Holy Nottingham Batman

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DD2000GT

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My lhbs finally got some Nottingham yeast in, so I snagged a pack for my Irish Red AG batch I brewed Wed. Went in the fermentor at 1.052 and I rehydrated the yeast. Within a few hours there was activity, by the next morning there was MASSIVE blowoff through my blowoff hose. The mixing bowl I had the blowoff tube and starsan mixture was bubbling over. I had to drain some foam and beer/starsan out and this morning it is still blowing hard and I am going to have to drain even more.

I had heard this yeast was good - but DAYUM!
 
Nottingham is one of my "go to" yeasts if my starters fail,(bad vials from LHBS)

and at lower temps it ferments very clean, but give it time to clean up after its self !!

-Jason
 
Now get your next brew ready to pitch on top of that yeast cake.

...but please have a camera near by...:D

Yeah - I think I lost half my brew already to blowoff :)

BTW - I live in Texas and am using the "modified oil pan and t-shirt" swamp cooler mod I have seen posted here before (sorry, I can't recal the poster who came up with the setup) - my temps are still reaching 76 degrees during this massive blowoff. Nottingham shows a range between 62-72 I believe, do you think this will seriously affect the taste or can it clean up after itself if I leave in the primary for a month?

Thanks all,
Dan
 
I just picked up some extra packets of Nottingham yesterday. You know, for emergencies like if my yeast turns out to be a dud, or I find some abandoned grains in the parking lot and I just have to brew them. :D
 
Nottingham and London Ale (WY1028) are the two most vigorous fermenters I have used. London Ale just took a 1.100 Imperial Stout to attenuation in five days, it blew off WITH foam control drops and nearly exploded my bucket so I rigged a blowoff anyway. I'm sure the Notty would have done the same thing. Notty seems to take a 1.050-ish beer down to terminal gravity in about 48 hours for me.
 
I've never had major blow-off issues with Notty, but that Safale US 05 that I just used for the first time. Talk about a yeast volcano.
 
Just finished brewing up 10 gallons of an American Barleywine. Pitched a Nottingham US-05 combo on it. Holy Cripes! 8" head space in the conical and she still blew. I swear if the blow hose wasn't clamped down it would have looked like a fire hose on the loose! It was almost done in 2 days (1.022). FG was 1.020.:rockin:

Both the Notty & 05 have served me well. About the only time I invest in liquid is for that "special" need, like a Steamer or ESB...
 
I've never had major blow-off issues with Notty, but that Safale US 05 that I just used for the first time. Talk about a yeast volcano.

No kidding. I pitched some Safale US 05 into an IPA with an OG of 1.064 and it nearly blew up my house. I don't think there was much Star San left in the blow off bucket after fermentation was complete...
 
I've never had major blow-off issues with Notty, but that Safale US 05 that I just used for the first time. Talk about a yeast volcano.
I just used this in a cider and blew a 5 gallon carboy with only 4 gallons of apple juice. I thought I had plenty of head space.
 
Irish Stout, I used a Nottingham as well and hooked up a blow-off just in case (I didn't need it).

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn3dtzuA4Ow]YouTube - Blowoff for an Irish Stout[/ame]
 
I've had some bad luck with Notty recently. It's good to hear that some people are getting good packets. Maybe they have addressed the issues that some have been seeing. I prefer the fermentis dry yeasts. I've used 04 and 05. 04 is a the common english strain like Notty so it is a better sub. I love the 05 for my west coast style APAs and IPAs though. Clean and dry beers with that one. I used the 04 in an Irish dry stout and it finished in less than 48 hours. Didn't even rehydrate on that one because I was doing two batches that day and got lazy. I did the same with a package of Notty(in a different beer though) on the same day and it went almost two weeks.
 
The first time I ever needed a blowoff was with Notty.

It was a fairly high gravity cream ale. The morning after brewing, the airlock was acting like a sprinkler, spraying the room with a fine wort mist, and the better bottle was BULGING.

When I pulled the rubber plug out to put in the tube, the bottle EJACULATED foam, all the way to the ceiling. I thought that would leave a spot, but it didn't. More wort foam around the room.

Turned out for the best, I had a pint of that cream ale last night. It had some fusel issues early on, but time in the keg has smoothed it out just fine.

:rockin:
 
I loves me some Notty. Blew the lid off of my bucket, which I had fortunately set in a restaurant bussing tub. Then the bride told me she would've been fine with a big stain on the carpet, because she wants to replace it and needs an excuse...
 
It is vigorous! I used to avoid it until I did a 55 gallon brew of a bourbon barrel RIS that a few of us local HBT'ers did and we opted to use Notty. I've come to really like it and have used it in 2-3 brews where I used to use a liquid yeast. Never had a blow-off, but I ferment ales in the mid-60oF range.

If you're using the swamp bucket towel trick in the Texas heat, you might want to swap out milk jugs full of ice in your water bath, if you aren't already.
 
The oil drain pan is not very deep and the carboy almost fills the diameter - so no room for frozen water bottles. I guess I will have to forgo the convenience of the smaller oil pan for a larger bucket with more space around the carboy...

The fermentation has dropped way back after three days, so I am betting it was a tad too warm for it. Hope it doesn't put too much off flavors in the brew.

I think I will try that yeast again on my next batch of English style ale - it is a HOSS!
 
What temperatures are you guys fermenting at to get such big blowoffs?

Mid 60's. It went into the fermenter on Saturday evening in a 63 degree room. On Monday we had a hot streak that brought the room up to 73 or so, now back down into the low 60's. Last night (Thursday), the krausen had totally disappeared, and there haven't been any bubbles since Tuesday night - though I know that's immaterial.

The hydrometer read 1.020, my recipe said it should hit 1.015. I'll take another reading tonight, to see if it has budged at all.

Anyone know how much time Notty needs to clear up an explosive, possibly too hot fermentation? I'm not in any great hurry to get it out of primary, my kegging setup won't even arrive until Tuesday of next week. Ought I just leave it in primary for another full week?
 
I used notty on my last two brews. The first a brown ale I simply rehydrated and pitched. Last week I rehydrated and made a big starter that got stepped up twice for what I expected to be a 1.100 RIS. Crazy fermentation.
 
I used Nottingham for the first time on Wednesday. I pitched it into an IPA wort around 75. The temp of the fermenter stayed around 75 the rest of the day. I went to the basement the next morning and the airlock was full of beer. Thankfully it only leaked a little bit onto the the lid. The lid itself was bowed upward significantly and was firm to the touch. Not sure how close it was to blowing the lid off. I had to rig up a makeshift blowoff hose by putting a racking cane into the 3-piece airlock shaft (my hoses wouldn't fit directly onto it) and then attaching a 3/8" hose to the racking cane into a jug of sanitized water. All day yesterday, the jug of water looked like it was boiling! The temperature of the fermenter yesterday was around 81. It is now back down to about 75. The lid is still bowed upward but I can now depress it and force out CO2 into the blowoff hose. Eventually it bows up again. This is some serious yeast!
 
Nottingham is the only yeast I use now. It has been reliable time after time and the price is certainly right.
 
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