Urgent fermentation issue

I brewed a hefeweizen 3 days ago and racked it into my 6.5 gal carboy. I used WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast and vigorously aerated the wort, which I am wondering if I overdid. Within one day of fermenting, the yeast bubbled all the way up through the rubber cork and airlock. I am worried of contamination into the wort but didn't know if this is the case. I plan to keep it in the primary 10 days. Thanks for the help!

Sincerely,

Worried brewer

 

That's pretty typical with that strain. Although that's White Labs, Wyeast states that you should allow a full 33% headroom for their variety of the same strain (3068).

As far as contamination, don't worry, you'll be fine. With all that outward pressure, nothing bad can get in.

 

You're fine. That yeast is known as a violent fermenter. I prefer to use 7.5 gallon plastic buckets over glass when I use it. It's makes a great hefe though, and it's worth the trouble. If you attach a blow off hose it will make things easier for you. The risk of infection is low because all the co2 is pushing things out, and not letting the bad **** in.

 

Your beer is probably fine, but you do need to rectify the situation.

Most of us use a "blowoff" to avoid this. You need a section about three feet long of 1" ID and 1 and 1/8" or 1 and 1/4" OD tubing. The tubing will fit perfectly into the hole in your carboy; the other end you will put into a container of water or starsan (a 2 litre flask or ice cream pail, for instance. Make sure it is lower than the level of the liquid in your carboy. Now the larger tubing accommodates the pressure coming from your fermentation and allows it to escape so you will see a constant bubbling. You may even get krausen coming all the way through the tube and down into your "blowoff vessel." Once the strongest part of fermentation is over you can re-attach your airlock, but there is no rush to do so.

 

You need a blow-off tube... I use a 3 piece air lock, a tube and a growler half-full of star sans (one end of tube goes over the little stem in the air lock and the other into the growler)...

Right now you should remove that air lock, clean it well, sanitize it and then replace it. It's possible that that it's blocked and CO2 pressure is building up. If your worried about infections while you clean/sanitize the air lock - use a sanitized tin-foil while you clean the air lock.

This happens more often than not with some yeasts.. nothing to worry about. Once I came home from work and there was a trail of blow off down my garage and out into my driveway. Now I always use a blow-off tube.

Good luck.

 

Did you aerate with air or pure oxygen? It is not possible to over do it with just air. With pure oxygen you can over do it and get higher alcohols. When I first got my oxygen kit I aerated for about 3 mind and ended up getting the higher alcohols.

 

Oh yeah. You can uses blow off tube rather than an airlock next time

 

you should put on a blowoff tube for the first few days and you won't have a airlock full of beer

 

Awesome, thanks everyone. I aerated in the carboy rolling it back and forth manually for a few 5 minute increments. I am going to get the tubing for the blowoff tube and switch it out tonight. Cheers!
One last tidbit-- I put in 1 oz of ground coriander and bitter orange peel approx 10 minutes left in boil. Would it be advised to rack into secondary to filter out the beer again before bottling? I wasn't planning on doing so

 

Not necessary. Just step away from the carboy (after you put on your blowoff).