Gusher Experience

I'm experiencing a lot of problems with gushering. I've checked through the threads and still have a couple of questions on this important topic:

The problem showed up at some level on everything I've brewed since August, which is about 6 batches. Typically, these batches taste fine and are okay for about the first week or two after bottling. They do better while chilled.

The most recent was a batch of stout that I bottled 2 days ago and is already gushering.


Here is a photo:



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the batch on the right was bottled about 2 weeks ago, and has a thick yellow layer in the bottom. The other ones are older, and are looking pretty good. No gushering from those guys.

I run 5 gallons of starsan solution through my siphoning equipment before and after every usage. I run a similar amount through my counterflow wort chiller.

All of these batches go through a counterflow chiller. The batches are siphoned directly from the brew pot at knockoff, and this thing is efficient enough to cool it to sub-ambient by the time it gets to the carboy.

It has been awhile since I've replaced the tubing, which is on my to-do list.

Bottles:

I soak my bottles for at least 24 hours in bleach, then re-dip in bleach and star-san before putting them in the diswasher on "heated dry" to try to kill off any bottle-related infections.

I do mix up my star-san directly in my bottling bucket, brush the inside with a scrub brush before and after every usage. I transfer the star san to another bucket before using.

Yeast: I've been recovering my yeast. My main yeast is an IPA yeast, that is about 5 months old, I guess... I brewed some Weissbier a couple of weeks ago with a different yeast, and in that stuff, the problem is less severe but still there.

Brew Cycle: I do a 7-day primary and a 7 day or longer secondary, depending on the batch. I use a blowoff tube into sanitizer for the primary, and a regular airlock on the secondary. All carboys, which I clean thoroughly, add bleach, and allow to sit upside down in a bucket of bleach between cycles. I have 4 carboys that I rotate out.

Priming: 4 oz by weight brown sugar per 5 gallons (a little less for porter or stout), dissolved in water. I do bring the sugar water to a full boil before adding the sugar, allow it to cool before addition to the batch.

Fermenting: Constant at about 76F year-round

So the questions are:
1. is it bacteria or wild yeast?
2. How to put a stop to it?
3. What's the likelihood that it affected the nice batch of Pinot Noir that I have fermenting in the same room, which I put in there with the same bottling bucket and siphon tube?

So far my action plan is to take everything out of my brewery, let it sit in the sun for a few days, spray everything including the walls down with bleach, immerse every bottle I have in boiling water, and then pack the whole thing up and try it all again.

Oh, and replace the tubes, run boiling water through my bottling bucket, and boil the stopcock.

Hydrochloric acid is at my disposal if I decide to go that far.

So, Forum dwellers, I will await your opinions.

I'm confused here. Are you saying that the beers longer than 2 weeks aren't gushing? Or are beers that start out carbed fine for a few weeks then begin gushing down the road?

Those are two different issues.

If you are opening bottles UNDER THREE WEEKS, the they are more than likely gushing because you're opening them too soon. And the co2 hasn't fully gone into solution.

If you watch Poindexter's video on time lapsed carbonation, you will see that in many instances, before a beer is carbed it my gush, that's not from infection, or mixing of sugars, and it's not really carbed yer, but because the co2 hasn't evened out- it hasn't been pulled fully into the beer. Think of it as there's a lot of co2 being generated and most of it is in the headspace, not in the beer, so there's still "over pressure" in the bottle, so it gushes when it is opened.

But when the beer is truly carbed it all evens out, across the bottles.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlBlnTfZ2iw]time lapse carbonation - YouTube[/ame]

What you consider over carbed is more than likely actually NOT really carbed yet.

On the other hand. If you've waited at least 3 weeks, and all the beer were fully carbed and conditioned for awhile, THEN they started gushing, you more than likely have a late onset infection. Either your batch is infected, or you have some issues with bottle sanitization or your bottling process, and you need to deal with the infection. Check your spigot and bottling setup for issues. Or in your fermentation process.

Thanks for posting that.

Actually in my limited experience, about 3 years of brewing, I've never seen that and so I will keep a few of these bottles around for a few more days to check up on them.

I have several "lots" of beer:

I bottled a couple of batches yesterday: a stout that I'd allowed to sit for a month in the carboy before bottling, and an IPA. The stout gushed this morning, and had the yellow slime, and so I am willing to say that you may be right on that one, it's actually undercarbed. I have not checked the IPA yet, it is still around.

I have a hybrid and an Irish Red that were both bottled on 9-15. The hybrid looked fine and tasted fine on the 21st when I tested them. The Red was a little flat, I thought. Not so last night, though. They both gushed.

I have an Oktoberfest and a porter that were both bottled on 8-31. The Oktoberfest is actually not looking too bad, I tested it on September 12 and it was pretty good, drank better a couple of days later. The porter is not too bad either. The porter is developing that yellow layer, but is drinkable, and no beer-splosion.

I had a batch of IPA that was bottled on 8-15 or so. That thing was what tipped me off: It drank fine and was not too fizzy on about 8-30 when I tried it, but since then got progressively fizzier and more astringent to the point where it was marginally drinkable.

I have a couple of bottles of IPA around that were bottled in mid-July. No yellow layer, no problem with fizzing.

So, that's the whole story. I was thinking the problem was actually an infection in that IPA yeast, which I had used in the rest of the batches, but the fact that the Weissbier has it a little bit and the Oktoberfest is still good makes that one less likely.

I suppose what all of this really tells me is that it is too hot to bottle beer in Atlanta in July and August, and there is some wisdom in the monks who figured out that it was not good to brew in the summer....I had a problem with acetobacter a year ago, and it went away when I switched to Carboys and also when the weather cooled off.

I wish I had a microscope. I might learn something.

I'm kinda lost, too...you're saying you opened a bottle of the stout just 1 day after bottling? I'm not even sure why you'd do that...but if that is what you're calling a gusher, it's just not carbed and needs to be left alone for 2-3 weeks, then 48+hours in the fridge.

If you're getting bottle bombs or more carbonation than you want AFTER these time-frames...you probably have infection. It sounds like you're letting the beer fully ferment prior to bottling, so I don't think there are fermentables left in the beer causing this.

i didnt see anything about taking gravity readings. Just that you schedule for every brew is 1 week primary and 1 week secondary then you bottle...If you have residual suagrs these are fermenting in bottle in excess the 4oz corn sugar your using causing your gushers

I suggest taking gravity readings to make sure youve hit your FG before bottling

I made a vanilla oatmeal stout a while back and from 1 week they were superb, but as time went on they became volcanoes, and they were only good for staining the ceiling, even after being chilled for days, or for cooking salmon. My final gravity was where the kit said it was done so I bottled. But I think mine, despite the numbers weren't done fermenting.

ahaley said:

I made a vanilla oatmeal stout a while back and from 1 week they were superb, but as time went on they became volcanoes, and they were only good for staining the ceiling, even after being chilled for days, or for cooking salmon. My final gravity was where the kit said it was done so I bottled. But I think mine, despite the numbers weren't done fermenting.

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Never, ever use a pre-determined number to decide if your beer is done fermenting. Always take gravity over consecutive days (3 days apart is best) and check for stability.

the consistency of your gushering has me thinking that you have a bacterial or wild yeast infection in your equipment. the only certain way of correcting this is to replace all your plastic parts: tubing, buckets, autosiphon, thief, etc. if the infection has set up shop in the cracks and nooks of your equipment, chances are good that even bleach won't get to it.

have you taken apart the spigot of your bottling bucket? plenty of spaces in there for gunk, and associated infection, to hide. you could try cleaning that if it's obviously dirty... but the only way to find out for sure would be to brew another batch and risk losing all the beer. in the end we must realize that plastics are meant to be replaced, they aren't permanent equipment. between replacing the plastics now or wasting another batch of beer on gushers, you're better off with new equipment now.

also, you mentioned that you "brush the inside (of your bottling bucket) with a scrub brush" - how hard is the brush? any chance that it's scratching the plastic? if so, bugs will hide in there and sanitizers might not get them.

tre9er said:

Never, ever use a pre-determined number to decide if your beer is done fermenting. Always take gravity over consecutive days (3 days apart is best) and check for stability.

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I checked gravity over 2 days and that was my 2nd brew kit so I was following the directions to the T.

I think you also mentioned you fill buckets with StarSan THEN brush them? You want to clean them FIRST, then empty, rinse, THEN fill with SS. You can't sanitize dirt/gunk.

I soak my bottles for at least 24 hours in bleach, then re-dip in bleach and star-san before putting them in the diswasher on "heated dry" to try to kill off any bottle-related infections.

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Sanitizing is not Cleaning... how often do you wash your bottles and with what?

I do mix up my star-san directly in my bottling bucket, brush the inside with a scrub brush before and after every usage. I transfer the star san to another bucket before using.

