Teufelhunde
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- Jan 4, 2020
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Yesterday I brewed 5 gals of a Mosaic IPA. It started bubbling in the airlock after about 18 hours, pretty normal. About 4 hours later, the airlock is going crazy for a short while (almost constant bubbles), then being stagnant for a while. I got a strong flashlight (to be able to see through the white bucket, and got the light just right, and I could see the krausen rising about 5 inches off the top surface of the beer.
A bit later, I checked on it again, and there is an airlock full of foam and foam all over the top of the bucket and running down the sides. I rigged up a blow off tube running into a jar of sanitizer and cleaned up the mess. As I have been checking on it to make sure I don't have more of a mess to clean, I noticed that it is bubbling regularly for a while, then will go crazy bubbling like mad, then slow a bit, etc.
I've got a couple of questions.....
1) I know that some fermentations go crazy like this, what causes it? I'm not doing anything unusual, and I have brewed this recipe before without issue, albeit with LME instead of the DME I used this time.
2) As a general rule, will this behavior continue until fermentation is done, or is it reasonable to expect it to settle down so I can put the airlock back in? I used my bottling tubing for the blowoff and have another 5 gals I was going to bottle on Saturday.
TIA for any input.....
Lon
A bit later, I checked on it again, and there is an airlock full of foam and foam all over the top of the bucket and running down the sides. I rigged up a blow off tube running into a jar of sanitizer and cleaned up the mess. As I have been checking on it to make sure I don't have more of a mess to clean, I noticed that it is bubbling regularly for a while, then will go crazy bubbling like mad, then slow a bit, etc.
I've got a couple of questions.....
1) I know that some fermentations go crazy like this, what causes it? I'm not doing anything unusual, and I have brewed this recipe before without issue, albeit with LME instead of the DME I used this time.
2) As a general rule, will this behavior continue until fermentation is done, or is it reasonable to expect it to settle down so I can put the airlock back in? I used my bottling tubing for the blowoff and have another 5 gals I was going to bottle on Saturday.
TIA for any input.....
Lon