Monster Krausen!

[maggotbrain65]

Hi folks,

Ive been slowly upgrading my system and adding bits and pieces to my brewing process. The latest purchase was an aeration kit with an airstone so I tried it out on my recent batch of North German altbier.
I used to aerate simply as I ran the chilled wort out of the brew kettle through a few hop bags to strain most of the trub. I figured that this was giving the wort a decent enough aeration and my beers were turning out well, with good yeast attenuation.
So, this time I did my 1 ltr starter of Wyeast 1007 on the stir plate & aerated the wort with the kit (sanitised air, not oxygen) for 15 mins. Pitched at 16 degrees and the action kicked off in 24hours - no faster than normal. After 5 days, the krausen was insane, out of the airlock and trying to take over the apartment!
The fermenter headspace is 5 litres and ive never had this happen before.
My questions are, 1. have over pitched? Do wyeast activator smack packs actually need a starter? & 2. Is the excessive yeast production going to affect the beer in terms of proper ale ester formation?

Im very sure this will attenuate properly and also sure that the 1007 , being a poor one for flocculation , could lead to a cloudy finished product. Anything you guys would change in the process?

Thanks in advance


Sandman

[Docjowles]

My questions are, 1. have over pitched? Do wyeast activator smack packs actually need a starter? & 2. Is the excessive yeast production going to affect the beer in terms of proper ale ester formation?

1) it depends on the OG of the beer and the age of the yeast. If it's only a few weeks old and the OG is, say, below 1.060 a starter may not be necessary. If the yeast is old or it's a huge beer, yeah, you want a starter. This is also always open to debate...

2) Probably won't be a big deal.

Have you ever used this yeast before? If not, some yeasts just throw giant kreusens and you learn to put a blowoff tube on those suckers. Looking at you, Wyeast 3787

[scotchpine]

I've gone to the bolwoff tube on all mine to be safe. Also 1 drop per gallon Fermcap in the fermenter. This stuff really helps. Just keep it around 60 degrees till near the end of fermentation, then raise it a few for a few days. Last time I used 007, it flocced out really well in the bottle after conditioning. Nicely crisp and clean, super rocky head. It will be fine.