Altitude and bottling

So I've been homebrewing for about a year now, and have lived at sea-level. I'm moving across country and along the way I've stopped at my parents' home in Colorado, at about 6000 feet above sea level. I brought some homebrews with me to share with my folks, and last night we opened a few. Upon opening they became very foamy. I suspect it's because I bottled them at sea level and am opening them at high altitude and the air-pressure difference is making the opened bottles foamy. If we open them very slowly it's not a big deal. My question is, why doesn't this happen with commercial beers I buy? For example, if I buy some beer in the store that was bottled at low altitude and open it in the mountains, why doesn't it get really foamy. Conversely, if someone at sea level buys some Coors that was bottled at high-altitude, what effect would that have on the beer?

I'm just curious as to why my home brews are affected by altitude but store-bought beer doesn't seem to be. I guess I could be wrong about the whole thing and the homebrews we opened are foamy for some other reason....

how long had they sat after the trip before you opened them??
possibly the shaking during transport affected the foaming more than the altitude.

I thought at first that it might have been the shaking of driving that contributed to the foamyness. They had been sitting still for almost a full 24 hours, so I would hope that wouldn't be it, but maybe....

yeah, they should have settled after 24 hrs.
don't have an answer...

Although there is a rather significant atmospheric pressure differential between sea level and 6,000', I wouldn't expect it to affect your beer the way you mention. Perhaps it's just this batch?

It very likely the brewers over carbed for that particular market. This assumes they are not brewing at the high altitude.

I work for a major national window mfg'r, as an design/process engineer, we have too put high altitude air tubes in all of the "Sealed" insulated glass units that are intended to be sold in high altitude areas.

We install this tube that only has .005-.010" inside diameter so the unit can slowly equalize to the atmosphere during transit. If we did not do this the two panes of glass would touch due to the loss in internal pressure. Its as if it was sucked together like a vacuum is inside. If that occurs the view would be distorted and the insulation rating would be lower also.

Your brews are pressurized due to the carbonation, then transported, the beers are now at a lower pressure than atmosphere. Basically, they kind of under a vacuum. I'm guessing they might be less foamy if served warmer

Its like diving for long periods in deep water and when the divers come up they have to go into decompression chambers before going to the above water atmosphere.

Your beer has a case of the bends!!!

Schlenkerla said:

Your brews are pressurized due to the carbonation, then transported, the beers are now at a lower pressure than atmosphere. Basically, they kind of under a vacuum. I'm guessing they might be less foamy if served warmer

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Hmm...that doesn't really make much sense. Bottled at sea level and taken to altitude, the bottles should actually be at a higher pressure relative to the atmosphere around them.

Yuri - I think your right. The new atmospheric pressure is now lower. Maybe that why they behave like they are over carbed, but the internal pressure hasn't changed.

I checked, I got it backwards. Its completely opposite of what I stated earlier.

Schlenkerla said:

Yuri - I think your right. The new atmospheric pressure is now lower. Maybe that why they behave like they are over carbed, but the internal pressure hasn't changed.

I checked, I got it backwards. Its completely opposite of what I stated earlier.

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Cool...everything I learned about flying is right then, and the world is back to normal.

Just messin' with ya...you confused me there for a sec!