First Brew great! Second brew.... worried

[PegCityBrew]

Hello All!

I have been reading the forums here for a month and wanted to ask some questions.

I did my first brew ever! The Brewhouse Stout. IT turned out really good and I had to start a new kit once I tasted it. I decided to buy a Festa Brew Red but I wanted to make some... Alterations...

I chose an Irish Ale liquid yeast instead of the pack that came with the kit and then today I went to my local brew house and was getting ingrediants to my next brew and decided to dry hop my red with fuggles hops (I just put it in secondary). Everything was looking good until WHAM!!!!! Carboy Overflow! I panicked and pulled out the bung and wrapped a towel around it (not touching the top but still open) It was still bubbling so I rigged up an overflow tube and it settle after a couple hours. I am a little worried about contamination as I left the top open for a little bit. I made sure my overflow tube was sanitized, but what are the chances of contamination?

 

[jigidyjim]

I'm a little confused... are you saying that your secondary started overflowing? That would be bizarre.

But in general, when your beer is fermenting like crazy it's pushing a lot of air out - things can't get in. If your top was open for a little bit, I wouldn't worry about it to much. Just wait and see how it turns out. If you start tasting strange things or seeing weird growths, then you can rightfully worry

 

[PegCityBrew]

Yup secondary started to overflow 30 minutes after I added the dry hops in. I read it can happen but only being my second brew ever, I was a little shocked as it didn't happen in the first.

 

[jigidyjim]

That's bizarre. I looked around a bit and didn't see much about this. I saw some posts about people racking to secondary before fermentation was done, and that causing overflow. And I also saw some posts about people not realizing that pellets would cause a little foam as they expand, or that whole leaf hops absorb water and swell....

Now I'm curious. Was this a fermentation overflow, or a hop-expanding overflow?

 

[cyclonite]

That's bizarre. I looked around a bit and didn't see much about this. I saw some posts about people racking to secondary before fermentation was done, and that causing overflow. And I also saw some posts about people not realizing that pellets would cause a little foam as they expand, or that whole leaf hops absorb water and swell....

Now I'm curious. Was this a fermentation overflow, or a hop-expanding overflow?

Agreed - very odd. Was fermentation complete when you secondaried?

 

[Tall_Yotie]

Same question as cyclonite.

How long did you wait before tossing it into the secondary? The secondary, as you have probably read, is not a vessel for fermentation but more so somewhere to put fully fermented beer for conditioning. Unfortunately the term "secondary fermenter" is a misnomer yet still commonly used.

 

[charlesmartin]

was your beer in primary at least 7 to 10 days?

 

[PegCityBrew]

I left it in the primary for 9 days. It looked as if it was done fermenting. I think you are right when you say it could be a hops expanding overflow. There was a lot of bubbling afer I added the dry hops. But it looked more of like a fast reaction rather then a slow ferment.

 

[PegCityBrew]

Oh! And I didn't use pellets, I used an ounce of freeze dried fuggle hops grow locally (I am a sucker for locally grow product). So it looked as if it was a lot of hops going in, but still was a ounce

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Oh! And I didn't use pellets, I used an ounce of freeze dried fuggle hops grow locally (I am a sucker for locally grow product). So it looked as if it was a lot of hops going in, but still was a ounce

How many ounces of hops did you use? And how much headspace was there in your carboy before you added hops? Also, if ya have a pic of the overflow you can post, that might help determine the cause of it.

 

[Tall_Yotie]

One thing to keep note of is that if it was an infection it would take a while to show any signs. If this happened within half an hour of the hops being added, it may be some weird effect of the hops expanding. Never heard of this, but could be especially if you have little to no head space.

 

[PegCityBrew]

I don't have a picture of mine, but here is exactly what happend to another new brewer. He thinks it is because he did what I did and add the hops in the secondary after it sat for a day and ended up adding oxygen causing the overflow. I am curious of your thoughts. Also I use 1 ounce of dry leaf fuggles hops.

 

[BradleyBrew]

Perhaps your beer was saturated with Co2? Maybe the hops triggered the release of Co2? I would not worry about infection that much especially since the beer has already gone through its primary fermentation.

 

[PegCityBrew]

IS releasing excess CO2 bad?

 

[dantheman13]

I have heard of infections causing excess co2, I believe.

My second batch (I've done three now), was infected. When I tasted it at bottling time it had a real cardboard taste (this was a porter). It fermented in a gallon fermenter that I purchased online. The spigot had a very slow leak, and I didn't notice it until I moved the fermenter out of my closet and into a temperature controlled freezer. After bottle conditioning, the beer was definitely sour and not in a good way. I had to dump it (only a gallon batch).

Of course, my leak was a slow one at the bottom of the fermenter, much different than your situation. Hopefully you were able to clean things up and prevent anything from getting in there. One thing to remember, that I have learned, is not to judge until your beer is ready (3 weeks in bottles, whatever it is in kegs)!

Good luck!

 

[BradleyBrew]

No its the same as Co2 being released and creates the blurps in the airlock.