BeerBorg

So I brewed up a batch of 2 Daves Irish Red yesterday. Everything went very well, and I think this is going to be a great batch of beer.

I took the time Thursday evening to make a yeast starter (WLP004), and by Saturday morning, the krausen had started to fall, so I stuck it in the fridge. Sunday morning, during the mash, I took the starter out, decanted some of it, and left it downstairs to warm up. It appeared my yeast cake had more than doubled, so I was pleased about that.

Less than six hours after pitching the yeast, I checked on it, and the blow-off tube was bubbling slowly but steadily. By the time I put myself to bed, it was a steady stream of bubbles.

This morning, it had overflowed. No damage done. No breaching of the bung. Just a big mess around the water bottle I use for the blow-off.

I'm thinking I need to upgrade to a 2-liter bottle....

I use a 5 gallon bucket with about a gallon of water in it.

I love fast furious fermentations! The last time I was surprised by a really healthy pitch of yeast I used a half gallon pickle jar filled with about two inches of StarSan at the end of the blowoff tube.

FedoraDave wrote:No damage done. No breaching of the bung.

That's always a good thing!

Yea, I gave up on judging it like Gymrat. I use a gallon jug of water and star san mix filled about half way. No sense in worrying about the blowoff overflowing.

That's awesome. I use a growler filled 1/2 way with StarSan and (knocks on wood) haven't had any issues yet.

Of course, right now I'm fermenting 3G in my 6G bucket so I have plenty of headspace with no blowoff needed. Just a happy airlock at the moment.

I've decided to upgrade to a 2 liter bottle that used to have seltzer in it. I don't think I'll have any problems with that.

It's still bubbling pretty aggressively, but the danger has passed.