bottles overflowing

Added the right amount of priming sugar and did it all accordingly. I just wanted to see what a bottle would look like at day 6 ...then it exploded all over.

Could be an infection? How did you measure your sugar?

Gusher bug?

Clementine said:

Could be an infection? How did you measure your sugar?

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Snotpoodle said:

Gusher bug?

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NONONONONONONO!!!!!!!!!! (just what we need, starting with "infection panic" and not the truth... The answer was right in front of you....)

The only problem he has is impatience.

There's nothing wrong with your beer, it's not overprimed nor is it infected...the problem is YOU'RE OPENNING THE BEER AFTER BEING IN THE BOTTLE SIX DAYS!!!!

Watch poindexter's video from my bottling blog.



Like he shows several times, even @ 1 week, all the hissing, all the foaming can and does happen, but until it's dissolved back into the beer, your don't really have carbonation, with tiny bubbles coming out of solution happening actually inside the glass, not JUST what's happening on the surface.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

But until then the beer can even appear to be overcarbed, when really nothing is wrong.

A lot of new brewers who tend to kill their two cases off in a few days, don't experience true carbonation and the pleasures thereof, until they actually get a pipeline going, and have their first 5 or 6 week old full carbed and conditioned wonderfully little puppy! Then the come back with an "aha" moment.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

Makes sure the beers are minimum of 3 weeks at 70 degrees before you even think of opening them, then make sure a couple of them are THOROUGHLY chilled for at least 48 hours to draw the co2 into solution. Then more than likely everything will be hunky dory....

Had you opened them after 3 weeks you never would have noticed anything wrong.....

I'm going to open my first beer today after 6 days in the bottle. But it's my first one ever, and I don't give a rat's ass what happens. I'm drinking that sucker to kick off the long weekend.

I'll be a good boy though after that - I'll have another in a week.

paulster2626 said:

I'm going to open my first beer today after 6 days in the bottle. But it's my first one ever, and I don't give a rat's ass what happens. I'm drinking that sucker to kick off the long weekend.

I'll be a good boy though after that - I'll have another in a week.

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Just don't start a "my beer's not carbed" "is over carbed" or " tastes like ass" thread after. Just expect that more than likely it's not going to be ready yet. It may gush, it may be flat or it may be slightly carbed, or it might be carbed but still taste like crap because it's green, OR there's a 10-15% chance that bottle might be carbed and drinkable...

But either way, enjoy it for what it is.

Slightly on topic, but what does it mean if I still have bottles slightly gushing 7 weeks after bottling and waiting a full 3 days in the fridge before opening? Not losing any beer when opened, but just a small head forming up the neck, and almost impossible to pour without getting just head.

Just overcarbonated? I used the same amount of priming sugar I always do (3.75 oz) and it tastes fine.

phenry said:

Slightly on topic, but what does it mean if I still have bottles slightly gushing 7 weeks after bottling and waiting a full 3 days in the fridge before opening? Not losing any beer when opened, but just a small head forming up the neck, and almost impossible to pour without getting just head.

Just overcarbonated? I used the same amount of priming sugar I always do (3.75 oz) and it tastes fine.

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Was it fine Before? Like at 3 weeks? If it was perfectly fine initially and then started gushing, you more than likely DO have a gusher infection. That's the clue. If everything was hunky dory PAST the initial 3-4 weeks and the condition changed, whether it was a few weeks or even months later, then something is wrong with the beer.

If it always gushed and you are sure you used the correct amount then either it was infected OR the beer wasn't really done when you bottled it. Did you take 2 consequetive grav reading over a three day period to determine if fermentation was complete before bottling (Or used a month long primary?)

First, are you sure ALL the sugars were consumed in the fermenting process? Bottling early leaves the job undone and can result in bottle bombs.

As we go from season to season the temperature at the time of bottling changes. Even with A/C, we don't keep our houses at the same temp in summer and winter. If you bottle at a higher temperature, there is less residual CO2 in the solution when you start. If you bottle in cool temps. there is more residual CO2. The difference can cause the same amount of sugar to give different results.

There are several carbonation calculators that will predict the proper amount of different sugars for different styles of beer. Plug in different temps and you will see that higher temps require more sugar.

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html?12509635#tag

Come on face it, if it tastes good you're gonna have more.

paulster2626 said:

I'm going to open my first beer today after 6 days in the bottle. But it's my first one ever, and I don't give a rat's ass what happens. I'm drinking that sucker to kick off the long weekend.

I'll be a good boy though after that - I'll have another in a week.

Click to expand...

Revvy said:

Was it fine Before? Like at 3 weeks? If it was perfectly fine initially and then started gushing, you more than likely DO have a gusher infection. That's the clue. If everything was hunky dory PAST the initial 3-4 weeks and the condition changed, whether it was a few weeks or even months later, then something is wrong with the beer.

If it always gushed and you are sure you used the correct amount then either it was infected OR the beer wasn't really done when you bottled it. Did you take 2 consequetive grav reading over a three day period to determine if fermentation was complete before bottling (Or used a month long primary?)

Click to expand...

Used a month long primary and the two gravity readings I took 4 days apart before bottling were both 1.016. It was my first time using a bottle culture of Pacman, which was probably the slowest fermenting yeast I've used to date. It took about 2 weeks for the gravity to stop dropping (~1.016-1.017 before I started a 2 week dry hop).

The problem hasn't gotten any worse, if anything it may be slightly more under control, but there's still excessive foaming while pouring.

I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't completely done, despite giving it a full four weeks in the fermenter. I have a IIPA dry hopping right now with the same culture, but it's been in for 6 weeks now. Hopefully that will allow for things to clear up, along with using less priming sugar this time around.

A couple of thoughts

Firstly good friends are enemy of pipelines, I just now have one and my wife tells me we are moving in 28days from Hawaii to PA... arrh I just have set up a good schedule to has me currently holding over 200 bottles + two batches of 6 gallons in the fermentation chamber.... guess I'm going to have good and drunk friends .

On carbonation: when the yeast spit out CO2 they must do it into solution and as that process happens in 10s of hrs to days vs minutes I don't see that the equilibrium of CO2(g)<-> CO2(sol) should oscillate that much. I think the finer beading of head from a well aged beer comes from the yeast that creates the CO2 flocking out and giving the CO2 coming out of solution less to form on and hence tighter bubbles. I have not noticed a large difference in the amount of head/foaming of my beer when they are young, at least not one that could not be explained by the above description. I have watched this video before and I like the idea but would like a bit more control/information on the experiment (temp, time at temp before opening, more consistancy in the pour, how did he prime the bottles etc). Next time I brew I might do a similar experiment... but as I'm currently packing all my brew equipment I guess it will be while

On waiting weeks to taste my brew.... I think it was Billy Conolly talking about the Catholic withdrawal method that said "Wild horses could not make that happen", that applies here too. I have a couple of brown coopers bottles still hanging around I always put a couple of my beers in these so I can squeeze test them (and easily post them to brew friends). Once these are showing signs of carbing up, I throw a one in the fridge, I know I shouldn't it is just I can't help myself.

Clem

They're all blowing up on me...

I opened a beer after 6 days last night and it was carbed fair and I regularly check at about 1 week and have never had a gusher. I know it is not at its peak but I like to check progress. I have poured out several due to next to no carbonation but never a gusher.