Significant Yeast Loss Through Blowoff = Under Attenuation?

[MrDarcy]

Hey y'all,

I realize there are several posts about this sort of question, and I apologize in advance for the redundancy. I guess I'm just hoping for up-to-date advice about my particular situation.

A week ago, I brewed about 5.25 gallons of American Stout at 1.070. I made a 2 liter starter of Wyeast 1056 and pitched into well-aerated wort. The fermenter is a 6.5 -gallon bucket with a blowoff tube into about 1/3 gallon of Star-San solution contained in a 1-gallon plastic water jug. the fermenter was placed in a temperature-controlled water bath at about 65F.

Within 24 hours, dense krausen was pulsing through the blow off and into the Star-San reservoir. No problem, I figured—I expected something like this. But it continued for days. And today, a week later, the sanitizer solution is very dark, and while it doesn't look like a lot of krausen is still blowing-off, things are still bubbling away. At the bottom of the reservoir, however, is a beautiful, creamy, thick layer of yeast (I assume)—about 1/2-inch on the bottom of the gallon jug.

My question is, will this affect the attenuation of my beer? If so, what should I do differently next time? Smaller batch? Bigger fermenter? I honestly though I had plenty of headspace...

I do not plan to attempt to harvest and re-pitch the yeast in the blow off reservoir. Maybe if I had an airlock on the reservoir, but I do not. (And can yeast live comfortably in a solution of Star-San?) If I DID want to harvest the yeast and re-pitch next time, when and how should I do it?

Thanks for any insight and advice, and apologies again if this has been addressed in depth elsewhere (and for the length of this post!).

 

[Braufessor]

My question is, will this affect the attenuation of my beer? If so, what should I do differently next time? Smaller batch? Bigger fermenter? I honestly though I had plenty of headspace...

Your attenuation should be fine. If it is not, it is not because of the blowoff. If your fermentation is that vigorous, there is plenty of yeast to finish the job. Bigger fermenter or less beer would help - but what you describe is fairly common. Start beer a bit cooler maybe and allow that temp to climb slowly.... Really though, all sounds pretty good.

I do not plan to attempt to harvest and re-pitch the yeast in the blow off reservoir. Maybe if I had an airlock on the reservoir, but I do not. (And can yeast live comfortably in a solution of Star-San?) If I DID want to harvest the yeast and re-pitch next time, when and how should I do it?

Definitely do not use that yeast out of the blow off. Yeast should not be able to live comfortably in star san..... at least until it gets sufficiently diluted..... but, then other things could live in it too.

There are two basic strategies for reharvesting. You can get some mason jars and sanitize them and at bottling/kegging time, swirl up what is left in the fermenter and pour off into the jars. (Make sure the beer is tasting really good and there are no signs of trouble though if you are saving yeast to reuse.) Or, you can split starters in advance and save some of the yeast while building up the starter to pitch. Then, you can use the yeast you poured off and stored in a later batch and make a new starter. There is a good link I will try to post when I find it.

 

[MrDarcy]

Thanks, Braufessor!!!! Now, I can sleep soundly with the promise of a well-fermented stout in my future...


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[Braufessor]

here is that link, by the way. This is what I really like doing to stretch my yeast. just a bit easier and cleaner to harvest yeast before a brew than it is after a brew....
http://brulosophy.com/methods/yeast-harvesting/