Quick question about agitation after the boil

[Jordan Riser]

My dad and I did our first brew (extract kit) on Christmas day and we had some problems. The first was that a day or so after we put it in the carboy and pitched the (dry) yeast it foamed over and blew through the airlock as well as stuck what looked to be a good bit of the yeast to the top of the fermenter. This along with the fact that there appeared to be no action in the clean airlock we replaced with after only a week or so. So we pitched a tiny bit more yeast and let it sit for another week to make sure which seemed to get us at the final gravity we were looking for. (this part I believe may have been because we didn't have proper sanitizer liquid and did the best we could with dish soap)

Fast forward to a few weeks later after bottling and we now have a beer that has gone a tad sour. Still drinkable currently, but being that it was supposed to be a porter and not a sour, not what we were looking for.

The carboy we placed it in is a 6 1/2 gallon carboy and we placed about 5 gallons in. One thing we did here was to place our boil kettle up on a table and the carboy on the ground and opened the spigot on the bottom of our boil kettle and just let the beer flow straight down into the carboy, splashing about and all. Because I thought at this point it's okay to introduce air into the beer since you're pitching the yeast in any way.

Should we not have done this? I see a lot of videos and explanations just saying to give it a little shake and it doesn't have to be too vigorous, was the way we did it too much? I'm trying to figure out if we need to not do this for next time.

Specifically, I'm trying to avoid the fiasco we had last time with a foaming beer spewing itself all over out closet floor again, the sour part I think was just a mishandling of equipment on our part.

For fun, I will put a poll in to make it a little easier but I, of course, wish to read your responses and explanations.

 

[waldoar15]

It's OK to splash from the BK to the fermenter. Yeast needs oxygen in the wort when pitched.

I don't know why your beer soured.

Dish soap is almost impossible to rinse completely. If you want to use something you can buy anywhere get some oxyclean free (not regular oxyclean)

 

[Amadeo38]

Agreed with above regarding splashing. Good for the yeast.

Not sure where in the process dish soap was used but the lack of sanitizer at any point likely led to the infection.

As far as blow-off is concerned, that’s usually a sign that it fermented too warm. You may want to use a swamp cooler for your next batch if you don’t have a fermentation chamber or a cool basement.

 

[Jordan Riser]

It's OK to splash from the BK to the fermenter. Yeast needs oxygen in the wort when pitched.

I don't know why your beer soured.

Dish soap is almost impossible to rinse completely. If you want to use something you can buy anywhere get some oxyclean free (not regular oxyclean)

Great! I figured it was fine but we just weren't sure why it foamed over.

Yes, I saw that we can use oxyclean, we used it for cleaning our empty bottles, we have star san now though so we should be good in that area!

 

[Jordan Riser]

Agreed with above regarding splashing. Good for the yeast.

Not sure where in the process dish soap was used but the lack of sanitizer at any point likely led to the infection.

As far as blow-off is concerned, that’s usually a sign that it fermented too warm. You may want to use a swamp cooler for your next batch if you don’t have a fermentation chamber or a cool basement.

Yes I would love to build a fermentation chamber, we may do this for our next brew!

 

[Renegade Brewer]

Splashing is okay, but it is really the least effective way to introduce oxygen into solution. When I teach my beginner class I tell all my students that the goal is 8 volumes of O2 in solution for healthy cell growth. If you do the math, after we figure there is nitrogen, C02, and about 30% oxygen in our atmosphere it would take 4 hours of shaking your carboy to get the needed 8 volumes of O2 into 5 gallons of solution. This is why we use a stir plate for a 2000ml starter.

I usually recommend an aquarium pump with a hepa filter inline and a diffusion stone on the end. Let the pump run about 5 min after pitching. This will get you your needed oxygen level without introducing outside microbes. The best solution is medical grade pure O2 and a diffusion stone. This ensures you introduce pure sanitary O2 into solution. Let it run about 60 seconds after pitching.

I hit my wort with medical grade O2 inline on the way to the conical and for beers over 1.070 I hit it again for another 60 seconds after pitching, but no more oxygen should be introduced after that.

Kudos on moving to star San. Your local homebrew shop should have PBW for cleaning and star San for sanitizing. Remember not to rinse your sanitizer. All your gear that is used on the cold side should be sanitized.

I’d definitely recommend you and your dad visit your local homebrew shop and ask about a beginner class. Most shops offer inexpensive classes that run you through a complete brew day showing you the right way to do things

 

[Fly_Guy]

I was under the impression that some yeasts are more vigorous and blow offs will happen with those strains. Is this a large misconception?

I've got a ferm chamber, rehydrated danstar windsor ale yeast pitched at about 68F and had ferm set at 65. Recommended range was 64-70 and I needed a blow off for it.

After all that someone on here recommended setting it to 62, so I may have been a touch high, but on the cooler side of the mfg range.

 

[The_Bishop]

Er, it's not '8 volumes' of O2. It's 8ppm.

Also: No dish soap. Buy starsan for sanitizing. I would not bottle this; give it more time and see if a pellicle forms, that's a sign of spoilage and I'd dump it if one shows.

 

[beermanpete]

Make sure you cool the wort before aerating. Maybe you did but I did not see any mention of it one way or the other.