Really active fermentation

[crum]

This morning while eating breakfast I hear this big pop come from the room where I ferment my beer. Now I am worried my dog has knock over my carboy. So I run to the next run to see my airlock has blown off and the wall is covered in wort foam. Looking at the wort still in the carboy, it is so active it looks like somebody is sitting there stirring it and foam is coming out the top. This is from a batch of beer made this last sunday and put it in my primary fermentor (6.5 gal carboy).
So I ended up putting a new cork and a blow off tube on and went to work. Hopefully I do not get home and have another mess.

Hope the beer is still OK.

 

[Janx]

Beer will be cool almost certainly. With the fermentation going that strong, nothing can compete.

Wow, clogged airlocks and overflowing fermentors is kinda the problem of the week around here. Sorry about your mess. I'd find a bigger primary if you want to avoid it.

Janx

 

[JEM Australia]

In terms of exposing the beer to oxygen and bacteria, it should be OK if it was fermenting that hard. The CO2 should have been pouring out of the carboy keeping everything at bay.

However I'm not sure why it was fermenting that hard, unless the temperature is too high and the yeast is having an orgy.

 

[Janx]

My beers almost always ferment really hard if I chill them onto a yeast slurry from a previous batch The pale ale we made a couple of days ago was fermenting within hours and by evening the airlock was going 3-5 times per second.

It definitely would blow off if I didn't have a big fermentor. It gets a big pile of foam on top.

 

[crum]

Yeah I figured the beer would be ok. This is my third batch and first 2 did not do this. The other 2 batches only filled the carboy with about 4 – 5 inches of foam with room to spare. This is the first batch I tried to brew from scratch not using a kit.
This batch was made with 2 oz of cascade, some irish moss, 7 lbs of light malt and fresh yeast. I am wondering if the fresh yeast has something to do with the activity.

The funny part was I had to call to work and say I would be late. When they asked why everybody got a good laugh out of me saying I beer was over flowing.

 

[rightwingnut]

Janx, so when you put your wort onto a "used" yeast bed, why doesn't that cause the "off flavors" that you rack to secondary to avoid?

 

[Janx]

Because it's a fresh, newly made batch of wort. So, it's basically just like an enormous yeast pitch.

The same thinking applies, though, that you want to rack it off the yeast bed within about a week for the cleanest flavor.

I've never noticed the off-flavors typical of single-stage fermentation from using this method.

 

[Witbier]

Because it's a fresh, newly made batch of wort. So, it's basically just like an enormous yeast pitch.

The same thinking applies, though, that you want to rack it off the yeast bed within about a week for the cleanest flavor.

I've never noticed the off-flavors typical of single-stage fermentation from using this method.

Ditto that. I've done this a few times myself and never noticed any off flavors. I have read though that you don't want to do this more than 4 or 5 times because the yeast mutates and its characteristics change.

 

[Janx]

Ditto that. I've done this a few times myself and never noticed any off flavors. I have read though that you don't want to do this more than 4 or 5 times because the yeast mutates and its characteristics change.

Yeah, not to mention you're probably picking up some degree of unwanted bacteria and whatnot over the course of racking. I usually go 3 times or at most 4 if I'm confident things are clean.

Only have to clean the primary once a month!

 

[uglygoat]

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My beers almost always ferment really hard if I chill them onto a yeast slurry from a previous batch The pale ale we made a couple of days ago was fermenting within hours and by evening the airlock was going 3-5 times per second.

It definitely would blow off if I didn't have a big fermentor. It gets a big pile of foam on top.

ok so you just pour another batch of wort onto the sediment layer from the primary, then pitch in another helping of yeast? do you do this on the same day as the rack and boil or can you let that yeast slurry sit for a spell with the air lock in place?

i am interested in recycling my yeast and this sounds brilliant, not to mention i like the aspect of transporting a part of my previous beers from batch to batch... it's like having kids, different, yet the similar and they look like you

 

[Janx]

ok so you just pour another batch of wort onto the sediment layer from the primary, then pitch in another helping of yeast?

No....there's no need to pitch more yeast. That's the whole point. By pitching it on last week's slurry, you are pitching the biggest, most vigorous yeast pitch you possibly could.

do you do this on the same day as the rack and boil or can you let that yeast slurry sit for a spell with the air lock in place?

Same day always. And we're very careful when racking the batch off the slurry if we intend to use it this way. Immediately re-cover the fermentor after racking beer out of it. We use a 14 gallon demijohn, so we can seal it with an airlock after racking while we finish the batch that will go into it.

i am interested in recycling my yeast and this sounds brilliant, not to mention i like the aspect of transporting a part of my previous beers from batch to batch... it's like having kids, different, yet the similar and they look like you

Yeah it's a great trick. You get the biggest pitches ever so your fermentation starts within hours and goes absolutely nuts. You save a bit of cash on yeast. You have to scrub the primary less. Just be careful and don't push it over too many batches. 3 or maybe 4 batches is our absolute limit before we sanitize everything and go back to a fresh yeast starter.

Good luck!

 

[Witbier]

ok so you just pour another batch of wort onto the sediment layer from the primary, then pitch in another helping of yeast? do you do this on the same day as the rack and boil or can you let that yeast slurry sit for a spell with the air lock in place?

i am interested in recycling my yeast and this sounds brilliant, not to mention i like the aspect of transporting a part of my previous beers from batch to batch... it's like having kids, different, yet the similar and they look like you

I actually add an intermediate racking. When I'm down to about 10 or 12 bubbles a minute in the primary airlock, I rack to an intermediate carboy and let the primary fermentation finish. After that I rack to the "final secondary" and use the intermediate carboy for the new batch. What is usually left at the bottom is a nice 1/4 inch of clean yellow yeast. A bit unnecessary? Perhaps, but it works for me.

 

[Janx]

I actually add an intermediate racking. When I'm down to about 10 or 12 bubbles a minute in the primary airlock, I rack to an intermediate carboy and let the primary fermentation finish. After that I rack to the "final secondary" and use the intermediate carboy for the new batch. What is usually left at the bottom is a nice 1/4 inch of clean yellow yeast. A bit unnecessary? Perhaps, but it works for me.

I'm too lazy, but that does seem like a good idea. You're getting the most vigorous yeast and the least non-yeast trub.

 

[uglygoat]

i did this last night janx. i put the new batch of wort onto the yeast cake of the last batch i made. racked the same day. within an hour the air lock was a bubbling. i was worried about all the sediment from the initial batch, but within two hours the yeast and rocketed all the sediment from both batches up into the foam and it's gettin splattered all over the side of the fermentor!

w00t!

thanks for the sweet trick!

glad i got a big primary..