I was wondering if the loss of krausen through my blow-off tube is a good thing or bad. On one hand I am loosing healthy yeast, but on the other hand it seems I have read that particals that can lead to off flavors will also be leaving the fermenter with the yeast. One could just use a larger primary and not have any loss, or use a smaller primary and expect a loss through the blow-off. Which makes more sense?
Loss through blow off, good or bad?
- Thread starter nasmeyer
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samc
Well-Known Member
Larger primary works best for me.
JohnTheBrewist
Well-Known Member
+1^, Larger primary = no worries, less mess.
It's neither good nor bad... It just is... Some times you lose some, some times you don't... I wouldn't primary in a smaller carboy to try and get some blow off, but I am not upset or sad when I do... Some times you get very active fermentation, some times you don't... All I can recommend is get a blow off tube... They are priceless if you do get blow off... Trust me, I would have paid A LOT of money for my last clean up... took me a week...
Mongrel
Well-Known Member
From what I've heard in the past, all of that matter can contribute to head retention and you still have some active yeast in it as well, meaning that by losing it you MAY get less head retention and slightly lower attenuation. Are you going to see a detrimental impact? Probably not.
JohnTheBrewist
Well-Known Member
There's nothing in the krausen/blow off that's going to hurt your beer. What does get blown off probably isn't hurting anything either. So, the answer to your question is a larger primary is probably better. No worries, less mess.
