Gushers

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etrain666

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After about 30 batches, I seem to have half if them turn out to be gushers with about 2-3 months aging. Beer still tastes good, and long cold conditions seems to help, but it's getting frustrating. I clean my bottles well and dunk them in sanitizer before filling. I typically use 3/4 cup if priming sugar. Any ideas?

Ic
 
Weigh your priming sugar instead of measuring. Boil, rack beer on top in a circular motion and then gently stir it with your sanitized racking cane.

Sounds to me like you aren't mixing the prime in well enough.
 
I'm slightly disappointed this thread isn't about gushers gummy candy lol.

Anyways I agree with that guy, try weighing it out. Ideally an ounce/per gallon ratio is what you want. So 3/4 a cup for 4 gallons is too much and could result in gushers, not the gummies.
 
I'm slightly disappointed this thread isn't about gushers gummy candy lol.

Anyways I agree with that guy, try weighing it out. Ideally an ounce/per gallon ratio is what you want. So 3/4 a cup for 4 gallons is too much and could result in gushers, not the gummies.

I also wanted to hear about the candy
 
Gushers that take that long to develop have 2 causes that I can think of. First is a short fermentation that has you bottling before the yeast are quite done. You can avoid this by giving the yeast more time and perhaps a warmer finish as the yeast are doing their cleanup.

The second is an infection of some kind that takes that long to develop. Have you replaced your tubing as that is a good source for an infection as the tubes are hard to clean.
 
Gushers that take that long to develop have 2 causes that I can think of. First is a short fermentation that has you bottling before the yeast are quite done. You can avoid this by giving the yeast more time and perhaps a warmer finish as the yeast are doing their cleanup.

The second is an infection of some kind that takes that long to develop. Have you replaced your tubing as that is a good source for an infection as the tubes are hard to clean.

^This^

I was having this problem at one time. A good source of that infection can be cross contamination from yeast of previous batches. I discovered that what I thought was a good bottle cleaning process was indeed flawed. I used to just rinse my bottles 2 or 3 times after I poured the beer. Then I would dry them and sanitized on bottling day. After having the gusher problem I grabed a few supposedly clean bottles out of the box to inspect them more closely. I realized that almost all of my bottles had a very light layer of yeast residue that didn't come off when I rinsed them. Now all of my bottles get dropped into a bucket of strong oxiclean solution after I pour. I let them soak for a few days, then rinse, dry, and box them up. I re-use the oxi solution 2 or 3 times and then I make a fresh pail. My bottles are now perfectly crystal clear, and I never had a gusher ever again.
 
You just described my bottle cleaning process exactly. I rinse bottles, shake them up with water and then dry and sanitize. I have not let them soak and it clearly sounds like I should start doing that.

I dont think its due to under attenuation. I temp control everything pretty good, give the beer 3 weeks minimum and usually my FG ends lower than I expected or even wanted.
 
You just described my bottle cleaning process exactly. I rinse bottles, shake them up with water and then dry and sanitize. I have not let them soak and it clearly sounds like I should start doing that.

I dont think its due to under attenuation. I temp control everything pretty good, give the beer 3 weeks minimum and usually my FG ends lower than I expected or even wanted.

I won't lie. I used to tell people that soaking the bottles in oxi was not necessary. I used to say "just rinse well after you pour, and that's all you need to do!".. I totally recant that now. Take a really close look at your bottles, and I bet you'll see the residue I was talking about. These days I have beer that's been in the bottles anywhere from 3-12 months, and the carb level is the same as when they were only a couple weeks old. :mug:
 
I won't lie. I used to tell people that soaking the bottles in oxi was not necessary. I used to say "just rinse well after you pour, and that's all you need to do!".. I totally recant that now. Take a really close look at your bottles, and I bet you'll see the residue I was talking about. These days I have beer that's been in the bottles anywhere from 3-12 months, and the carb level is the same as when they were only a couple weeks old. :mug:

It's interesting to me that this just came up, because I've just started noticing stubborn yeast residue in my bottles. I've always done the shake-and-rinse with my bottles, and I've never had a problem with the bottles coming clean until now, and I haven't had gushers yet. Some bottles still come clean with a few rinses, and some have worse residue than others. It makes me wonder if the age of the bottles has something to do with it. Any thoughts on that?
 
I've been having the same problems. I'm almost certain its from leftover yeast. I too followed the rinse after pour, sanitize on bottling day procedure. Worked for a while, but I'm going to start nuking my bottles with PBW.
 
Check a carb calculator out. I was under carbing my beers because I didn't realize fermentation temps were effecting the amount of dissolved co2. And weigh your priming sugar.
 
I've been having the same problems. I'm almost certain its from leftover yeast. I too followed the rinse after pour, sanitize on bottling day procedure. Worked for a while, but I'm going to start nuking my bottles with PBW.
At first I started my new cleaning method with PBW, but I quickly switched to Oxiclean due to cost. The Oxi works just fine with a nice long soak. I also recommend to fully submerse the bottle. I noticed that if any part of a bottle sticks out of the solution that a film of cleaner will form, and it's hard to rinse off the film.

Check a carb calculator out. I was under carbing my beers because I didn't realize fermentation temps were effecting the amount of dissolved co2. And weigh your priming sugar.

This is also a good step to take in ensuring proper carbonation levels. The only issue with using a priming calculator is you have to make sure you enter the right temp, or your volumes of CO2 will be wrong. I learned that the hard way the first time around.
 
Buy kegs! you will never look back!


Wow, you beat my estimate of 4 posts about a bottling problem that someone says to keg as the solution.

That does nothing to help the OP.

I too used to just give my ottles a quick rinse, but started noticing some being overcarbed. Once I went to giving all bottles a good soak in Oxiclean, the problem went away.
 
I was having the same problem and used the same bottle rinsing procedure. I did a bleach soak and thorough rinsing and have just made a few batches since the change, so we'll see how they go. You might try stove-top pasteurizing if you don't have enough fridge space to chill bottles that are slowly over-carbonating.

Another thing that I've started doing is to completely dis-assemble my spigot for cleaning/sanitizing. The red bit pops our pretty easily, and even the rotating part comes off with enough force (I haven't done this every time).
 
Even after bleach-soaking bottles, I think I still might be developing some gushers. 7+ weeks in bottles and they may be just starting to over-foam. I think I'll replace tubing next order, and maybe new buckets to ferment in (I'll use the old ones to store grain). Hopefully I'm wrong and they don't get any more foamy.
 
I think I have an extra, so I might do that, too. Would putting it in hot but not boiling water be a good way to sterilize it?
 
tennesseean_87 said:
I think I have an extra, so I might do that, too. Would putting it in hot but not boiling water be a good way to sterilize it?

You would need to use a pressure cooker to get to sterilization temps (i.e. above boiling).
 
Gusher bugs (wild yeast, bacteria, whatever they are) can survive boiling temps? Wouldn't we need to pressure cook all our wort if that were the case?
 
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