I’ll start off by saying that I love Fermcap-S…I discovered it this year and has made starter building and krausen control worlds better!!!
I don’t know if anyone knows this for sure, but thought I would ask. Can you ever add too much to a beer that it will have unintended effects on the finished product? Reason I’m asking is my current endeavor, a 1.081 OG, extract Belgian Tripel. When I was oxygenating I put in 2 drops/gallon so it got nice and mixed around. Initially it did a good job of controlling the krausen but when I got up (thankfully) in the middle of the night I was almost at my airlock so I put a few more drops in, shook it around and got it back down. Before heading off to work this morning I peeked in and it was rising again!!! A few more drops, shake it around and got it back down. Really hoping I don’t come home to a mess.
Is too much Fermcap-S bad? Is there anything I can do to make it more effective to control the krausen in primary? And incase it’s important, my beer temp (have a thermowell in the beer) has been steady at 69 or 70.
If you used two drops per gallon in the fermenter (IIRC, that’s 2x the recommended dosage), and are still having uncontrollable krausen, you might consider using a larger fermenter and a blow-off tube instead. And dropping the beer temp a little.
The bottle says 2 drops per gallon and I’m using my 6.5 gallons glass carboy filled to the 5.5 gallon mark. Perhaps with my Belgians I’ll still have to use the blow-off tube because I like them near to just above 70 to get that nice Belgian character.
Belgians make the most and longest lasting krausen, so its always going to be a challenge to control that. I’d go with the blowoff or reduce to 5gal but that still might not do it.
Perhaps I need to start doing some more involved record keeping and try to get it narrowed down to strains that seem to care less about the Fermcap-S…I made a slightly different version of a tripel last weekend using Wyeast 1214 and the krausen never got higher than a couple inches.
I don’t have great notes (nor any) regarding past “out of control” fermentations but for some reason I want to say Ive had this problem with 3787 before…perhaps it is a super yeast!!!
Just got home from work in time to get a blowoff tube on the carboy as the krausen was just getting into the airlock!!! That is just going to have to be a rule of thumb for this strain of yeast…hell of a strain but just likes to make an awful mess.
Just when I think the krausen looks like it’s going to fall, it perks back up again!!!
I use Fermcap on every batch, and WY3787 has been the only yeast I’ve encountered where it hasn’t helped much. Like you, I had to go with multiple additions and it still kept coming back. It was worth the hassle though - I was really impressed with the incredible character present in Patersbier with such a simple recipe.
I stopped putting it in once I threw the tube on since I put more than enough in and it wasn’t helping…this yeast is just something else. I will definitely pay attention on all batches going forward to see if there are any more strains that seems to ignore I’m putting Fermcap in.
I will agree that 3787 does make a damn fine beer and in the future will do the proper dosage of fermcap, thrown on a blowoff tube and let happen what will happen. Looks like I lost less than a 1/4 gallon so thats not too bad.
I’ve never noticed that and for a long time I used a LOT of Fermcap! Since I found that it’s technically supposed to be filtered out of the beer I try to avoid using it if possible or at the very least use a minimal amount.
Well thanks for all the thoughts on this topic fellas…I think from now on I’ll try to go with 1 drop/gal and if necessary go up to 2 drops/gal and if that doesn’t seem to work then it’s just time to throw on the blowoff tube and let it rip.
