NavyMarine1978
Well-Known Member
I put together a Brown Ale. The first night in the Fermenter, hops plugged my blow-off-tube and sent half of my one gallon batch all over the floor (my wife was not impressed). I was asleep when this happened and only noticed it the following morning (or should I say smelled). I cleaned the bung and hose in sanitizer and resealed the fermenter. I was actively bubbling in the blow-off-bottle within a minute. Apart from the mess and resealing the fermenter, everything seemed to cary on like normal. Once the fermentation slowed, I batch primed the Brown Ale (1.5 teaspoons. I typically use 3 for a full gallon batch) and bottled. I have allowed the beer to age and carb up for 5 weeks before refrigerating for 48hrs. The plastic bottles by this point were rock hard with bulging caps. The first plastic bottle leaked a fair bit of CO2 when opened and as soon as the bottle began tipping, it began to foam out. between a third to one half of the bottle foamed out before stopping. This to me would suggest over carbonation but I used less than half the sugar for previous batches (I used to use 4 teaspoons bottling sugar for a one gallon batch which never did this). The beer that I used to use the 4 teaspoons of bottling sugar in was a richer base malt version of a brown ale (4lbs 5oz Marris Otter and another pound of specialty grains on top of that) which never over carbed like that. More often than not, I ended up waiting longer for that beer to pour a nice head and cascade when poured into a glass. That beer was nicely aged and poured a nice thick head cascading while doing it by 5 weeks. At 4 weeks, that beer still poured a delayed head and hardly any sign of cascading. Is this new Brown Ale acting this was due to being exposed to oxygen during the early fermenting stages for who know how long? I have made a few more batches which are all bottled and are full batches with 3 teaspoons bottling sugar and no blow-overs. They too have rock hard plastic bottles with bulging caps. This Brown Ale only has 2lbs and 4oz Marris Otter, could the lighter base require less bottling sugar?
Any suggestions are appreciated,
NavyMarine1978
Any suggestions are appreciated,
NavyMarine1978