treehouse
Well-Known Member
Ok. My brother was skeptical about brewing his own beer, but I talked him into doing it and bought him a high quality extract/mash kit (Porter) for his birthday ($30 bucks) from a reputable supplier that I have used and never had a problem. I said he could use my equipment.
So. I go over to his house with my equipment and we cook up the Porter kit, complete with a little baby mash step that went really well. When we were done, I could tell the stuff was gonna be good and the wort smelled like it was going to be a great little batch. Being as it was getting late, I instructed him on how to cool his wort in a cold water bath in the bathtub and then pitch his yeast when it hit about 78 degrees. The yeast by the way was a White Labs yeast (WLP023 Burton Yeast) that I have never used. I only use Wyeast smackpacks and I'm quite happy.
Anyway, the next day he calls and says he is getting good bubbling and fermentation is going. Later in the day he calls me and says, "The beer is dead. The lid on the fermenter blew off and blew beer all over the inside of my closet. Total disaster."
I have never had this happen. The primary fermenter I use has an incrediblely tight seal on it and is tough to get off. When I went over there, the fermenter had a strong, strange smell of medicine. Hmmmm...
My questions: 1) Why didn't the beer blow the bubbler off or at least vent out through the bubbler? (2) He has ambient heat floors which was my theory that the heat from the floor over heated the yeast and blew off the lid. (3) He swears that he didn't contaminate the batch, so what gives with the medicinal smell?
I have never had a batch of contaminated beer in all my brewing experience and my santization has not always been the best. Was it the floor heat? Or contamination?
It was the poor guys first batch and I feel terrible he had this nasty experience. He has agreed to try again, but I'm thinking maybe he buys the kit and I do it over here. I'm also thinking of retiring the primary just in case. Has anyone ever actually seen a lid blow off a primary after only 36 hours??? By the way, the primary is a 6.5 gallon bucket giving a headspace of 1.5 gallons. I've never seen krausen even come close to getting to the top.
So. I go over to his house with my equipment and we cook up the Porter kit, complete with a little baby mash step that went really well. When we were done, I could tell the stuff was gonna be good and the wort smelled like it was going to be a great little batch. Being as it was getting late, I instructed him on how to cool his wort in a cold water bath in the bathtub and then pitch his yeast when it hit about 78 degrees. The yeast by the way was a White Labs yeast (WLP023 Burton Yeast) that I have never used. I only use Wyeast smackpacks and I'm quite happy.
Anyway, the next day he calls and says he is getting good bubbling and fermentation is going. Later in the day he calls me and says, "The beer is dead. The lid on the fermenter blew off and blew beer all over the inside of my closet. Total disaster."
I have never had this happen. The primary fermenter I use has an incrediblely tight seal on it and is tough to get off. When I went over there, the fermenter had a strong, strange smell of medicine. Hmmmm...
My questions: 1) Why didn't the beer blow the bubbler off or at least vent out through the bubbler? (2) He has ambient heat floors which was my theory that the heat from the floor over heated the yeast and blew off the lid. (3) He swears that he didn't contaminate the batch, so what gives with the medicinal smell?
I have never had a batch of contaminated beer in all my brewing experience and my santization has not always been the best. Was it the floor heat? Or contamination?
It was the poor guys first batch and I feel terrible he had this nasty experience. He has agreed to try again, but I'm thinking maybe he buys the kit and I do it over here. I'm also thinking of retiring the primary just in case. Has anyone ever actually seen a lid blow off a primary after only 36 hours??? By the way, the primary is a 6.5 gallon bucket giving a headspace of 1.5 gallons. I've never seen krausen even come close to getting to the top.