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Brush? Bucket? What? Why brush? Where's the soap? (Oxiclean, PBW, something?) I think it might be important to use some surfactant in your process... it's important to remove the gunk before sanitizing with bleach or starsan or whatnot. Otherwise you're just sanitizing the top layer of bacteria/junk and allowing other detritus below to remain alive.

Rip said:

Sanitizing is not Cleaning... how often do you wash your bottles and with what?



Brush? Bucket? What? Why brush? Where's the soap? (Oxiclean, PBW, something?) I think it might be important to use some surfactant in your process... it's important to remove the gunk before sanitizing with bleach or starsan or whatnot. Otherwise you're just sanitizing the top layer of bacteria/junk and allowing other detritus below to remain alive.

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Exactly, your process is really overcomplicated: you first clean the equipment, store dry and THEN sanitize on brew/bottling day. You don't need to give four baths to your bottles before putting them in the dishwasher ; it's overkill and it increases the chances of something going wrong.

Speaking of the dishwasher, I know some people swear up and down that it works for them, never had an infection, yada yada, but might I suggest sticking to Star San or baking them in the oven because I'm starting to suspect it's the culprit. Contact time with steam for sterilization is minimal, but once the dishwasher cools down (and your bottles do to), it's easy for crap to get in there unless you keep them upside down to the very last minute. You also can't be sure the dishwasher gets hot enough.

I'd really suggest streamlining your whole process and leaving behind crappy kit instructions.

Here is my system.
1-drink beer either commercial or home brew. Rinse as soon as possable in sink water. Store upside down to dry. Stack in spare room until I have 12.
2-Soak 12 bottles in 5 gallon bucket of Oxyclean for a few days to remove labels.
3-Remove from Oxyclean and rinse in sink then store in large plastic box w/cover until needed.
4-Soak in StarSan for a min or two but check each to besure nothing is inside.
5-Line up bottles in diswasher to before filling w/beer. Spray dishwasher rack w/Starsan just to be sure before placing bottles there.
6-Put about 2 cups StarSan in bottling bucket. Using washcloths that has soaked in StarSan wipe the inside of bucket. Bottling spigot Is also soaked in StarSan for a while and then put in the bucket.
7-Bottling wand is also soaked in StarSan for a few minutes before use.

After brewing/bottling buckets are just hosed out to remove particles and then whipped down w/rag soaked in Oxyclean. No need to "scrub" anything w/a brush. If I don't get to clean after brewing/bottling I'll fill bucket w/Oxyclean and let sit full until I can get to cleaning it.

I had a recent problem with gusher infections and I was beating my brain out trying to figure it out. I found that it was coming from water dripping off my oven hood when I brew, more precisely water dripping off after flame out.

These beers started out ok, but over the coarse of so many weeks, especially about 6 they were huge gushers and had a smell that would make me sick. They all tasted fine in the primary and secondary, (the ones I chose to secondary).

Do you brew outdoors? Maybe something is getting into the beer after flame out and before you get it in the fermenter?

HCL, boiling water? Anything can be sanitized with simple bleach water!! You know it's not your bottling or fermenting equipment that's the problem!!!

I sure hope you find the solution, keep us posted!

jfr1111 said:

Exactly, your process is really overcomplicated: you first clean the equipment, store dry and THEN sanitize on brew/bottling day. You don't need to give four baths to your bottles before putting them in the dishwasher ; it's overkill and it increases the chances of something going wrong.

Speaking of the dishwasher, I know some people swear up and down that it works for them, never had an infection, yada yada, but might I suggest sticking to Star San or baking them in the oven because I'm starting to suspect it's the culprit. Contact time with steam for sterilization is minimal, but once the dishwasher cools down (and your bottles do to), it's easy for crap to get in there unless you keep them upside down to the very last minute. You also can't be sure the dishwasher gets hot enough.

I'd really suggest streamlining your whole process and leaving behind crappy kit instructions.

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I totally agree!

I would add though that if the bottles are the problem...it probably wouldn't be all of them. Maybe a hand full in a batch at most??

That looks like a normal yeast cake at the bottom of the bottle.

Update:

I have my recovery batch in the secondary now, and just about ready to bottle it. I have done some research on this.

1. The Gusher Bug: This is likely to be one or both of two types of bacteria, lactobacillus of which the two main types are acidophilus and pediococcus. The names of both of these sound pretty gross but according to my hour or two of research, not only will they not kill you, they are both considered "probiotics" and actually will help your digestion. They do make your beer taste funny and cause a mess on your lazy boy though. The thing about both of these are that they are ubiquitous: present everywhere in nature, so it is hard to completely eliminate them without pasteurizing the beer, which is something I would never do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_acidophilus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pediococcus


Acidophilus is also present in your mouth, and vagina, if you have one, therefore could be transmitted during siphoning...since I am (or was) siphoning by mouth.



2. My bottle cleaning method: I did not tell you earlier that I am 100% diligent in rinsing out my bottles right after I drink them, so as to minimize the build-up, but I am taking this seriously, as I will explain below.

2. Bleach vs. Oxy Clean: I did some research on this question: The pH of bleach is about 12, the pH of Oxy Clean is about 11, and I do not have my log chart with me but each higher unit of pH is 10X higher in OH- concentration.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_pH_of_bleach
http://www.oxiclean.com/FAQ.aspx

So for sheer crud removing power, the bleach is better. If I wanted to I could go to lye, which is sodium hydroxide, which is around 13, depending on concentration but I really like the skin on my hands and would prefer not to take it off with the same stuff that Granny Clampett used to use to make soap.

The benefit to the OxyClean is that it has some fizziness to it, and a look at the MSDS sheet says that the fizziness is probably due to the Sodium Carbonate, better known as "baking soda" that goes into it, is way cheap, and can be bought elsewhere in the store if it were to float my boat to do so.

https://wercs.churchdwight.com/webviewer.external/private/document.aspx?prd=MSDS-1715~~PDF~~MTR~~NAM~~EN~~2011-11-03%2012%3A59%3A43~~OXICLEAN%20POWER%20CRYSTALS~~&productName=oxiclean&productName_option=d__value~&productID_option=d__value~&language=d__EN&hidRequiredList=ConcatedValue%20=&queryString=language=EN

3. Normal yeast cake: I cannot totally rule this out, because some of the beer I kept around for sampling purposes is still drinkable (pretty good, actually).

4. The possibility that I flipped out and over-reacted to the problem and dumped my stout prematurely: Likely. Live and learn.

5. The yeast: No one mentioned that, but come to find out that the fact I was recycling the yeast could be the cause of the problem as well.

http://www.beer-brewing.com/beer-brewing/brewers_yeast/yeast_washing.htm

according to this reference, there is some bacteria present in all of this stuff, and I can imagine that since I was on my fifth or sixth batch with that same yeast culture, this is another source of infection. For my recovery batch, I started over on IPA yeast and may make it a corporate policy (when I start my corporation) that I will put a limit on the number of generations I use the yeast. There is apparently a method to acid-wash your yeast with phosphoric acid or some similar stuff, but every time you transfer this crap into another vessel is another opportunity to contaminate it so I am leaning toward just replacing it occasionally.

6. My bottle washing method: I was filling and shaking my bottles in bleach solution, and then into Star San solution. Here is where I screwed up. Since the bleach is a base, and the Star San is an acid, I basically defeated the purpose of both by washing one after another. Chances are if I had used either by itself it would have been better.

I do inspect my bottles for crud.

But, from now on, I will use my brain and do one or the other.

7. I need to check the temperature of the "heated dry" on my dishwasher but I am pretty comfortable with that as a method of killing off at least some of the bacteria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pediococcus_acidilactici

According to this reference, pediococcus is viable up to 65C, which is 150 degrees F, so it is likely that the dishwasher will indeed kill this stuff if it gets hot enough. It is also likely that it it is not surviving my boil, because I am transferring the wort directly into the carboy instantly at knockoff, since my wort cooler works so efficiently. It could pretty easily be living in my wort cooler, though....

8. My wine. I told you I was doing some wine in the same equipment: According to one of these references, the sulfites used in wine kills this stuff off, so I am optimistic I did not taint that stuff. I am bottling that this weekend too.

9. I built a little bottling station. I found a cheap used sink on Craigslist, and have plumbed that thing up with an old water pump I have to draw out of a bucket, which will allow me to blast a solution of anything I want, including oxyclean or bleach or starsan or PBW directly into my bottles at 75 PSI, thus hopefully blasting any crud off of the inside of the bottle before I try to bottle this batch.

Leaving aside the question of how I am going to sanitize that thing, I will throw it open to the forum the question of what I will use to blast my bottles.

Tomorrow is bottling day....

9. The batch I bottled 3 weeks ago, when I first panicked and disposed of a lot of beer... that is the best batch of beer in the 8000 year history of brewing, so I will take your advice and not let that sit around too long.

10. Some of my retained samples from that time frame or before have been opened up and not gushered, which says that at least I probably contained my problem, and can start giving this stuff to the neighbors again.

11. The Oktoberfest thing: According to that reference the overnight incubation for pediococcus is 37 C which is 100 degrees F , so guess what: I am not going to bottle beer in fricking Atlanta in July and August anymore. The monks knew something all of those years ago when they made it illegal to brew between March and September. Also, this says that my wort chiller needs to be working really efficiently to cool my next batch all the way down to sub-ambient so as to keep the bacterial growth down to a minimum.

12. There is a guy doing some work on different extracted hop oils as a natural anti-bacterial agent, and what this suggests is that some hop types will be more resistant to the bacteria than others...

http://www.springerlink.com/content/t750731802251xp5/

gotta love hops.

This is the second year I've had a problem. Last summer it was Acetobacter.

Learning experiences are everywhere.

I have only done the dishwasher thing once, and produced a red ale with same characteristics. I keg now, which is alot easier. When I do bottle, its high gravity beers. I take prewashed bottles, run thru bottle jet washer, star san and bottle. No probs whatsoever. I agree with previous posts that you are over complicating the process. I too believe in the way of the monks.....and they keep it simple.....RDWHAHB!

jshell55 said:

1. The Gusher Bug: This is likely to be one or both of two types of bacteria, lactobacillus of which the two main types are acidophilus and pediococcus.

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super-geeky nit-picking: peddicoccus is a different genus that lactobacillus. they both belong to the Lactobacillaceae family, but that's a level up from genus. acidophilus is a species of lactobacillus (the level below genus). in other words:


also, it's worth noting that wild yeasts are also a major source of gushers. like pedio and lacto, wild yeasts can digests sugars that brewer's yeast can't. you bottle thinking that you've hit FG, but then the invaders kick in, eat the left-overs, pressure builds, and a gusher is made

jshell55 said:

2. Bleach vs. Oxy Clean: I did some research on this question: The pH of bleach is about 12, the pH of Oxy Clean is about 11, and I do not have my log chart with me but each higher unit of pH is 10X higher in OH- concentration.

So for sheer crud removing power, the bleach is better.

Click to expand...

you can't make a statement like that, because you are comparing the pure, undilluted form of each one. i doubt you are dipping your bottles in pure bleach. so what matters is the pH of the rinsing solution you use. it isn't hard to make a solution of oxyclean with a higher pH than a solution made with bleach - it's all about proportions.

jshell55 said:

6. My bottle washing method: I was filling and shaking my bottles in bleach solution, and then into Star San solution. Here is where I screwed up. Since the bleach is a base, and the Star San is an acid, I basically defeated the purpose of both by washing one after another. Chances are if I had used either by itself it would have been better.

Click to expand...

not entirely. since your bottle went into the bleach solution first, you got the full benefit of that (aside: were your bottles getting at least 30 seconds contact time? apparently that's what bleach needs). you were not getting much if any benefit from the star san, since as you noted the bleach was likely bringing up the pH to a level where it was no longer effective. what you might want to do is let the bottles drip-dry for a minute, then rinse well with tap water, before hitting them with star san.

I'm going to throw out one more quick little note.

If you don't have a racking cane, (or you broke it like I did), you can siphon WITHOUT using your mouth. It's simple. Just fill the hose with water and keep your thumb over one end, place one end in the fermenter and the other in your bottling bucket, release your thumb from the end of the hose when it's in the bottling bucket and this will start the siphon just fine.

You can also start a siphon with any kind of pressurized gas but I'm not going to go into that since it's hardly worth the trouble.

Update:

Here is what happened:

I brewed two more batches, IPA type, that gushered.
I brewed two more batches, one stout and one Irish Red Ale, that were delightful.

The difference: Dry hopping..

I had a quantity of Australian hops that my daughter sent me, that I kept in the fridge. The first few batches with this stuff were fine, but after about August 15th every batch I dry hopped with this old hops went bad.

So, I chucked every bit of it, and started over. I'm delighted to say that every batch I've done since then were fine.

I have modified my dry hopping technique, slightly: I boil up a couple of cups of water, and dump the hops into the boiling water for a few seconds and then take it off the flame. I am probably losing some aroma but it is a small price to pay.

