Incomplete fermentation? Too much priming sugar?

Lets talk generalitites here.

I let all my beers spend at least a month in primary. Ephasis on "at least." I normally don't secondary, so after "at least" a month, my brews go into bottles or kegs.

I have quite a few beers that have been in bottles for quite some time. On the order of a year now. My bottles that have been bottled for that long seem to be a bit overcarbed. Like as in I'll pour a 12 oz bottle into a 23 oz glass and it'll foam up over the top of the glass.

I can't tell its done anything negative to the taste, they're dang good, I just wonder why they all like to foam up.

I asked my LHBS about it, and once the group speaks, I'll tell what they said.

Thanks.

The overcarbonation is probably not from too much priming sugar, since the overcarbonation only develops over time. Since you wait so long in the primary, it's not from obvious incomplete fermentation either. So my guess is that you have very slow fermentation of complex sugars over time. I've noticed that this happens if I have a batch with somewhat low apparent attenuation. With very healthy yeast pitching populations and mashing on the lower end of the temperature range, I don't notice this happening anymore.

you might have my answer, these batches were underpitched pretty badly.. Just a vial per 5 gals. I have stepped up to starters now, so maybe this problem will go away.
Anybody else? LHBS said fermentation wasn't done.

Anybody else? Ideas?

BUMP!
I just poured a balreywine that was pitched upon a pale ale cake, and blew off like a mo-fo, so it aint underpitching. This one had a month in primary & 3 months in sceondary. a 20 oz bottle foamed out of a 23 oz glass with a standard homebrew pour, probably have 8 or 9 oz left in the bottle now.

Sounds like either the fermentation didn't finish (temp problem?), did you check the FG? (I think I know the answer. ). Or you have a bug in there, hard to tell unless it tastes funky.

Well he said it tastes good so it's probably not an infection otherwise I agree with beerrific. If I were you, I would start taking SG readings before pitching yeast and before bottling if you're not already. You can leave it in primary or secondary as long as you like, but it doesn't guarantee the fermentation has finished.

Ogh yeah, they taste great. I guess I'll try to start instituting the hydometer rule....

Do ya'll take the FG reading in the bottling bucket? If so before or after priming?

zac said:

Ogh yeah, they taste great. I guess I'll try to start instituting the hydometer rule....

Do ya'll take the FG reading in the bottling bucket? If so before or after priming?

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You take the FG reading in the carboy, before you transfer to the bottling bucket. That way, if it's not actually finished, it's not already in the bottling bucket, mixed in with the priming sugar. It shouldn't be racked until it's 100% done, and you know it with 100% certainty.

Yooper, I wwas afraid somebody was gonna say that.

I guess I'll find my turkey baster & get with the program.

Actually, womder if I could get one of those really long sets of tweezers, and just drop the hydro into the carboy. That might work...then "tweeze" the hydro back out.... am I onto something?

Actually, womder if I could get one of those really long sets of tweezers, and just drop the hydro into the carboy. That might work...then "tweeze" the hydro back out.... am I onto something?

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Only if you can accurately read the hydrometer through the carboy glass, but I don't think so. Of course, you need to sterilize the hydrometer first!

If it turns out you are having a lot of stuck fermentations, look into yeast energizer.

And if you're dropping your hydrometer in through the next of the carboy, it could very well go *clink* when it hits the bottom and break.

Ok, Ok, I'll find my test jar, its around here somewhere.

If I was having "stuck fermentations" would I be getting bottle bombs with the extended aging? And wouldn't my beers be lacking body? They're great, I mean really really good, theres just a few that are way over carbed.

If I was having "stuck fermentations" would I be getting bottle bombs with the extended aging?

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It's definitely possible. Stuck fermentations are basically as they sound. The yeast stop fermenting for some reason or another so there remains an amount of fermentable sugar left in the beer. If you then bottle the beer and the yeast decide to start fermenting again, you can get bottle bombs.

It's also possible your bottling sugar isn't getting evenly mixed into the beer causing some bottles to get too much sugar and others not enough. The generally accepted technique is to pour the bottling sugar solution (after boiled and cooled) into the bottom of the bottling bucket and rack the beer on top of it.

If you wanted you could take a SG measurement of one of your beers before you drink it. Just plop the hydrometer into your glass, you wouldn't have to sterilize it or anything. The carbonation might make it read too high though.

Here is a long shot but do you weigh your priming sugar? If you are using the measuring cup method, you could very well be over priming.

Sorry, been gone for a while. I use a scale for the priming sugar.

I still have the problem with certain batches, but my little increasing the pitching rate fix will take over a year to know if it works.

I tapped a keg of ESB last night that has been sitting at room temp uncarbed for 3 months. The thing just *about* knockked the picnic tap out of my had when I put gas on it. After about 5 pints today, its finally getting to where it dosent blow the bottom of the glass out when you open the tap. The gas is shut off, no CO2 going into the keg, this is pressure inside the keg.

Another mystrey: This is false carb. Once the foam goes away, the beer is flat....WTF?

Shameless bump back to the top of the heap

If it is any help I notice slightly more fizz over time too, but then I tend to go for less aggressive carbing anyway (excepting one notable overly fizzy, but not gushing, batch in champagne bottles. I just claim it's a Belgian pale ale...)

My theory is it's the complex sugars slowly breaking down too.

It was actually a fortuitous mistake that led me to my happy priming formula. I prime with about an ounce of sugar per gallon like many here, but of course I'm working in imperial gallons not US so the priming quantity is actually slightly less. It suits longer term storage pretty well!

Im back.....

What about carbing with only 1-2 ozs of sugar?