Pitching yeast

Gort

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I have downsized my brew making 2 to 2 1/2 gal. batches. After I dry pitch my yeast, 5.6 gr., into the ferment I add my airlock. I noticed activity within hours. 2 of the 3 batches I've made, the airlock had foam bubbling out of the top.
I have approx, 3 inches from the top of the wort to the top of my fermenter.
Am I using too much yeast? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.
 
No, good yeast quantity. Just not enough space between the top of the liquid and the airlock.

The recipe builder here has a good estimate of how much yeast to use, give it a try. But half a pack for a 2 1/2 gallon batch sounds just right for an ale.
 
No it won’t hurt it. I pitch a whole pack in my small batches. Space you need though.
 
You can use a blow off tube instead. Will keep the foam from fouling the airlock
 
Yeah either you need less liquid in the fermenter or a blow off tube.
Like this.
upload_2021-4-11_11-36-38.png
 
Yeah so the thing is to either not fill it so full, or plan for it to happen with some tubing.
 
I had that happen once. Since then I use a blowoff tube like that on any higher gravity wort even after getting my fermonster which has a bit more headspace. It's simple, cheap peace of mind and if you attach the tube to the inner post of a 3 peice airlock like @Hawkbox You can easily remove it and switch back to an airlock after high krausen if you so desire. Some people even just use a blowoff on every brew
 
An overpitch does causes excessive krausen, but it's not too big of deal. A severe underpitch is way worse. Lag times are important to watch because it tells you a little bit about your pitch rate without getting too involved or technical. Generally 8-18 hours is a good lag time for ales. It lets you know the pitch was healthy and about the right amount. Lagers should be 18-32 hours. This is all depending on pitch temperature. Higher fermentation temperatures will increase the krausen as well.

English yeasts (Wyeast 1318 is a good example) and German Kolsch yeasts (K97, 2565 and even 1007) are most susceptible to a really high krausen because a lot of them are top croppers, meaning they can and do flocculate up. CO2 gets trapped under the yeast that flocc's upward and creates a excessive krausen.

English yeasts in general can tolerate a lower pitch and may benefit by from this because ester production is increased by the lower pitch. I wouldn't think it was as good of an idea with German Kolsch or German Alt yeast. Generally those beers are low in ester production, so head space is key with those beers.

S04 is a English yeast that tolerates low pitches very well. I pitch 1 pack (11 grams) into a 7 gallon 1.058 OG beer and it works great, although lag times are pushing 18 hours. The krausen is about 1/3 the height as compared to a normal pitch (.75 million cells/mL/degree plato)

Kveik is an entirely different beast. Underpitch and it has a 2-4 lag time. Kveik Voss has a fairly low krausen.
 
I have an ssbrewtech 7 gal. Same thing. About 5 inches of room and never have blown out

I have 2 of them, and have had a couple but they were wild krausen batches.
 
I have 2 of them, and have had a couple but they were wild krausen batches.
I wonder if fermcaps effects that krausen production. Cause I use that in my boil quite often
 
I firmly believe it does, I stopped using it for a while cause I was doing half my normal size batches and the fermenters were going nuts.
 
I wonder if fermcaps effects that krausen production. Cause I use that in my boil quite often
It does for about 2-3 days and then it seems to lose it's effectiveness after that. What it works the best for is keep the foam down during wort aeration.
 

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