Quick starting fermentation

[Teufelhunde]

Brewed 5gal of a Mosaic IPA this morning. Last time I made this one, the fermentation was a bit, shall we say.....energetic and blew foam out of my airlock. This time when I set it up in the mini-fridge to ferment, I went ahead and put in a hose in the airlock hole that went to a mason jar half full of sanitizer. Here it is only 5 hours after pitching the yeast, and it is blowing foam into the jar already!!!!(edit: after a second look, it is bubbling and causing the sanitizer to foam....)

I am so looking forward to this as it is the best beer I have ever tasted.....kinda strong though, don't drink more than a couple or you are headed for bed shortly.....

 

[Teufelhunde]

Update: 11 hours after pitch, krausen over 1 1/2 inches and gassing out at 3-4 bubbles per second in the jar...I am flat out amazed at how fast and hard this thing started......

 

[DuncB]

Which yeast is it?
When I get a really good blowout like that I collect some of the blowoff yeast as a top crop for the yeast bank. I do this prior to putting water in the mason jar.

 

[Teufelhunde]

Which yeast is it?
When I get a really good blowout like that I collect some of the blowoff yeast as a top crop for the yeast bank. I do this prior to putting water in the mason jar.

Just dry US04....This morning the 6.5 gal fermenter is full of foam and I had to change the jar.....it's sitting there bubbling away like an airstone in an aquarium....

 

[IslandLizard]

What is the actual temperature of your fermenting beer?
And what is your fridge set at?

Temps inside the bucket can be quite a few degrees higher than the outside, as fermentation is an exothermic process, it creates heat. If the generated heat can't be dissipated fast enough, the process escalates. Mini fridges can be a bit slow drawing off heat, due to their fairly small chilling capacity. Is it working as it should?

How large of a headspace did you leave?
Is there perhaps much more than 5 gallons of beer in that 6.5 gallon bucket, effectively reducing the headspace. Even a gallon of headspace for a 5.5 gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon fermenter should still be fine. Although some yeasts can throw a big head under the right conditions. Blowing off some foam isn't the worst that can happen, big problems start when it can't blow it off due a blockage or so...

What yeast did you use? US-05 or S-04? There is no US04.

 

[hotbeer]

I've had the blow out issue into the bubbler bottle of sanitizer with my 1 gallon brews. A couple I handled by just putting less wort in the jug and barely covering the shoulders of the jug. But I wasted the extra wort as I wasn't prepared to save it.

So a boil resulting in one gallon wort only resulted in 3/4 gallon in the fermenter. Or about enough for eight 12 oz bottles.

This last batch, I split the resulting 1 gallon of wort into two 1 gallon jugs. The krausen in each of those reached within a few inches of the stopper and end of blow off tube. So I expect if it'd been in one jug, then I'd have lost some beer.

Ferment temps were within a couple degrees of each other and very stable.

Now when I bottle in a few days I'm expecting to get nine full bottles and at least a good partial.

I you used a much larger diameter blow off tube and ran it straight up from the carboy for a foot or so before turning toward your bubbler bottle, then maybe that'd keep the blowout from happening.

After going straight up a ways, you could plug that and use the smaller tube to make getting to the bubbler easier.

 

[Teufelhunde]

What is the actual temperature of your fermenting beer?
And what is your fridge set at?

Temps inside the bucket can be quite a few degrees higher than the outside, as fermentation is an exothermic process, it creates heat. If the generated heat can't be dissipated fast enough, the process escalates. Mini fridges can be a bit slow drawing off heat, due to their fairly small chilling capacity. Is it working as it should?

How large of a headspace did you leave?
Is there perhaps much more than 5 gallons of beer in that 6.5 gallon bucket, effectively reducing the headspace. Even a gallon of headspace for a 5.5 gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon fermenter should still be fine. Although some yeasts can throw a big head under the right conditions. Blowing off some foam isn't the worst that can happen, big problems start when it can't blow it off due a blockage or so...

What yeast did you use? US-05 or S-04? There is no US04.

The fridge is set at 60, so I should have been in the range for S-04 yeast (my bad, my brain added a U)

The bucket was filled to slighty over the 5 gal line, but no more than 1/4" over

I thought of something today....that recipe was orginally a LME recipe and called for 6 lbs at beginning of the boil with a couple of late DME and Corn Sugar adds. I used equal quantities of DME....OOPS..by my calculations, I had 1.5 pounds too much.....OG was 1.088.....gonna be a BIG beer....if the yeast consumes all the sugar, it will be close to 10.5%

It has slowed a good bit now, but is still active and puking out a little bit of foam....

 

[IslandLizard]

The fridge is set at 60, so I should have been in the range for S-04 yeast (my bad, my brain added a U)

Her recommended range, per Fermentis is 59-68F. So 60-62F is excellent for the bulk of the fermentation, with reduced ester formation. It is important to keep her engaged until she's finished, so when things are slowing down start ramping her up slowly, 1-2 degrees per day, until you get to 70-72F, then let her condition at that temp for a week. You'd dry hop at the end of that conditioning period, 3-5 days before packaging. Generally avoid using secondaries, especially with hoppier beers. There's nothing secondaries cure, only causing problems, especially in novice hands, oxidation being the biggest detriment, followed by infections and stalled fermentations.

that recipe was orginally a LME recipe and called for 6 lbs at beginning of the boil

There's no need to boil extracts (LME or DME) for a full hour, unless you want the extra caramelization and darkening. Extracts have been boiled/heated sufficiently at the maltsters already, and then some during concentration and successive spray evaporation (to DME). It's usually better to add extracts at the very end of the boil or at flameout, so they get pasteurized. Reduced boiling of extracts makes for better, fresher tasting beer. In a hybrid approach you could boil half or less of the extracts, adding the balance at flameout.

I used equal quantities of DME....OOPS..by my calculations

Using DME is usually better than LME. Freshness of LME varies widely, and is much more subject to aging and oxidation with time. See all those cans and containers on the shelf... And how old are those bulk drums filled with LME?
DME can be stored at room temps (kept dry in a well sealed, oxygen barrier bag) for over 10 years at room temps and even well above, and still taste as good as the day it was made. Even hardened, clumped DME tastes fine.

OOPS..by my calculations, I had 1.5 pounds too much.....OG was 1.088.....gonna be a BIG beer....if the yeast consumes all the sugar, it will be close to 10.5%

You can say that again: Triple IPA!
And more reason to keep that yeast going by slowly increasing the ferm temps as fermentation slows.