Ultra Carbonated

Had something strange happen with the last two brews I made off my own recipe. The beer as soon as you open it starts foaming up. All the bottles have done this so far.

I used 12 pounds of Gold LME (Light) from Midwest Brewing.

2 pounds of Crystal 10 grains that were steeped for 30 minutes. Overall used 5 ounces of hops to brew and 1 ounce to dry hop. Yeast was White Labs Cal Ale Yeast.

Used the standard 5 oz of bottling sugar with 1 and 1/4 cups of water.

Any idea why this is so carbonated? Would like to avoid where I pour 6 oz into a glass and it produces 6 oz of head.

Could be a few things.

You might be bottling before fermentation is 100% complete. This will leave fermentable sugars in the bottle that will contribute to extra carbonation.

You could have a mild infection. Some types of bacteria or wild yeasts can eat some of the sugars beer yeasts can't, this is sometimes called a 'gusher infection'.

I had this problem a while back with a hard apple cider I made. Cracked open a few bottles about 2 weeks after bottling and they were the expected carbonation but needed to age. After 3 months, they were all gushers. Because I didn't have to boil the cider I just heated a little to make sure the extra sugars all dissolved and must have introduced a wild yeast/bacteria due a gap in my sanitary procedure. They seemed to get a touch sour so I assume it was lactobacter sp or similar.

12 lbs? What FG did it finish out at?

1.014

Double pitched yeast. I have had a gusher in a bottle my friend didn't clean before. I'll plan to leave this brew longer in the carboy even though the FG looks ok. Was just odd that it happened and this was the first I have had this in 35 batches made.

1.014 sounds like its even on the low side for 12lb of extract. I would lean toward an infection as long as your measuring equipment is accurate.

Check the gravity of one of the bottles. If it has gone below 1.010, I'd call infection.

First thing that comes to mind is bottling before fermentation is complete but, how long have the brews been bottled? Could be it's just not conditioned long enough. Are they gushing at fridge temp or room temp? They can gush at room temp pretty easy especially if not conditioned long enough.

Another thing you may wanna look at is using less priming sugar. Kits contain 5oz because it's a generic packaging amount with room to spare. I usually brew EPA's with around 3oz priming sugar and Cream Ales with 4oz. Check a style guide/calculator such as this one:

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Also you should really check out this video showing carbonation levels over time:



And of course Revvy's Bottling Tips post is a must read that should be stickied:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

Hope this helps!

Brewed on May 22nd.

Secondary June 22nd

Gravity readings the three days leading up to bottling August 14th. Then it sat in the fridge from October 10th through the 20th when we finally poped a 6 pack worth. This is also the 35th batch that I have brewed and the first time I saw it ultra carbonated. Very odd on this Double IPA. Batches 36 through 39 have not had the same issue. Thanks for the ideas though.