Foam shooting out from the bottle, beer tastes fine.

[lokis333]

Hi guys, I have brewed few batches and for some reason after few months of bottling the beer, once opened it rushes out! Although beer tastes fine without any off tastes or off aromas.

Tried to open the bottles of different temperatures same result, although beer is not too carbonated. I would say average to below average carbonation (did not aim for high carbonation).

Any ideas why is this happening? And how could it be fixed?

Thank you!

 

[day_trippr]

If no off-notes are being detected, the most likely root causes are (1) you're not allowing the initial fermentation to actually run its full course; (2) excessive priming solution.

Use a reliable hydrometer and take successive tests to determine Final Gravity is stable, and use a priming calculator...

Cheers!

[edit] You lose a lot of carbonation to excessive "head". An acute condition can leave what remains nearly flat...

 

[Qhrumphf]

If the beer itself isn't too carbonated, then I doubt it's a bottling too soon or excessive priming problem, especially not if it's the same at different temperatures.

What temperatures are you trying? Try one barely above freezing. See if it's still not over-carbonated. Though generally a beer that's properly carbed shouldn't gush at even room temperature (some Belgians excepted).

My thoughts perhaps it IS overcarbonated, and a little warm or jostled, and all the CO2 escapes quickly and doesn't remain in the beer afterwards. If the beer seems UNDERcarbonated at your normal serving temp, but acceptably carbonated when super-cold, then it's likely a nucleation issue, again something driving all the CO2 out quickly. Likely culprit would be either excessive bottle sediment, or potentially beerstone problems in the bottle.

 

[pdxal]

If the beer gushes out it is over carbonated. Maybe flat by the time the foam settles, but too much CO2 is what is causing it.
Too much priming sugar, incompletely mixed priming sugar/solution, bottling too early before fermentation is complete, and infection are the most common causes. Infection doesn't have to cause off taste to cause gushing.

 

[myelo]

If they are fine at 1 month and gushing a few months later I would worry about infection. If it's every bottle now I would take apart, inspect and clean then sanitize your bottling wand, spigot/washer, racking tube/siphon ... whatever you use for bottling.

 

[Qhrumphf]

If the beer gushes out it is over carbonated. Maybe flat by the time the foam settles, but too much CO2 is what is causing it.
Too much priming sugar, incompletely mixed priming sugar/solution, bottling too early before fermentation is complete, and infection are the most common causes. Infection doesn't have to cause off taste to cause gushing.

Take a soda out of the fridge vs a warm shaken one. Carbonation is the same, but one sprays you and the other doesn't.

Gushing doesn't inherently mean overcarbonation.

It's a possible and likely explanation, but you're cutting off an entire realm of also plausible causes if you immediately assume overcarbonation.

 

[balrog]

I had exactly the same issue. Bottles from first batches were fine with time. Later batches nearly all the bottles were fine when consumed within a month or two but most if not all were gushers after a few months.

Spigot on bottling bucket, bottling wand, all vinyl tubing replaced = problem went away. Clearly I had nasties in my bottling system.

 

[SGTSparty]

I had exactly the same issue. Bottles from first batches were fine with time. Later batches nearly all the bottles were fine when consumed within a month or two but most if not all were gushers after a few months.

Spigot on bottling bucket, bottling wand, all vinyl tubing replaced = problem went away. Clearly I had nasties in my bottling system.

I had this same problem when I first started brewing. First several batches were great. Then I had gushers on 2 or 3 batches in a row. Tasted fine but after getting a stout all over the kitchen ceiling and SWMBO's white cabinets I had to resort to opening several bottles into a bottling bucket and serving from there. Got so frustrating I actually walked away from brewing for almost 2 years and when I came back, I went to kegging. My situation was the same as OP's no off flavors or aromas and any beer that survived was slightly under carbed but they were low carb styles so its not like it was a problem. To OP gushers = equal infections. Clean the daylights out of your gear and/or move to kegging.

 

[geoffey]

Take a soda out of the fridge vs a warm shaken one. Carbonation is the same, but one sprays you and the other doesn't.

Gushing doesn't inherently mean overcarbonation.

It's a possible and likely explanation, but you're cutting off an entire realm of also plausible causes if you immediately assume overcarbonation.

So I did as you suggest and grabbed a couple of sodas. The warm one sprayed all over the place just as you predicted. Spent half an hour cleaning up every surface of the brewery.

I don't typically bottle beer, I keg in cornies. Still, worried about over carbing after the soda experiment. So I pulled a couple pints of my IPA and let one warm to room temp and the other I put in the temp controlled freezer set at 34f. I shook each of them up just like the soda: huge freaking mess all over the place. Couldn't tell if it was gushing since both glasses were wide open, but I can say for sure that the warm one and cold one made as much of a mess. Damn.

So now I'm thinking I have an over carb issue.

 

[val214]

https://media3.giphy.com/media/121ZNwqXasCZck/giphy.gif

 

[Qhrumphf]

So I did as you suggest and grabbed a couple of sodas. The warm one sprayed all over the place just as you predicted. Spent half an hour cleaning up every surface of the brewery.

I don't typically bottle beer, I keg in cornies. Still, worried about over carbing after the soda experiment. So I pulled a couple pints of my IPA and let one warm to room temp and the other I put in the temp controlled freezer set at 34f. I shook each of them up just like the soda: huge freaking mess all over the place. Couldn't tell if it was gushing since both glasses were wide open, but I can say for sure that the warm one and cold one made as much of a mess. Damn.

So now I'm thinking I have an over carb issue.

The point I was making is that temperature matters. The amount of CO2 that will dissolve/remain in solution changes with temperature. The same volume of CO2 can be sealed in the package and while sealed the pressure stays the same regardless of the temp. As soon as it's opened though, the pressure changes, and any CO2 that doesn't dissolve into solution will start to escape. Ergo warmer beer = more likely to gush.

The OP suggested that the beer seems appropriately carbonated after gushing. I suggest chilling to near freezing to maximize the CO2 that stays dissolved. That way it's easier to suss out a carbonation issue. It's highly plausible that the beer is indeed overcarbonated, but so much is rushing out initially, that the residual seems "fine". If super, super cold, the overcarbonation should be more readily apparently on the palate (even if other taste sensations wouldn't be due to the cold temp).

However, if the carbonation still seems reasonable when super cold, then I'd think it's less likely to be overcarbonation, and instead something ELSE knocking CO2 out of solution.

Here's another soda example- when you pour soda from a can over ice, it tends to foam up a lot more than if you poured it straight into a glass. The reason being all the ice provides for CO2 to nucleate- ie start to form larger bubbles. This can happen in anything carbonated, including beer. This is why I suggest, if it's NOT overcarbonation (and I'd agree mostly likely it IS overcarbonation, but I'm not as quick to offer blind half-story advice to people as others apparently are, and lead them potentially down the wrong path), I'd look to things like bottle sediment. Other causes, mineral scale from oxyclean or PBW could do it. Beerstone could do it as well. Or, highly unlikely, there's that malt contamination fungus, although that one's unlikely if the OP is using quality ingredients.

 

[balrog]

I stand properly chastised. Presuming OP did batches roughly the same, thinking amount of priming sugar per batch, the nucleation idea should be investigated and can be, by checking a really cold bottle. Question though--if overcarbed even when super cold, regardless of nucleation sites now available from beerstone/bottle-cleaning-residue, it could still be infection-caused carb. SO I would also check FG by warming a poured beer and degassing for a LONG time and measure SG and see if something had brought SG down since you measured FG at bottling.

 

[Qhrumphf]

SO I would also check FG by warming a poured beer and degassing for a LONG time and measure SG and see if something had brought SG down since you measured FG at bottling.

This is also a good check. Wouldn't necessarily confirm an infection, could happen from bottling too soon as well, but either way if the gravity is noticeably lower than when you bottled, there's your problem.

Every 2-3 points (the exact number escapes me) of SG equates to roughly a volume of CO2 in the bottle. If you prime a beer to 2.5-3 volumes (the amount of sugar typically provided with a kit, too much but that's another story) and it drops even 4 or 6 points on top of that, you're gonna have a bad time.

 

[balrog]

Agree on all points there. I'm surprised you didn't also recommend polypins especially if he's doing that sort of cask-y styles.