I've just suffered my second ever krausen through the airlock saga, and was wondering what may have caused it.
I've had big headed ferments before and can generally anticipate them, so I can use a blow off tube or underfill the fermenter, but this one stumped me.
The main causes I've found in the past are:
Yeast - certain beasts are prone to big heads. Wyeast 1007 was my favourite. This was Wyeast 1318, another top cropper, but I've managed to control it before.
Yeast volume - overpitching, especially when using slurry can set a ferment off hot and fast.
Gravity - High gravity brews, especially stouts, have the krausen-climbing habit.
Temperature - Overly warm temps can extract a little too much activity out of the yeast.
Fermenter volume - An obvious one, but still relevant. Overfilling the fermenter increases the chances of a blowout.
The only other thing with this brew was the volume of dextrose. Slight miscalculation put about 700g of dextrose in the brew, which is more than I would normally use.
For the record, this was a simple quaffer variation. Beermakers Lager kit (sorry, but it was a freebie), 800g LME, 700g Dextrose, 175g Corn syrup. Hersbrucker hops. Wyeast 1318. Fermenter volume 23.5l. OG 1048. Pitching temp 22C. Ferment temp 20C.
As far as I'm concerned, none of the above really apply.
Any thoughts?
I've had big headed ferments before and can generally anticipate them, so I can use a blow off tube or underfill the fermenter, but this one stumped me.
The main causes I've found in the past are:
Yeast - certain beasts are prone to big heads. Wyeast 1007 was my favourite. This was Wyeast 1318, another top cropper, but I've managed to control it before.
Yeast volume - overpitching, especially when using slurry can set a ferment off hot and fast.
Gravity - High gravity brews, especially stouts, have the krausen-climbing habit.
Temperature - Overly warm temps can extract a little too much activity out of the yeast.
Fermenter volume - An obvious one, but still relevant. Overfilling the fermenter increases the chances of a blowout.
The only other thing with this brew was the volume of dextrose. Slight miscalculation put about 700g of dextrose in the brew, which is more than I would normally use.
For the record, this was a simple quaffer variation. Beermakers Lager kit (sorry, but it was a freebie), 800g LME, 700g Dextrose, 175g Corn syrup. Hersbrucker hops. Wyeast 1318. Fermenter volume 23.5l. OG 1048. Pitching temp 22C. Ferment temp 20C.
As far as I'm concerned, none of the above really apply.
Any thoughts?