Freshly Bottled Beer and Foam-over

[DollarStoreChili]

Hello all,

Long story short, I have a six gallon batch of extract beer in bottles. I went to add dextrose to bottle carb the first one and it foamed over
something fierce. I found out that no matter how gingerly I added the sugar the result was such that continuing to add sugar would cause
enough foam that continuing this way wasn't productive.

My question: do carbonation drops cause the same foam over?

 

[camonick]

You filled the bottles first, then tried dosing them with your priming sugar? Sugar should go in the bottle first.

 

[hotbeer]

Your crystalized sugar is making a bunch of nucleation points that cause the CO2 to come out of solution. Putting the sugar into the bottle first will make more sense. If that still causes too much foaming, then you might dissolve it first so there aren't any nucleation points and dose your bottles with a syringe or something you can measure with accurately enough.

Another way to get priming sugar into your beer is to make a solution with it and mix it into the beer before you bottle. Some worry about O2 exposure, but for many beers that isn't as much of an issue. And there are ways to minimize exposure and keep the transfer to the priming container somewhat a closed transfer. I bottle directly from my fermenter, so I just mix the solution into my FV immediately before bottling.

 

[jsphlynch]

Hello all,

Long story short, I have a six gallon batch of extract beer in bottles. I went to add dextrose to bottle carb the first one and it foamed over
something fierce. I found out that no matter how gingerly I added the sugar the result was such that continuing to add sugar would cause
enough foam that continuing this way wasn't productive.

My question: do carbonation drops cause the same foam over?

I suspect that carb drops will cause less foaming than sugar crystals due to less nucleation sites. I always dissolve the priming sugar for an entire batch in a little water, boil it for a few minutes to sanitize the solution, let it cool a bit, and it to the entire batch of beer, then bottle. In addition to avoiding foam, this makes for easier measuring of the sugar (just measure once for the batch, not each individual bottle). And while I don't know what the odds are that a contaminating microbe could hitch a ride on the pure sugar, I feel better having boiled it.

 

[camonick]

Here’s a thread from fellow forum member @TwistedGray describing his technique.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/individual-bottle-priming-instructions-with-cane-sugar.683687/

 

[slomo]

Reverse your process. Add the priming sugar to the bottes, then add the beer. When I was bottling I always did the batch method for carbing. Never really had any problems. How are you filling your bottles?

 

[Rish]

My question: do carbonation drops cause the same foam over?

No. If you have them, use them.

 

[camonick]

No. If you have them, use them.

…but add them first.

 

[DollarStoreChili]

Reverse your process. Add the priming sugar to the bottes, then add the beer. When I was bottling I always did the batch method for carbing. Never really had any problems. How are you filling your bottles?

Auto-siphon and bottling wand, pretty basic

 

[Bobby_M]

As others said, add the sugar first. Carb drops will foam less, but they are 8x the cost for no real benefit other than being premeasured. You can also mix the sugar with a small amount of water and use a syringe to dose a small bit of syrup. No foaming in that case.