Cider question/problem

[CCDL]

A good friend had a pear tree in his yard that was ( due to no late frost ) way overloaded with pears so I picked about 150 lbs and another friend pitched in with about 100 lbs of apples for cider. I made a quick simple press and using my Ninja whipped up bout 14 gal of pear/apple cider in three carboys and pitched some bakers yeast ( all I had and the natural yeasts started kicking in overnight ) They started almost instantly and are going well. My question/problem is all three carboys have approximately the same mix and yeast but one has gone nuts and is puking all over the place. I have had to clean up a fairly yucky mess bout three times a day, I left what I thought was plenty of head space. I am thinking of running some brandy outta most of it and saving some hard cider if it comes out tasty. Any comments or criticisms would be appreciated.

[Jimbo]

All good. Bacteria work really slowly something that pukes that fast is yeast going crazy. Thats not enough head space. Put it somewhere cooler.

[multipazz]

rig a blow off tube on the one that is puking

[CCDL]

I guess what my question really was was why one and not the others, did one catch a cold or one apple or pear in the one carboy had something with it? Weird

[Tater]

id think the yeast were happier for some reason in one maybe a good natural yeast taste when done to see if flavor profile is differnt

[CCDL]

I was gonna combine them for one potstill run but maybe I will let them really clear and finish and do some sampling and run separate, a perfect chance for a science er likker experiment.

[Jimbo]

I always let my cider ferment out for a month. I recommend that to get a nice fully dry fermentation. Tater brings up a good point. Some on here have gotten lucky with natural yeast ferments and landed on a really tasty strain. If that happened to you you might want to run it seperately and keep it seperately bottled (and be sure to save a jar of that yeast too in a sterilized jar in case youre on to somethign good).

[CCDL]

It is possible, I capped them with an airlock just to keep nasties out overnight and all had started slowly bubbling the next day so I pitched bakers. Wouldnt the bakers cannibalize the naturals? Its my first try and I dont know nuttin but maybe there were a couple of diffrent strains of wild yeasties, the pears and apples were from different locations. This is whats great about the site, so much knowledge and if you cant find it doesnt mean its not here.

[CCDL]

Jimbo,
How would I go about saving the culture if it happens to be something special?

[Jimbo]

Some yeasts generate a protein that inhibits other yeasts. K1-1116 for example. I dont believe Bakers is a 'killer strain' So in your case its a race. Whichever yeast propagates the fastest and gets down to business.

Saving yeast is simple. After you rack off the wash to the boiler youll have a sludge in the bottom. Sterilize some jars and pour the sludge in. Refrigerate it. I recommend popping the top every couple days for a while. If the ferment isint done you could build up enough pressure to explode your jars.

Edit: Multipazz, 7 gallon carboys? BOOYAH! Nice. Jealous.