It finally happened, An Explosion

[SeeMont]

Friday I brewed an Russian Imperial Stout, (recipe in HBT) My second brew session with my Brew-Boss. Almost 22 lbs of grain, two packs of hydrate S-04 yeast, pitched at 68 degrees. OG 1.089. This carboy went into my ferm chamber set at 64 degrees attached to a 3/8 inch plow off tube into a bottle with about 2 inches of Starsan. All was good. The wort tastes great. The only thing that I noticed in the brew process is that there was more foam then usual in the boil process.
After about 12 hours, I head the door fly open on the ferm chamber, when I got there there was a volcano, foam every where. After cleaning the blow off tub, I replaced the rubber plug with a new tub into an open gallon container with Starsan. This has been non stop for aver a day, I had plenty of head space but have lost about a gallon of brew. I have over 50 brews under my belt and have had nothing like this. What happened, Infection? To much yeast?

 

[day_trippr]

S-04 is a beast. Two packs was probably not necessary, but in any case high gravity brews require solid temp control to tame that yeast.

I use it with a 100 point stout, fermenting 5.5g in 6.5g glass, with an inch wide blow off, and run it at 67 degrees wort temp for five days. Rarely have any color in the catch vessel...

Cheers!

 

[RandallFlag]

I agree with @day_trippr. S-04 can be a rollercoaster thrill ride of activity. I've had some bung bombs and excess blowoff too. The last time I made an Imperial Stout I lost about 20% of my beer. And just like you I had adequate headspace and I used a larger diameter blowoff tube.

 

[flars]

Friday I brewed an Russian Imperial Stout, (recipe in HBT) My second brew session with my Brew-Boss. Almost 22 lbs of grain, two packs of hydrate S-04 yeast, pitched at 68 degrees. OG 1.089. This carboy went into my ferm chamber set at 64 degrees attached to a 3/8 inch plow off tube into a bottle with about 2 inches of Starsan. All was good. The wort tastes great. The only thing that I noticed in the brew process is that there was more foam then usual in the boil process.
After about 12 hours, I head the door fly open on the ferm chamber, when I got there there was a volcano, foam every where. After cleaning the blow off tub, I replaced the rubber plug with a new tub into an open gallon container with Starsan. This has been non stop for aver a day, I had plenty of head space but have lost about a gallon of brew. I have over 50 brews under my belt and have had nothing like this. What happened, Infection? To much yeast?

Try bringing the wort down to 56° to 58°F for your next beer with this same yeast. The high pitching temperature gave the yeast a head start for a warm, and you found out, very active fermentation which would produce more heat to keep the fermentation accelerated longer.

 

[ten80]

I like to run S-04 down near 60-62F and use a 1/2" blow-off tube that I check several times daily. I ramp up the temperature and put an airlock on when the initial activity and high krausen has subsided. S-05 is similar; don't ever ferment it at 70F without at least a 1" blow off tube!

 

[SeeMont]

Thanks all, I learned my lesson. This afternoon the major blow has slowed and replace tube with air lock. Colder is better, bigger is better.

 

[blizz81]

Is your probe up against the ferm vessel in the chamber?


I fermented in a controlled chest freezer with the probe dangling in open air in the freezer for years, generally never having any issues after observing how low to set the controller vs. what ferm temp I wanted the beer to be at. Until I brewed with S-04. Set it about 4-5 degrees below target ferm temp, which in this case I set the controller to 62 or 63. Came home a day after fermentation started to a freezer full of blowoff liquid. Took a reading with a long probe into my carboy after I had cleaned things up - was at 79*F. Had probably gotten in the low 80s.


I now use a few sheets of reflectix & a bungee cord to keep my probe up against the carboys.

 

[bhchrist]

I have gotten into the habit where, if I have concerns of blow off, I just split my batch between two Better Bottle carboys and be done with it. For me, I would rather prep an extra carboy and clean it after than to lose beer and have a mess to clean in my fermentation fridge or freezer. I just did that with my second brew of a Kottbusser this weekend.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

This is why I use buckets.

 

[poptarts]

Your buckets will not always save you.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Your buckets will not always save you.

NNOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooo