TrogdorTheBrewinator
Member
Hi, all.
I started brewing a few months ago and made several extract batches which all turned good and no issues whatsoever.
A month or so ago I started my first 2 all grain batches in parallel. Everything seemed OK, I let the beers ferment for about 3 weeks as I did with all my previous batches, then bottled them. I don't recall how much priming sugar I used (this taught me a valuable lesson to keep logging everything I do with a batch) but it couldn't have been more than 5 oz per batch (of which there was actual 4.5 - 5gallons). And I let the beers sit in bottles at some 72 I'd say for about 2 weeks.
First interesting thing I noticed after popping each one of them open after the first week (I usually do that to get the idea of how it's going) is that they seemed fully carbonated. Unfortunately I didn't think much of it other than "Hm, weird...". I finally opened one yesterday, about 2 weeks since it was bottled. And the thing just started gushing out like crazy. If left alone it would probably spill most of the beer out of the bottle. Right now I m in process of "fixing" the batch by slowly venting the bottles and recapping them (which is a pain in the a** and takes forever) but here are my questions:
1. Why would 5oz (max) of sugar cause this ? I don't think there's an infection going on as both beers taste fantastic. And it can't be that they were still fermenting right ? I mean - I didn't take the reading but they've been in carboys for 3 weeks...
2. The only difference is that a) it's all grain b) I used a different yeast than in my previous batches - Safale S-05 in this case. Come to think of it - there's actually one more difference - they've been fermenting around 66 degrees. My prior batches were in summer so the temps were higher, probably low 70s. But it still should have completed fermentation in 3 weeks right ?
I have another batch fermenting right now and I really hope to avoid this in the future so any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks !
I started brewing a few months ago and made several extract batches which all turned good and no issues whatsoever.
A month or so ago I started my first 2 all grain batches in parallel. Everything seemed OK, I let the beers ferment for about 3 weeks as I did with all my previous batches, then bottled them. I don't recall how much priming sugar I used (this taught me a valuable lesson to keep logging everything I do with a batch) but it couldn't have been more than 5 oz per batch (of which there was actual 4.5 - 5gallons). And I let the beers sit in bottles at some 72 I'd say for about 2 weeks.
First interesting thing I noticed after popping each one of them open after the first week (I usually do that to get the idea of how it's going) is that they seemed fully carbonated. Unfortunately I didn't think much of it other than "Hm, weird...". I finally opened one yesterday, about 2 weeks since it was bottled. And the thing just started gushing out like crazy. If left alone it would probably spill most of the beer out of the bottle. Right now I m in process of "fixing" the batch by slowly venting the bottles and recapping them (which is a pain in the a** and takes forever) but here are my questions:
1. Why would 5oz (max) of sugar cause this ? I don't think there's an infection going on as both beers taste fantastic. And it can't be that they were still fermenting right ? I mean - I didn't take the reading but they've been in carboys for 3 weeks...
2. The only difference is that a) it's all grain b) I used a different yeast than in my previous batches - Safale S-05 in this case. Come to think of it - there's actually one more difference - they've been fermenting around 66 degrees. My prior batches were in summer so the temps were higher, probably low 70s. But it still should have completed fermentation in 3 weeks right ?
I have another batch fermenting right now and I really hope to avoid this in the future so any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks !