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Fermenting Problem
On my last two batches of cider, after a few days of fermenting, the top of the bucket has become completely filled with foam and the foam has either leaked out of the airlock, or gummed it up so much that the entire lid has been blown off from the pressure. I'm making 4.5-5 gallon batches in 6.7 gallon buckets, so I don't see why I'm having this problem. Has anyone else ever experienced this? Besides making a smaller batch, is there any way to avoid it?
Thanks
Peyton
Also, I drained one gallon out into another bucket and both buckets were fermenting well. I came back and the bucket was foaming out of the airlock again so i drained another gallon and a half. Now the original bucket is fermenting but not the second. Could I have messed something up? I'm guessing that the fermentation in the second bucket just needs some time to get going again, probably tomorrow it will start again.
Javier
Wow, I have no experience with this, but I'll take a guess. You may have some wild yeast and/or bacteria in your cider which is causing it to ferment so explosively. That's just one possibility, but the excessive foaming makes me suspicious and might be an indicator for that. You really should draw a sample, take a hydrometer reading and taste it. That will tell you a lot about what's going on. If it's infected or fermenting with wild yeasts you'll know right away. Where did you get your cider? What yeast did you use?
I'll also guess that when you drained some cider out (from your bottom spiqot I assume) you may not have gotten a lot of yeast with it, since the yeast is top fermenting. But you should've gotten enough to get going eventually. Even if the second bucket doesn't ferment at all you can just wait until things calm down in the primary bucket. Then siphon the drained off cider back, and it'll finish fermenting. Hopefully you're keeping good sanitation at all times.
I would still say that a blow off hose is your answer. Draining off cider into another vessel is just opening the door to problems. A blow off hose will eliminate the need to worry at all about the foam.
You might get more responses to this question over on the general brewing board. If you post a new topic there, keep the word "cider" out of the subject, and try to write your question around the excessive krausening and the procedures you've done. That way the moderators might not move it back to this board. There's just a ton more traffic over there. Good luck with your cider!!!
Mitchell
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