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WooHokie

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In the process of drinking my first ever batch. I'll be honest, it's not that great. It is drinkable though. One thing I've noticed is that there is a lot of head in the bottle. Like more than I would say is normal. Any idea why this is happening?
 
In the process of drinking my first ever batch. I'll be honest, it's not that great. It is drinkable though. One thing I've noticed is that there is a lot of head in the bottle. Like more than I would say is normal. Any idea why this is happening?

Hey man, same thing happening to me tonight too. See my thread "Cracked 1st Brew." I think we've got overcarbed beers. Some of the things I've read is that fermentation may not have been completed when we actually bottled, causing additional fermentation in the bottles themselves.

How long did you leave at 70 degrees? How long did you let your beers hang in the fridge?
 
They were in the fermenter for three weeks and aged in the bottle at room temp for three weeks then in the fridge for two days.
 
They were in the fermenter for three weeks and aged in the bottle at room temp for three weeks then in the fridge for two days.

Did you check your FG? Was it consistent 3 days in a row? The first batch that I did (and opened tonight) was in the primary for 3 weeks, in bottles for 3 weeks, and then in the fridge for 6 days.

Because I didn't use a hydrometer for my first batch, I have no way of confirming that my fermentation was done (although I think it MUST have been). I'm simply chalking up my overcarbonation to not taking FG readings and hoping that moving forward, since I've taken FG readings, I won't have the problem again.
 
No. I didn't even know what to do with the hydrometer until after that batch. LOL

Now that I'm obsessed with this hobby I know much more.
 
No. I didn't even know what to do with the hydrometer until after that batch. LOL

Now that I'm obsessed with this hobby I know much more.

And knowing is half the battle!
gijoe.jpg
 
You probably did bottle while fermentation was still happening, though another likely culprit (and something that's happened to be twice!) is misjudging the amount of beer you have.

If you set out to do a n-gallon batch, you can either plan on doing a partial boil and forget to add the extra water at cooling time (my first batch,) or fail to correct for boiloff (my second batch.)

The best solution is to grab your bottle opener and lift the cap of each bottled beer just enough to let the CO2 in the headspace vent. If your beer is severely overcarbed the foam will rise, in this case stop right when the foam reaches the cap and starts to bubble out. If you're gentle, the seal will close again and you can let the foam die back down and repeat the process later if needed, until the beer is the correct pressure.

You don't even have to recap the beer after, the caps are tough as nails and the seal's still good enough to protect your hooch even after it's been cracked once or twice. :)
 
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