Variable carbonation

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loobobone

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I bottled a coffee stout (Midwest kit) three weeks ago and am now enjoying the results. The beer tastes looks and tastes great. However......

I've opened seven bottles so far and one of them was extremely over-carbed. No matter how slow I poured, it would turn to instant foam.

Just curious if someone has an idea why one (and possibly more) bottles turned out this way and the rest are fine?

FYI - This beer was 10 days in primary, 16 days in secondary and a full three weeks in the bottles. When I bottled, I first put the boiled/cooled priming sugar solution into the bottling bucket and then racked the beer into the bucket. There is no reason that I can think of that the priming sugar wouldn't have been thoroughly mixed.

Now back to drinking the beer..........
 
I bottled a coffee stout (Midwest kit) three weeks ago and am now enjoying the results. The beer tastes looks and tastes great. However......

I've opened seven bottles so far and one of them was extremely over-carbed. No matter how slow I poured, it would turn to instant foam.

Just curious if someone has an idea why one (and possibly more) bottles turned out this way and the rest are fine?

FYI - This beer was 10 days in primary, 16 days in secondary and a full three weeks in the bottles. When I bottled, I first put the boiled/cooled priming sugar solution into the bottling bucket and then racked the beer into the bucket. There is no reason that I can think of that the priming sugar wouldn't have been thoroughly mixed.

Now back to drinking the beer..........


Has this only happened to one of the beers? If so, you may have just had an infection in that bottle.

How did you prep your bottles, i.e. sanitizing?
 
Has this only happened to one of the beers? If so, you may have just had an infection in that bottle.

How did you prep your bottles, i.e. sanitizing?

Yes - only one bottle so far. I was thinking along the same line that there might have been an infection in that bottle. I sanitize my bottles by baking in the oven, so they should all have been good. I suppose it could have been infected during the bottling process somehow. The beer was still good, just way too much head.

Thanks for the reply.
 
Perhaps you do this already, but you should scrub your bottles as well as baking. It will remove the gunk in the neck of the bottle, as well as any sediment in the bottom.

Even if you rinse after drinking out of them, I would still scrub with a bottle brush, just to make sure.
 
I had the same problem until I started stirring the priming sugar after racking on top of it.I would have different carb levels in the same batch.Since I started stirring,the problem has ceased.I think the heavy priming mix sits on the bottom and doesn't fully mix with the beer w/o stirring.
 
I had always gently stirred the bottling bucket and have had very constant carbonation. Once I tried the just rack on top method some here have mentioned and I got two over carbed bottles. From now on I will continue to stir.
 
Thanks for the replies. I do brush clean the bottles, but certainly possible that I missed on. I will also try stirring the next batch....... which is going be bottled tonight!
 
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