Hey howdy hey,
So I brewed and English Barleywine last Sunday, a monster of a beer with OG: 1.120, 5 gallons on the nose, fermenting in a standard 6.5 gallon bucket with airlock.
Upon returning home last night and checking on it, it seemed the airlock had clogged and the lid blew off painting the walls of my closet a lovely shade of kraussen and hop.
after 3 hours of cleanup, I began to contemplate the source of the blow-over. I'm already kicking myself for not using a blowoff tube and eliminating such an issue in the future, however out of curiosity:
-This is the first really big beer i've made of such gravity. I've done several other 5+ gallon batches starting around 1.095 in the same bucket/ airlock (including somewhat smaller beers using both the hyperactive Weihenstephan and Westmalle strains) and have had no issues with airlock clogging, many not even coating the bottom of the lid.
-This is the first big (high cell count) yeast starter I've pitched. 2 vials of WLP013 into 2L of 1.035 wort, pitched after 18hrs of constant aeration via aquarium pump. again, I've pitched yeast slurry from 1 gallon starters and haven't had such an effect.
-This is the first beer i've aerated using an aquarium pump vs. my previous method of fine mesh straining cooled wort. 20 minutes at a moderate airflow (cant really measure L/min with what I have). also, despite the straining, there was a fair amount of trub carried over into the primary, more than usual, but nothing excessive.
So I'm wondering which of these is the most likely culprit for the explosion of kraussen I'm seeing here, noticeably absent in my previous batches.
thoughts?
-on the plus side, the yeast chewed through the wort down to 1.030 in under 96 hours. 12.4% and still bubbling slowly. I was aiming for a few points south of there, but only after maybe 3 weeks. Surprisingly it doesn't taste like rocket fuel for a 4 day old barleywine. not great, but the malt comes through reasonably well.
-C
So I brewed and English Barleywine last Sunday, a monster of a beer with OG: 1.120, 5 gallons on the nose, fermenting in a standard 6.5 gallon bucket with airlock.
Upon returning home last night and checking on it, it seemed the airlock had clogged and the lid blew off painting the walls of my closet a lovely shade of kraussen and hop.
after 3 hours of cleanup, I began to contemplate the source of the blow-over. I'm already kicking myself for not using a blowoff tube and eliminating such an issue in the future, however out of curiosity:
-This is the first really big beer i've made of such gravity. I've done several other 5+ gallon batches starting around 1.095 in the same bucket/ airlock (including somewhat smaller beers using both the hyperactive Weihenstephan and Westmalle strains) and have had no issues with airlock clogging, many not even coating the bottom of the lid.
-This is the first big (high cell count) yeast starter I've pitched. 2 vials of WLP013 into 2L of 1.035 wort, pitched after 18hrs of constant aeration via aquarium pump. again, I've pitched yeast slurry from 1 gallon starters and haven't had such an effect.
-This is the first beer i've aerated using an aquarium pump vs. my previous method of fine mesh straining cooled wort. 20 minutes at a moderate airflow (cant really measure L/min with what I have). also, despite the straining, there was a fair amount of trub carried over into the primary, more than usual, but nothing excessive.
So I'm wondering which of these is the most likely culprit for the explosion of kraussen I'm seeing here, noticeably absent in my previous batches.
thoughts?
-on the plus side, the yeast chewed through the wort down to 1.030 in under 96 hours. 12.4% and still bubbling slowly. I was aiming for a few points south of there, but only after maybe 3 weeks. Surprisingly it doesn't taste like rocket fuel for a 4 day old barleywine. not great, but the malt comes through reasonably well.
-C
