to know all the subtle flavor variations and never be satisfied

 

Often you can get away with pitching at too high temps without dramatically bad off flavors, but sometimes you get very prominent and unfixable off flavors like fusel alcohols.

While many home brewers delight at a very vigorous start to ferm, as Ive gained experience I view this as a less positive event. Here's why and how I handle it:

Most off flavors are produced early in the ferm process due to the yeast being stressed in some way (temp too high, under/over pitch, lack of 02/nutrients...).

My process now is to chill my wort to target temp (lower end of range for the specific yeast) over night and then aerate and pitch the next AM. This results in a less vigorous start (at least not overly dramatic) and less chance of off flavors.

Temp control is especially important early in the ferm process (ferm activity alone can raise temp significantly). Later in the ferm process, production of off flavors is less likely and temp control a bit less critical. Remember its actual wort temp thats important not just ambient temp.

If you are going to pitch at higher temps and/or without temp control then best to stick with fuller bodied beers because off flavors will be less noticeable. If brewering something like a Pilsner then even the slightest off flavor will stand out.

Also, consider using a yeast that is more tolerant of higher temps.