Fermentation Overflow (with Wyeast 3944)

[maldridge]

Hey, after dropping in my Wyeast 3944 smackpack on monday (no starter), and checking on Tuesday (With no activity) it is no Friday and I went to have a look at my beer.

Unfortunately it's overflowed through the airlock and the lid, and the worst part is in smells pretty bad. Like sulphur (FARTS).

I'm not sure exactly what day this might have happened but it was between Tuesday and Today.

My sanitization methods prior to this during the brew were fine (from what I can tell). I cleaned it up with a sanitized sponge the best I could, and swapped the lid over to my spare lid + airlock.

I may have filled up my fermenter a bit much so it's certainly my fault, after reading that the 3944 tends to go a bit crazy

I've attached a pic , I'm hoping this won't happen a second time.

Can anybody tell me if I've fkd the beer? With the dirty smell, is that a sign of infection?

Thanks everyone!

 

[warra48]

So you have a healthy yeast having a ball fermenting your wort? No problem. Rather a kraeusen like yours than a whimpy one from underpitching or less than healthy yeast.
So you have a farty sulphur smelly brew? No problem. Quite a lot of yeasts produce this as they ferment. It will clean up in time.

 

[Nick JD]

Two yeasts I've given up using are 3944 and 3068. While they both make supurb beer, they can be temperamental feckers - suddenly deciding (I could never isolate the cause) to cut the cheese and making a hell of a mess. Once, I had one touch the gladwrap with 50% headspace.

Thing is - Wyeast have lots of Belgian yeasts that have very similar characters to these two difficult yeasts, but are easy to manage and predictable. My latest Wit uses 3522, and it's all please and thank you rather than taking a dump on your doorstep and them puking in your fridge.

 

[maldridge]

Hah, very interesting Nick JD, I'll certainly keep that in mind next time I make a wit beer.

Thanks for the replies. I'm glad my beer isn't going to be ruined, I was mostly concerned about the sulphur smell than anything else but if you guys reckon it's pretty common, all good!!