I gots Fermentation Issues
Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 10:56 am
by BillfromOB
The last two 5 gal batches have distinguished themselves as the devil's spawn. I brewed a pale ale and this most recent batch a Hef. I used a 800 ml starter made with about 750 ml H20 and 1/4 cup DME. Brewed the beer both recipies were a standard affair of pale malt DME with 1/2 pale and 1/2 wheat malt DME in the hef, additional grains, hops etc. Tossed in the starters and they started fermenting within 8 hours. Ferment Temp was about 66-70 degrees. That's where things got ugly. The three piece bubblers became the birthplace of spew. My V Vessle suffered the worst onslaught having it's bung tossed off the top. My wife will throw my beer out of the kitchen pantry if this continues to happen. Not to mention what a big P-I-A cleanup was... Any ideas, Anybody ????
BTW the beer finishes nice and tasty. But I can't continue to do biz this with the brown sticky yeast ooze flowing over everything. I could do blow off tubes. But I didn't think this was normal.
Suggestions??
Bill
Re: I gots Fermentation Issues
Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 11:08 am
by tavish2
krausen is normal. get yourself a blowoff tube and donw worry about it. the other option is to lower your batch size so that it fits in your fermentation vessel.
Re: I gots Fermentation Issues
Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 11:19 am
by Mylo
Or use some foam control (Fermcap-S). I haven't - but others have quite successfully.
Mylo
Re: I gots Fermentation Issues
Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 11:48 am
by Brandon
2 suggestions:
an 800ml starter is a bit small and can do more harm than good.
Like mylo said, get some Ferm Cap. Its is very cheap and will last along time. Pretty much everywhere carries it,
http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart ... ntrol.html
Re: I gots Fermentation Issues
Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 1:40 pm
by SunkenBier
I use a blow off tube, without one things can be a mess.
Re: I gots Fermentation Issues
Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 1:44 pm
by tavish2
SunkenBier wrote:I use a blow off tube, without one things can be a mess.
yeah, the ceiling can get rather messy w/o one and too little head space.
Re: I gots Fermentation Issues
Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 1:46 pm
by Brandon
The only problem I have with relying on blow off tubes is that you lose some hop utilization in the blow off.
Re: I gots Fermentation Issues
Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 1:50 pm
by tavish2
Brandon wrote:The only problem I have with relying on blow off tubes is that you lose some hop utilization in the blow off.
huh??? utilization means alpha acid extraction during boiling..... as in how much bitterness are you getting into beer.