Open Fermentation

[2hennepin6]

Due to a fermentation vessel shortage and my curiosity, I am going to try an open fermentation. I have a 6 gallon-ish stainless hot table pan with lid. About a third of my 10 gallon batch of saison will be fermented with some honey open. The remaining two thirds in my small conical (with one third of that being racked and aged on toasted oak cubes).

I have read up on it but not much here on the forum. Any advice before I plunge in?

*I am not going all lambic/wild ferment on youse all, I will be using saison yeast.

 

[2hennepin6]

Oops, now I see a bunch of "similar threads".

 

[Alan Reginato]

Works, just cover with something, like a biab bag, to keep macro bugs out of it. And when it finishes, put the lid on, to avoid too much oxigen contact. Maybe silver tape to completely seal.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Good luck. I am currently giving an actual open fermentation a try now with a Quad. The "Yeast Basics" videos on the Escarpment Labs YouTube channel discussed the impacts of oxygen levels and esters, so it seemed like an interesting beer to try. I am curious how "open" an open ferment really needs to be for there to be an impact. Wide open bucket covered with a mesh vs carboy with a piece of foil cover (or just an airlock without water). I am fermenting in a Fermonster with a large hop sack over the opening.

My understandings is that as the krausen starts to die back, you want to treat the beer like any other to avoid oxidation. Before fermentation is complete you want to either transfer to a secondary or seal up the primary.

My quad has been actively fermenting for 3 days open (yeast pitched last Saturday afternoon). It is starting to slow but I just took a gravity reading and it has only dropped from 1.088 to 1.040 so far.

 

[Pablo 54]

Bringing this one back since it is not too far gone.

Currently open fermenting the hefe I brewed on the 9th. I pitched 70% of my 3068 at about 12:30 PM on the 9th.
Open fermentation in my garage. Temp was 78F (25.5C).
Using a 5 gallon painters mesh to cover the top so no large critters can get in.
This picture is from about 9AM today (10JULY).
Smells like warm banana bread.
I normally would scoop out any off colored krausen and then give it a quick stir but not this time. The krausen looks picture perfect to me so I'm leaving it alone.
I noticed that on the Paulaner website they are using Herkules hops. I've stopped using Hallertau hops or any typical hefe noble hops that are ~4% and switched to the Herkules at 17.8%. Since my addition was at 45min with only 0.25oz (7g), I'm thinking that's why I have no more "stuff" to scoop.
Temps are supposed to be in the mid to upper 80's (27C -31C) today so I have moved it inside. Temps are stable at 68F (20C).

Cheers.

.