Gushers, love some help.

[simontja]

I've got 5 gallons of gushers. The problem was not overpriming (1.8 oz in 5 gallons) but that it wasn't done fermenting.
The beer was 1.074 OG, and bottled at 1.022.
I'm using WLP090 strain, which people frequently report done fermentation in 3 days on. I put it in 23th February, I first opened it 4th march, thinking I could move it to secondary and dry hop it and took a gravity level of 1.026. It's OG was 1.074. I then put the yeast up from the bottom so it was cloudy again and put it to rest. 6 days later (day 15) I opened it again to get a gravity of 1.024, and put the yeast cake up yet again. I waited one week, of a total of 22 days to take another reading, I got 1.023, so I decided I'll leave it primary and dry hop it for 10 days. After 10 days it had been in primary for a total of 32 days, reading was 1.022, no bubbling for a long while, so I decided **** it, I'll bottle it at 1.022, thinking the malt was unfermentable seeing as i had remarkably high effeciency for biab (92%) and did 70 minutes at 153-156ish, with a 20 min mash out at 162. After moving to bottling bucket and adding 1.8 oz of sugar in 1.8 oz water, I bottled it.
Already 2 days after bottling the bottles had a small krausen and a yeast ring, I opened one 4 days after and it was completely normal, no off flavours, just good but very murky and a lot of yeast floaters. Now 10 days or so after bottling when opening 75% of the bottle gushes out, I've managed to take a reading of the beer in the gushers, waiting until it is flat, and 20c, it reads 1.011, how is this possible? Did the sugar start the yeast again? Even though I opened the fermenting bucket and mixed around the yeast 3 times, and let it ferment for way too long.

In general the beer tastes fine, but 75% goes away violently in foam form, and leaves a lot of the yeast sediment with a "different" carbonation, than desired.

If not, is this a viable trick to restart an inactive fermentation? Add a bit of sugar.

 

[Dan]

Your mash temp wasn't outrageously high but I'd expect it to produce fewer fermentables than a 150 mash, so maybe 1.022 was as far as the yeast could take it. Doesn't sound like you overprimed. Possibly an infection is what dropped the gravity 11 points in the bottle?

You could try chilling them all down for a week at least, to let the CO2 dissolve into the liquid. That might help with the gushers.

 

[simontja]

Your mash temp wasn't outrageously high but I'd expect it to produce fewer fermentables than a 150 mash, so maybe 1.022 was as far as the yeast could take it. Doesn't sound like you overprimed. Possibly an infection is what dropped the gravity 11 points in the bottle?

You could try chilling them all down for a week at least, to let the CO2 dissolve into the liquid. That might help with the gushers.

Perhaps an infection, but there's no off flavors, they really do taste fine, just that 75% of the bottle disappears, I've tried to freeze the bottles, but the cap opens in the freezer after 2 or 3 hours, and all you got is a bunch of frozen foam around the bottle.

 

[asterix404]

Exact same thing happened to me. I pitched the beer. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it but bottle bombs are really dangerous. Chill everything down in your fridge and pour it. I am sorry to have to give you that advice. I don't think it would have been an infection. You can see and smell those.

Actually, just as a bit of luck... did you experience rapid temperature swings between the time you bottled and now? I would be looking for a 15-20 degree increase in ambient temps.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I had one batch that produced gushers in most all bottles I opened, even after chilling for several days. I learned to open and pour into an oversized glass (moss) in one swift motion. The secret is to get the bottle horizontal as quickly as possible to allow the co2 to offgass through the air and out the neck rather than out the neck through beer. Do this while gently running the beer down the side of the glass to minumize splashing. Also, don't share bottles with friends, and drink em quick.

I speculate that I had some sort of bacterial infection. Bacteria ferments more slowly than yeast, so in the fermenter the yeast outcompetes it. However, bacteria can ferment sugars that Yeast can't and it can work at lower temps. If you have another batch that gushes, try running a sanitizer soaked q-tip around the lip in the lid of the bucket. Amazing what came out of mine!!!