Overcarbonation Woes

Black Cherry Porter

9 lbs Pale Malt Extract (Liquid)

Grains:
American Chocolate Malt 1 lb
British Crystal 77 12 oz

Hops:
Galena (12%) 1oz 60mins
Williamette 1oz 15mins
Williamette .5oz 0mins

Yeast:
White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Brewed 3/28
Transferred to Secondary 4/2 (5 days in primary)
1lb frozen dark cherries boiled for 10 mins, mashed, cooled, added to
secondary fermenter 4/21 (19 days in secondary)
Bubbles start again but subside in a few days
Bottled 4/24 (3 days later for a total of 22 days in secondary, 27
days total fermenting)

Starting Gravity: 1.073
Ending Gravity: 1.027
ABV: 6 to 6.3%

First bottles put in fridge exactly 3 weeks later. First bottle opened
foamed really bad. It's almost immediate and foam comes right up. No
off flavors and the head itself is actually very tasty, slightly
chocolately. The beer itself tastes great, but the cherry flavor
doesn't come through as much as I'd hoped. The body is great, its
really thick and malty. But something is wrong with the carbonation. In panic, I put all the bottles in the fridge. I don't know if this is a wild yeast gusher infection, if it just didn't complete fermenting, if I didn't let it bottle
carbonate long enough.

I'm really confused this is my first time where the carbonation is reeeeaaaaalllly off. Any suggestions?

stepcg6 said:

Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Use the "Search" button.

Maybe a little more information:
-Did you carb using sugar? How much?
- What is your typical bottling procedure?
- Before you bottled, did you check your gravity readings on consecutive days to ensure it was stable?
- Finally, three weeks would be minimum for carbing and many beers take longer - but let's get the other stuff squared away.

Carbed using 4.5 oz of sugar. I'll heat that up with a few cups of water and let it boil for about 5 minutes, let it sit for a bit, dump it in the bottling bucket and siphon into it. Sometimes I take a large sanitized spoon and swirl a bit.

Then bottle into the 22oz bottles, and cap, both previously sanitized.

Question...if the beer wasn't done carbing in bottles, how would that lead to overcarbonation?

stepcg6 said:

Carbed using 4.5 oz of sugar. I'll heat that up with a few cups of water and let it boil for about 5 minutes, let it sit for a bit, dump it in the bottling bucket and siphon into it. Sometimes I take a large sanitized spoon and swirl a bit.

Then bottle into the 22oz bottles, and cap, both previously sanitized.

Question...if the beer wasn't done carbing in bottles, how would that lead to overcarbonation?

Click to expand...

I think what they're wondering is: Was your beer done fermenting? Did you take a F.G. reading to ensure it was stable?

It might not have been done fermenting. I added fruit at the end of my boil in my cranberry maibock and let it ferment 5 wks. I heard fruit can take a little longer to ferment out, so I let it go a little longer.

You could always lift the caps a tiny bit to release some gas, then crimp it down.

stepcg6 said:

Carbed using 4.5 oz of sugar. I'll heat that up with a few cups of water and let it boil for about 5 minutes, let it sit for a bit, dump it in the bottling bucket and siphon into it. Sometimes I take a large sanitized spoon and swirl a bit.

Then bottle into the 22oz bottles, and cap, both previously sanitized.

Question...if the beer wasn't done carbing in bottles, how would that lead to overcarbonation?

Click to expand...

If the beer wasn't done FERMENTING before you bottled it would continue to ferment and produce co2, which would over carbonate the beer.

Are the original gravity and final gravity in your original post what you measured or recipe specifications?

Did you get the same FG for a few days in a row?

If so, take your beers out of the fridge and be patient. My first batch had overfoaming for 5 Weeks before everything evened out. Now they are all consistent and perfect.

How long were they in the fridge before you opened them?:fro: