Over Carbonated?

I've recently returned from a ten year break in home brewing. two months ago I brewed a brown ale to get back in the thick of things and have a question.

I tasted the brew at one week intervals and it is definately tasting better as it ages. Things were perfect until this weekend when I opened one that has been in the bottle for 5 weeks. It was cold from the fridge but when i opened it, it expanded like spray on foam insulation and before i could get to the sink 1/3rd of the bottle was on the floor.

The recipe called for 3/4cup of corn sugar for priming but I only used 1/2 because i didn't want too much carbonation. Any ideas what has caused this?

The bottles have aged in a dark room temperature closet the whole time. Do I HAVE to have a fridge at a certain point in the aging process to put the yeast to sleep? I'm worried because I have a one week old pale ale aging now that I used the same amount of priming sugar on. OH and final gravity numbers before bottling were at or below what the recipe called for.

1/2 c. corn sugar in 5 gallons would probably not cause this alone. Possibilities:
--beer not done fermenting, started back again in the bottles
--priming sugar did not get mixed well when bottling, some may be gushers, some flat
--infection, some bacteria got in their and is able to eat the sugars that the yeast can't

So,
What was the FG (final gravity)?
Did you mix the priming sugar well in the bottling bucket? Did it sit for a while (the sugar tends to sink over time)?
Any of the bottles have a gross ring of stuff around the liquid line in the bottles that aren't open? How did the beer that did't clean you kitchen taste?

Two possibilities here (unfortunately, I've had firsthand experience with both of them):

1. You bottled it too early, and there was still too much unfermented sugar in the beer, which subsequently got fermented in the bottle along with the priming sugar, causing overcarbonation.
2. The batch is infected with a wild yeast or bacteria that subsequently ate not only the priming sugars, but also those carbohydrates that beer yeast are unable to convert, thus causing overcarbonation.

Regardless of what your "final gravity" readings were...even if they were lower than expected...what really mattered was that they remained constant for a few days before you decided to bottle. There's also always a chance that your original fermentation got "stuck" higher up, and then those sugars got jump-started back into fermentation during bottle ferment...but that doesn't appear to be the case since you said your FG was low.

The next question, then, is: how does the beer taste? Is it really dry and sour? Also, next time you open a bottle, do it over a bowl or something that can catch all the beer and foam. Then wait for the foam to subside and let the carbonation in the beer die. Then take a gravity reading. If it's really, really low (lower than your FG), and it tastes sour, then it's probably infected. I've had 2 batches do this. No idea how it happened, but it did.

Are ALL your bottles doing the same thing?

There's nothing you can really do about this batch. The next one, the pale ale, don't worry about it. You're probably okay, as infections are rare. Am I correct in assuming you're talking about 5 gallon batches? I use 3/4 cup corn sugar all the time, and most of the time I don't get gushers. Only when my FG was high and I couldn't do anything about it.

A friend and I went through a few 22oz bottles and a few 12 oz bottles and they all foamed over some more so than others. The beer tasted better than it did last week. It is not sour nor dry. I did 4 days of fermenting and when that slowed to a trickle of bubbles I transferred to another carbouy and it sat for 10 days.

The 5 gallon recipe called for an OG of 1.056 and an FG of 1.014. In my case it was 1.057 and 1.010.

The primining sugar (half cup corn sugar plus quart of water boiled then cooled) went into the sanitized carbouy first then the wort went in without splashing. I submerged the hose into the priming sugar and syphoned. It appeared to mix equally, maybe not. Should I sanitize a spoon and stir even more that the whirlpool caused by wort flow? ALL equipment was sanitized in Idophor.

I will try a few bottles some time this week and see if it continues or even gets worse.

Hmm, it appears that you may not have mixed the sugar enough. Here's what I do: pour half of the priming solution into the empty priming bucket. Begin racking the beer. Pour the other half of the solution in when it gets to about 3/4 full. Then I stir, very gently so as to not splash or create bubbles.

Then, during bottling, I restir gently every 8-12 bottles or so.

Evan! said:

Hmm, it appears that you may not have mixed the sugar enough. Here's what I do: pour half of the priming solution into the empty priming bucket. Begin racking the beer. Pour the other half of the solution in when it gets to about 3/4 full. Then I stir, very gently so as to not splash or create bubbles.

Then, during bottling, I restir gently every 8-12 bottles or so.

Click to expand...

This is what I do.

Although, Iceburg's process sounds sound, maybe some variation from bottle to bottle but not that much.

Well I plan on brewing again this weekend so when it's bottling time I'll give it a try. Thanks for the help.