Weg Posted September 30, 2006 Share Posted September 30, 2006 Hi, Just trying to brew a stout, and had the fermenter pop the lid due to the pressure after 24 hours. There was quite a bit of foaming and the air lock had been expelled of water. Will the brew be rescuable or is it likely that an infection is causing the excess gas. I resealed the brew, filled up the airlock and it hasn't done it again, but is bubbling very briskly. Any help appreciated! Weg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg B Posted October 1, 2006 Share Posted October 1, 2006 Stouts will run up quite a krausen head on them, and be quite vigarous in fermentation. This is normal. Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew. Cheers, Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted October 1, 2006 Share Posted October 1, 2006 Good comments Greg! You can avoid foaming over by increasing the headspace in the fermenting vessel. Either get a bigger vessel or fill to a lesser volume in the first instance then, once the foaming has subsided, gently pour in cooled boiled water to the 23 litre mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weg Posted October 3, 2006 Author Share Posted October 3, 2006 I shall not worry any more. My previous stout brews had never had this level of foaming hence my concern. They've always tasted bloody nice, despite the brewing conditions not always being 100 % hunky. So I'll anticipate another lovely brew ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oliver Posted October 10, 2006 Share Posted October 10, 2006 You can also reduce foaming by making sure that the temperature of the wort during fermentation is towards the lower end of the scale (i.e. around 18C-20C if you're brewing an ale such as stout). The higher the temperature, the more vigorous the fermentation and the more foaming. You'll find you don't have this problem if you're brewing with a true lager yeast, as true lager yeasts tend to work their magic nearer the bottom of the wort rather than the top (hence they are referred to as bottom-fermenting yeasts, as opposed to top-fermenting or ale yeasts). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 Just a note on ale and lager yeast strains - commonly referred to as "top and bottom fermenting yeast". The yeast, regardless of strain, doesn't actually do the work at the top or bottom. When yeast is working strongly it is distributed throughout the wort. Both strains of yeast settle to the bottom as fermentation activity subsides. One could reasonably assume that the yeast strains were so named because brewers of old, being more macro, observed lots of foaming with ale yeast and very little foaming with lager yeast and deduced that ale must be working at the top while lager doesn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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