Here is a photo of one of my retained samples from the dark period:

[/URL] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]

I probably should open these last couple of bottles and dump them before they explode... you can see the nearly 3/8 inch layer of milky slime on the bottom of the batch.

So it is clear what happened: The first few batches I mixed using the Australian hops were fine. After a month or two in the fridge, the bacteria count got too high (not a shock since my fridge is not what you would call pristine)....

After I got rid of that stuff it was all better.

I did have a few more corrective actions to my brewing and bottling SOP:

1. I am using Drano Max Gel (Industrial Strength) for a bottle wash. This stuff is $13 per gallon at the local hardware store. It contains sodium hydroxide (lye) sodium hypochlorite (bleach) and sodium metasilicate, which is the active ingredient in PBW. I am soaking my bottles in 10 gallons of water plus 1/2 cup of drano, with excellent results, the labels fall right off, and I am making the assumption that there will be nothing still living inside those bottles.

2. I stopped the practice of rinsing in bleach, and then rinsing in Star San. I just stick to the Star San, and then washing the whole lot in the dishwasher.

3. Important: I measured the temperature inside my dishwasher with the high temp wash plush high temp drying, and it is over 150F, which is over the lethality temperature for the lactobacillus. I am feeling pretty good about this step.

4. I am breaking down the stopcock on my bottling bucket after every bottling session, soaking it in drano water, and sanitizing in star san before reinstallation.

So far so good. Brewing is learning.

jshell55 said:

I'm experiencing a lot of problems with gushering. I've checked through the threads and still have a couple of questions on this important topic:

The problem showed up at some level on everything I've brewed since August, which is about 6 batches. Typically, these batches taste fine and are okay for about the first week or two after bottling. They do better while chilled.

The most recent was a batch of stout that I bottled 2 days ago and is already gushering.

Here is a photo:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/534/1003121329.jpg/

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

the batch on the right was bottled about 2 weeks ago, and has a thick yellow layer in the bottom. The other ones are older, and are looking pretty good. No gushering from those guys.

I run 5 gallons of starsan solution through my siphoning equipment before and after every usage. I run a similar amount through my counterflow wort chiller.

All of these batches go through a counterflow chiller. The batches are siphoned directly from the brew pot at knockoff, and this thing is efficient enough to cool it to sub-ambient by the time it gets to the carboy.

It has been awhile since I've replaced the tubing, which is on my to-do list.

Bottles:

I soak my bottles for at least 24 hours in bleach, then re-dip in bleach and star-san before putting them in the diswasher on "heated dry" to try to kill off any bottle-related infections.

I do mix up my star-san directly in my bottling bucket, brush the inside with a scrub brush before and after every usage. I transfer the star san to another bucket before using.

Yeast: I've been recovering my yeast. My main yeast is an IPA yeast, that is about 5 months old, I guess... I brewed some Weissbier a couple of weeks ago with a different yeast, and in that stuff, the problem is less severe but still there.

Brew Cycle: I do a 7-day primary and a 7 day or longer secondary, depending on the batch. I use a blowoff tube into sanitizer for the primary, and a regular airlock on the secondary. All carboys, which I clean thoroughly, add bleach, and allow to sit upside down in a bucket of bleach between cycles. I have 4 carboys that I rotate out.

Priming: 4 oz by weight brown sugar per 5 gallons (a little less for porter or stout), dissolved in water. I do bring the sugar water to a full boil before adding the sugar, allow it to cool before addition to the batch.

Fermenting: Constant at about 76F year-round

So the questions are:
1. is it bacteria or wild yeast?
2. How to put a stop to it?
3. What's the likelihood that it affected the nice batch of Pinot Noir that I have fermenting in the same room, which I put in there with the same bottling bucket and siphon tube?

So far my action plan is to take everything out of my brewery, let it sit in the sun for a few days, spray everything including the walls down with bleach, immerse every bottle I have in boiling water, and then pack the whole thing up and try it all again.

Oh, and replace the tubes, run boiling water through my bottling bucket, and boil the stopcock.

Hydrochloric acid is at my disposal if I decide to go that far.

So, Forum dwellers, I will await your opinions.

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Not much to add here, but I was having insane gusher problems and I think I did all the same research you have been doing as I came to many similar conclusions. I recently started kegging, thus eliminating the whole bottling process. Ever since I did that I have been making good beer. Moving to kegging is obviously a very expensive alternative, but it seemed to work for me.