Overzealous foaming

I ran into a bit of an issue this weekend. Opened up an APA and it started fizzing up pretty badly. Opened a second, and same thing. Drank both, and they were still carbonated and tasted fine, but I don't know why this would happen. I have drunk all but the last 6 or 8 bottles of the batch, and had this problem once before, early on - but none of the other 30+ bottles have done this. These bottles were stored at room temp since early Feb, and put into the fridge last week, but I don't know why that would make a difference, as there is only so much sugar in the mix for the yeast to consume.

I dissolved the priming sugar in two cups of water, poured that into the bottling bucket and racked the beer from the secondary onto that - so I think it should be mixed well enough. Like I said, every other one was fine, just thought it was odd that two in a row overflowed on me.

Thoughts?

Sounds like a late developing gusher infection...

I had a batch that was for several months, and only the last 6 pack were affected. traced it to the autosiphon (actually it was my fault I originally broke the tube at the bend, and just slapped the hose on it with a clamp and never dissasembled it.

It was a porter that had bottle gushers no less...during judging at a contest...I was lucky though I had two patient judges...they let the first one gush, then asked for the second...it gushed as well...but they let the gushing stop and actually judged the remaining beers...

AND THEY LOVED THE FREAKIN TASTE!!!!!

They said on my judging sheets that had it not gushed I would have prolly placed in the top 3...and they were stymied, because they wrote in my evals, that there were absolutely no off flavors..

It sucked because I drank plenty of those beers (most of the cases) with no problem...but out of the last 6 were where the contest entries were...and I was home on the weekend of the judging, and when I opened one...right around the time I knew they were judging, I pretty much crapped in my pants...especially since I opened a second one and it gushed too....

So, this is a santitation problem? Crap - I thought I cleaned the hell out of everything, and sanitized it all really well - I don't really know where I could have gone wrong...

This was my first brew, and I thought I was even a little overzealous with my sanitation. Is it really that easy to get an infection? Should I be worried about the others that are still in the fridge?

Hmmmm, I guess I'm just a little discouraged....I thought I had done so well. I guess live and learn, and if they won't make me sick (a little reading of "How To Brew" says they won't but eventually they'll taste like ass), drink them down anyway.

It still could possibly be mixing -- I give mine a good stir before I bottle (unless I forget :cross

how can I tell the difference?

Revvy said:

(actually it was my fault I originally broke the tube at the bend, and just slapped the hose on it with a clamp and never dissasembled it.)

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Glad to know I'm not the only one snapping auto-siphon tubes at the bend. *grumble*

I think it's an infection. More than likely you would have seen inconsistent carbonation before this.

CiscoKid said:

Glad to know I'm not the only one snapping auto-siphon tubes at the bend. *grumble*

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Just did this yesterday, myself

HotbreakHotel said:

It still could possibly be mixing -- I give mine a good stir before I bottle (unless I forget :cross

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it's doubtful so late in the game this would be the cause of it....we're not talking three weeks after bottling...where talking the end of a batch where it didn't evidence itself for a few weeks...that usually means late gusher infection.

Ok - maybe someone can bottom line this for me - I'm thinking that it is an infection (I'll open another tonight and see if I get the same result). Assuming that is the issue, what steps can I take to avoid this in my next batch, or is this a pretty common problem?

I have a honey ale in the secondary ready to be bottled (likely this weekend) - and I don't want to have the same issue, but I don't know what the source is, so I guess I'm a little worried...

Edit: Now that I think about it (and I'm pretty sure I'm overthinking it and freaking out a bit) the honey ale finished lower than I expected (using Safale us-05) - I expected around 1.013 and got to 1.007+/- (I don't recall excatly and don't have my notes with me at work)...Could this be a bad sign?

CiscoKid said:

Glad to know I'm not the only one snapping auto-siphon tubes at the bend. *grumble*

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Hodor_Baggins said:

Just did this yesterday, myself

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Make that 4 of us. Been using it this way for several brews.

IrregularPulse said:

Make that 4 of us. Been using it this way for several brews.

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Just remove the hose after each use and clean, that was my mistake (i think) I jammed my hose on the end and never bothered taking it off. When I finally did, there was a ragged bit of broken plastic wedged in there, and I'm sure that it was just covered in micro-organisms, not matter how much sanitizer I pushed through it, you still have to clean.

I'm just assuming that was my point of infection, I just know after replacing the AS and tubing, and my bottling wand, the issue hasn't returned.

Got home from work and opened up another one. This one also over flowed, but not as bad as the previous two. Spilled about 1 tablespoon over the top. When I poured it, the glass was about 3/4 foam, but settled out quickly. I'm still thinking I have an infection.

My question now is what to do about the Honey Ale in my secondary? I've used the same equip (granted it was cleaned and sanitized between uses). It has been in the primary about 2 weeks - and will have been there for about 3 weeks when I bottle it. If I take a gravity reading before I add the priming sugar and it is the same as it was when it went in the secondary, should I assume everything is OK, and go ahead and bottle it? If it has dropped a fair amount, then what? I've noticed no air lock action while it has been in the secondary, but that might not mean anything...

Revvy said:

I jammed my hose on the end and never bothered taking it off.

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I think this may be my problem too....