The Krausen monster - a newbie tale

[Foggy Scruggs]

Hey all,

Any advice (I'm a complete newbie) on what I did wrongly or should do in future would be greatly appreciated.

I'd read somewhere the Festival World Beers Kit- German Weiss can be a vigorous ferment so didn't fill to the advised 23 litre mark but just under, thinking that'd help me with a little additional headroom. All instructions were followed closely but.....

Within 18 hours at ideal temperature I woke to a bulging lid ready to explode, a gunked up air lock, krausen coming out a previously well sealed lid. (I now realise a blow off tube is an ESSENTIAL piece of equipment. Why don't they include in starter kits? Okay it keeps the price down, but for a couple of quid it seems crazy not to include it. At least STRONGLY advise to buy one and at least 2 airlocks. The "Smart Airlock" I bought was advised to be able to deal with even the most vigorous fermentation. I think maybe a 1" blowoff tube might have coped? Okay we live and learn but still.....rather annoying)

Over the next 5 or 6 hours the krausen continues spewing up through the grommet cavity onto the top of the lid which i remove and clean away intermittently. I don't want to take the lid off completely and expose everything and it seems pointless putting an airlock in this krausen volcano and of course - no blow off tube. Was this a reasonable course of action? Unlikely to have harmed the end product? Any other advice for avoiding this scenario in future?

Anyway eventually the monster abated and a further 24 hours later everything seems okay. Praying I haven't bodged it up.

The moral of the story seems to be for half the price of a sickly sweet Starbucks Choca latte Soy infused Frappa Mocca ChaiTino a more pleasant first time brewing experience could've been had by including a blow off tube in the starter pack, or at least strongly advising to use one.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Welcome to brewing just put it down to learning i don't think you will have done any harm as there is plenty of co2, i have had a few monsters with stouts but never a bad brew, keep us posted on the brew

 

[phettebs]

I've been brewing for over 14 years. Here's what happened to me on my latest batch this week. This one had an OG of 1.105 so I kind of expected it. It's still not very fun to open the lid and see that mess.

 

[smcc]

Weißbier yeast is notorious for vigorous fermentation, a lot of breweries here in Bayern will do a completely open fermentation as you will have such a thick krausen

 

[WierdFish]

Some will disagree, but a loosely fitted lid is more than adequate and and airlock or blow off tube is not strictly necessary, as long as the lid prevents stuff dropping in the brew. It won’t stop a monster like this though, nothing will.

Happy brewing.