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modobrew

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Well it looks as though I'm going to be brewing two batches of beer in the coming days. I ordered two kits from Northern Brewer last week and should be getting them tomorrow or Wednesday sometime. If all goes well they should be in the primary thursday night. I ordered an Irish Red Ale and a Nut Brown Ale. Hopefully I will have decent luck with these. These will be #5 and 6 for me. My last batch came out decent though it was way over carbonated for some reason. Maybe one of you guys might have an idea. All I know is that when I open a bottle, the head immediately foams out the top of the bottle. If I am quick enough I can pour into a glass, but the head is still a huge problem as it takes me about 10-15 minutes to pour one beer. I'm not sure what caused this as this is the only batch so far that has done this. The only thing i can think of would be too much aeration when putting in primary. Could this cause this? Ive had one bottle out of the batch so far that wasnt over carbonated...

Anyways, I'm looking forward to these beers and will hopefully convince a buddy of mine to start home brewing himself. I believe he is going to come over for the brewing stage and then hopefully for the bottling stage :mug:

Any comments are welcome.
 
Aeration is not the problem. One of three things happened.

a) you used too much priming sugar
b) you used the proper amount, but the sugar was not properly stirred in, thus causing some bottles to overcarbonate, and some to hardly carb at all
or
c) the beer was not done fermenting


If I was a betting man, I would go with C. What were your gravity readings?
 
The other possibility is an infection of some sort. I had one batch do that because of an infection in the spigot of my bottling bucket that I didn't catch.
 
I dont remember what my gravity readings were off the top of my head, though I dont recall them being off. I dont believe it is A or B as I carefully measure my priming sugar and I mix it in quite well. That leaves me to believe that it was some sort of infection though the beer still tastes quite good. The beer was a Hoeggarden clone. It still confuses me. I'll be sure to clean everything especially well for this batch and the following batch.
 
My batch didn't have any off flavours either which was a little surprising. But I took the spigot apart and I could definitely smell something funky in it. I take it apart and clean it thoroughly before bottling anything now.
 
newguy said:
hehe you can never have to much aeration :)

Well thats good to know. I didnt think it was possible, but i wasnt sure. It was strange that this was the only brew that has done this.
 
When I order kits from Northern Brewer I have noticed that if i use the entire package of priming sugar they give you that it can be a bit over carbonated.
 
Well, I've since thought about this problem and I believe that it was either and infection as stated above, or that fermentation was not complete. It was my first wheat ale and I did notice a lot of activity + no blow off tube, so it could be possible a lot of the yeast may have risen with the kraussen and stuck to the side of the fermenter. I didnt use a yeast starter either so lack of yeast in the beginning + yeast stuck on the side = low yeast quantity to do its work. Next time I'll be sure to keep an eye on it and gently swirl the fermenter around to knock the yeast off the sides and possibly use a yeast starter.

I have to admit, this is a great site and I've already learned quite a bit that I probably wouldn't have learned elsewhere. Thanks guys!
 
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