So question about the gusher bug. I think my "Bourbon Barrel" stout might have it.
I made a partial mash imperial stout a while back. It spent about 12 days in Primary, maybe 13 I'm fuzzy on the details. Then I put it into secondary along with some bourbon soaked wood chips, they'd been sitting in my freezer for the 12 days that the beer was in Primary, maybe a few more. I let that sit for 4 weeks, mainly to blend the flavor of the bourbon wood chips into the stout.
Then I bottled. I put in the amount of corn sugar that the online calculator I found here said that I should use for 2.2 volumes of CO2, which is on the higher side for the style but I like it that way.
I opened a bottle a month later and, while still green, it tasted fine. I did start giving a couple bottles away and heard no complaints.
Recently however, I've cracked open 3 in the past week and all of them have gushed. They still taste fine.
I typically soak the bottles in Oxyclean the night before, rinse and soak them in star san day off. I might have skipped the Oxyclean soak the night before, but I know for a fact I soaked all of them for at least 2-3 minutes in star san before bottling. I didn't have my bottling wand so I did have to resort to the spigot on my bottling bucket, but the amount doesn't vary that much. Gap is at least 1 finger, typically 2 from the top of the bottle. And yes I soaked the bottling bucket in star san (that's where the bottles actually got soaked.) Honestly, the only difference I can think of is that I had my wife helping me bottle, it was her first time... maybe she sneezed in it when I wasn't looking?
Additionally there is a ring on the bottle neck of quite a few, but no film, it honestly looks like the ring on a carboy after primary fermentation is done.
What I have noticed is if I freeze the bottles for an hour and then pop them in the fridge I don't get the gusher, but they do seem slightly more carbonated then I would expect.
Thoughts? I'd planned on unveiling this as a center piece beer for my 30th bday beer dinner party... but well would rather not serve something that's going to gush everywhere and/or make folks there sick. I haven't noticed any adverse affects from the few I've drank this week to check but... anyway figured I'd poll the collected wisdom here.
I made a partial mash imperial stout a while back. It spent about 12 days in Primary, maybe 13 I'm fuzzy on the details. Then I put it into secondary along with some bourbon soaked wood chips, they'd been sitting in my freezer for the 12 days that the beer was in Primary, maybe a few more. I let that sit for 4 weeks, mainly to blend the flavor of the bourbon wood chips into the stout.
Then I bottled. I put in the amount of corn sugar that the online calculator I found here said that I should use for 2.2 volumes of CO2, which is on the higher side for the style but I like it that way.
I opened a bottle a month later and, while still green, it tasted fine. I did start giving a couple bottles away and heard no complaints.
Recently however, I've cracked open 3 in the past week and all of them have gushed. They still taste fine.
I typically soak the bottles in Oxyclean the night before, rinse and soak them in star san day off. I might have skipped the Oxyclean soak the night before, but I know for a fact I soaked all of them for at least 2-3 minutes in star san before bottling. I didn't have my bottling wand so I did have to resort to the spigot on my bottling bucket, but the amount doesn't vary that much. Gap is at least 1 finger, typically 2 from the top of the bottle. And yes I soaked the bottling bucket in star san (that's where the bottles actually got soaked.) Honestly, the only difference I can think of is that I had my wife helping me bottle, it was her first time... maybe she sneezed in it when I wasn't looking?
Additionally there is a ring on the bottle neck of quite a few, but no film, it honestly looks like the ring on a carboy after primary fermentation is done.
What I have noticed is if I freeze the bottles for an hour and then pop them in the fridge I don't get the gusher, but they do seem slightly more carbonated then I would expect.
Thoughts? I'd planned on unveiling this as a center piece beer for my 30th bday beer dinner party... but well would rather not serve something that's going to gush everywhere and/or make folks there sick. I haven't noticed any adverse affects from the few I've drank this week to check but... anyway figured I'd poll the collected wisdom here.