all grain=violent fermentation?

[schristian619]

It seems like every beer I've made since going all grain (5 batches now) have had crazy fermentation. I've had to switch to a blow off tube within 12 hours every time. I think I need to use one once when using extract. Is this normal? I know its not a problem, but seems odd. I've used dry and liquid yeast, the dry ive used rehydrated and not, and always use a starter with liquid. Anyway...just my observation

 

[The Pol]

It can be quite common... on larger beers, with healthy yeast counts, certainly. Welcome to AG!

 

[s3n8]

I have found that keeping temps toward the lower side or recommended helps keep krausen low. I just did an all grain oatmeal stout, 1.068 IIRC, kept the temps between 64 and 68 during fermentation, and had less than 1 inch of krausen gunk above the liquid line. I used to have Nottingham blowout before I spent $20 on a cooler and a couple blue ice packs. Of course different yeast behave differently. I just did a belgian brown ale with Wyeast 1762? that started around 68, and after fermentation started, I let it go up to 72 - 74. That got about 2" of gunk.

What yeast, and what temps?

 

[david_42]

I've never really noticed a big difference between extract and AG. Temperature, recipe and the yeast strain seem to be more important. My bigger beers tend to blow-up more often.

 

[The Pol]

My Hugh Heffe (heffe obviously) and B3's Fire In The Hole Ale are the only two that I have had blow off, a few have come close when I racked onto a yeast cake (read high cell count). Both of those recipes are posted in the recipe section here.

 

[schristian619]

It doesn't seem dependent on the gravities since it happend on a pale, an american red/amber, an AB clone, and Ed's Haus pale. Yeasts were Notty, s-05, wlp051, wlp001. Temps are kept at 64-66 in a temp controlled chest freezer, and I cool to under 70F before pitching. Like I said, its not a big deal, just more of an observation. Brewing a stone 11th anniversary clone next weekend (Teacha friend to homebrew day), we'll see if happens to that one too. Only this time, I'll fit the blow off tube imediately instead of checking on it every hour.

 

[GIusedtoBe]

My first AG was very active as well w/ 1056 Wyeast but it was because I mashed too low for too long and made it way too fermentable. It went to 1.004 so i have a thin 6.3% hazy pale ale. My AG batches w/ other yeasts have not been as active but that may be more to do w/ mash techniques and attenuation of the particular strain.

Regards,
Al

 

[blacklab]

Everyone one of my AG batches has featured mad fermentation, and also come complete with realistic boil over action.

None of the extracts had very vigorous ferms, nor were ever in danger of boilovers.

 

[schristian619]

same with me with the near boilovers, although most of my extract were on the stove before I got my burner.

 

[oswegan]

I have one going ballistic right now. It seems to be even more crazy due to the extra trub that got into the fermenter. I use 6 or 6.5 gallon fermenters so there isn't any blow off but lots of healthy foam and krausen.

 

[billtzk]

I just brewed a clone of Chimay Grand Reserve (blue) this past Sunday. It was a 10 gallon batch, so I made a half gallon yeast starter from two Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey Ale yeast packs. The OG was 1.087 and I fermented at 66 degrees. Fermentation went explosive in under 16 hours! I had constant worms of foam being pushed through my large colon-diameter blow off tube on my 14.5 gallon conical for an entire day, with a constant gushing of CO2 that made my sanitizer reservoir look like it was boiling.

It was a truly amazing and beautiful thing to behold, although I did lose well more than a half gallon to this monster blow off.