Blow out...Do I add more yeast???

[formula2fast]

Yesterday I brewed my Gingerbread ale and today it is fermenting like crazy and blowing some stuff out of the blowoff tube. I am concerned it is pushing out some yeast in the process and may not leave enough behind to bottle carbonate later. I am fearing this because the last time I had a lot of blow out from the tube, my beer would not carb up so I ended up dumping the whole batch. I am assuming it was because I blew out most of the yeast because it did not finish fermenting and wouldn't carb up.

If I end up loosing a lot of stuff due to the blow out, should I pitch more yeast into it at bottling time or should I do it after the vigorous fermentation stops? If I do repitch, how much should I put in?

 

[germanmade84]

If its still ferminting heavy, then take of the bubblr and clean it or swap in a second on so it doesnt clog. Thats the problem. The cloged bublr

 

[germanmade84]

So take off the bublr slowly and hold a towel over the opening as u do so. Then clean the openin and put a clean bublr on. U have to catch clogging early or u have explosions.

 

[Aspenextreme]

Don't repitch the yeast. Replace the airlock with another sanitized one.

 

[bwirthlin]

You don't need to re-pitch any yeast. They're reproducing like crazy in there and you'll have plenty left to carb up your bottles. Also it's good that you used a blow off tube instead of a regular airlock otherwise you'd probably have beer on the ceiling.

 

[germanmade84]

The last batch had a rapid decompression which released most of the dissolved CO 2 in the beer, so repitching is a shot in the dark because uve lost all that dissolved co2.

 

[formula2fast]

Thanks for the quick responses...To clarify, I do not have an air lock on, I have a blow-off tube going into a bucket of sanitizer and there is krausen and other stuff that looks like yeast in the bucket of sanitizer. I made a 5 gallon batch and it is in a 6.5 gallon carboy, so there is definitely some space above the beer but right now it is full to the top with krausen. I swapped out the bucket with fresh sanitizer to see how much was actually in there and I am pretty sure I will be ok.

With my last batch, I had 2 inches of yeast cake on the bottom of my sanitizing bucket that the blowoff tube was in, but it was also fermenting at 80*. I now have a freezer on a regulator and this batch is at 65* right now, so I am pretty sure my last batch had the major problem because of the temp.

 

[bwirthlin]

Thanks for the quick responses...To clarify, I do not have an air lock on, I have a blow-off tube going into a bucket of sanitizer and there is krausen and other stuff that looks like yeast in the bucket of sanitizer. I made a 5 gallon batch and it is in a 6.5 gallon carboy, so there is definitely some space above the beer but right now it is full to the top with krausen. I swapped out the bucket with fresh sanitizer to see how much was actually in there and I am pretty sure I will be ok.

With my last batch, I had 2 inches of yeast cake on the bottom of my sanitizing bucket that the blowoff tube was in, but it was also fermenting at 80*. I now have a freezer on a regulator and this batch is at 65* right now, so I am pretty sure my last batch had the major problem because of the temp.

Sounds like you did everything perfect.

 

[formula2fast]

I hope so...The wort tasted too good to not become good beer

 

[bwirthlin]

I hope so...The wort tasted too good to not become good beer

I love when that happens. I've got a pale ale fermenting right now. I did a gravity reading on it this morning and drank the test and it was awesome even warm and flat. I can't wait to taste it after its dry hopped and all carbonated and nice and cold.

 

[jmg727]

Hey Formula, what recipe did you use?

 

[formula2fast]

11.5 lbs. pale malt
1.5 lbs. caramel 10 malt
1.5 lbs. caramel 60 malt
1 lbs. chocolate malt
1oz centennial 60 min
.5 oz hallertau 5min
4 cinnamon sticks 60 min
15 cloves 60 min
2 whole nutmegs grated 30 min
3 tablespoons of cut up candied ginger 30 min
Scottish Ale yeast

 

[jmg727]

Thanks! Did you leave the cinnamon sticks, clove, ginger and nutmeg in your primary?

 

[formula2fast]

When I transferred into my primary, I run it through a funnel with a strainer to aerate it a bit and remove as much trub as possible. The cinnamon, cloves, and ginger were strained out, but since the nutmeg was ground up, I am sure most of it ended up in the primary. The wort tasted exactly like I pictured a Christmas gingerbread beer. I can't wait for it to be ready to drink.

 

[jmg727]

Wow that sounds great. Thanks for the info. I may brew it substituting MO for the 2row and caramel.

 

[formula2fast]

If I brew it again I would probably sub MO for pale as well, but would probably still keep the caramel. Gingerbread has a lot of molasses in it which caramel malt to me seems to add a bit of that type of flavoring. Post up results if you brew it...We can tweak this recipe together

 

[jmg727]

Yes that would be great. I see we are not far from each other so we might be able to figure out an exchange of finished prodcut. I am working on lightening the color of my brews and simplifying my grain bills so let me think a bit and come up with something. Have you ever used coco nibs etc? How did you pick centenial hops?

 

[formula2fast]

I used nibs before but didnt really think that they would fit a gingerbread recipe that well. I chose centennial hops because i could not figure out what type of hops to use in a recipe like this and saw a recipe that was kind of similar that used them so i figured i would give them a shot in mine.