Yeasty Dark Ale Volcano

[steve.m]

I recently tried harvesting yeast from a beermakers premium lager. I then pitched a small vegemite sized jar into my honey cinnamon dark ale on Sunday. Today it was going that hard that it blew the water out of the airlock and sprayed the immediate area with my precious dark ale. I refilled the soiled airlock and it has subsided enough the leave the water in the airlock at least.

I guess the jar had too much yeast in it Will this ruin the beer or just make it brew quicker?
cheers
Steve

 

[razz]

G'day steve.m as long as you can keep the temperature where you want it all will be okay. It will brew a bit quicker. I hope you checked that the yeast smelt and tasted okay before you pitched it ?

 

[steve.m]

G'day steve.m as long as you can keep the temperature where you want it all will be okay. It will brew a bit quicker. I hope you checked that the yeast smelt and tasted okay before you pitched it ?

Cheers Razz. Yep the yeast seemed fine. It is bubbling like buggery at the moment. Pity i can't hook a turbine to to it. I could light the whole town withthe beer generated energy. :lol:

 

[brendanos]

How much headspace was there in the fermenter? And what was the OG of the beer?

 

[pbrosnan]

I pitched an APA wort (1052) on to the yeast cake from an APA I kegged last weekend, just left it in the fermenter and dumped the wort in on Saturday evening. Within 2 hours there was a yeast ice cream sitting on the fermenter lid. Cleaned it up and fitted a blow-off tube which collected about a quarter of a bucket more of krausen.
Anyway the thing has dropped from 1052 to about 1011 today, the fastest fermentation I've ever seen. It's tasting pretty good as well, Chinook with Cascade. So, as other have said, if the temperatures under control then the faster the better. BTW this was AG but the idea's the same.

 

[steve.m]

How much headspace was there in the fermenter? And what was the OG of the beer?

There was about 2 inches headspace and the OG was 1056. I pitched at 23 degrees and its beeen sitting on 20-23 the whole brew. Checked it before and still bubbling. The grvity this arvo is down to 1020 and tastes bloody good apart from still being slightly sweet on the initial taste. i was expecting it to be a little yeasty tasting but to my suprise there is little hint of that either. Life's good

 

[OzBeer_MD]

I was recently adivised to leave the air lock out all together for a while if it's taking the rabid dog approach. The theory being that if the fermentation is that fast/strong then there is no way that oxygen/bugs will get back in the little hole with all of that Co2 rushing out

Plenty of brewers on here reckon air locks are for whimps anyway.

I also make al point of not pushing the AirLock in all of the way down (just make a good seal and leave it at that) . Keeps the bottom of the airlock further away from the Krausen.

MD

 

[brendanos]

There was about 2 inches headspace

It's not uncommon for a healthy ale ferment to get 3-4 inches of krausen, even 6+inches in some cases. Get a bigger fermenter, or ferment less beer! (Or use a blow off tube)

I also just realised you were harvesting from a lager kit. Do you know if it was it a lager yeast? And did you ferment at lager temperatures?

 

[0M39A]

2 inches is nowhere near enough headspace. not surprising at all that you have krausen coming out your airlock (that sounds dirty for some reason...).

I use a 30L carboy and only ever fill to 23L.

if i had a 25L carboy id only ever fill to 19L-20L or so.

 

[steve.m]

It's not uncommon for a healthy ale ferment to get 3-4 inches of krausen, even 6+inches in some cases. Get a bigger fermenter, or ferment less beer! (Or use a blow off tube)

I also just realised you were harvesting from a lager kit. Do you know if it was it a lager yeast? And did you ferment at lager temperatures?

The beermakers lager actually has an ale yeast in it. go figure?
I picked it up at the Mildura HB shop. I must say though, the lager turned out to be a fantastic drop for a very plain brew. A can of goo, 300g of DLME, 1kg Dex and 15g of Cascade steeped for 10min in an expresso jug thing.