Recent Carbonation Issues

[jnacey]

Hi All,

Recently I've been experiencing bottles that seem to always have excessive carbonation. I always clean my bottles after pours, leave them overnight in an OxyClean bath and then fully submerge/sanitize the bottles in my bottling bucket with a StarSan solution.

Several bottles have been gushers (haven't experienced any bombs), but almost every batch I have done recently has been excessively carbed. I've been using TastyBrew's calculator and have been generally adding 4oz of corn sugar for a 5 gallon batch. My brew are usually fermented in the mid 60s in my basement. After bottling I store them up on my top floor where the heat can get into the high 70s-80s.

Is the excessive carbonation from the storage temperature? I really doubt it is from sanitation issues or excess sugar. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thx.

 

[Shakybones]

How long do you let the beer carb in the bottles? If opened too soon, beers can gush. Three weeks is the recommendation.

4 oz. / 5 gal sounds about right.

 

[fizgig]

Are you cold crashing before bottling? If not, try it. How soon after fermentation are you bottling and with what yeast? Sugar amount seems right, if there's a ton of yeast in the bottom of the bottle or any dry hop debris, you can get a gusher as big chunks of yeast or small hop debris make nucleation sites.

 

[mdgagne]

Is your beer reaching FG before bottling? Any off flavors?

 

[jnacey]

Hey guys, thanks for the responses. The beer is always at FG and there are no off flavors. Bottles aren't touched for at least 3 weeks if not much longer.

I don't have the ability to cold crash right now. Is there any other way to drop yeast out of suspension? Just wait longer? I usually wait like 2-3 weeks now depending on when FG is stable. This has happened with multiple yeast strains.

This does seem to happen more often with my dry-hopped beers. I always use a paint strainer though to minimize any debris.

Would the temperature at which I store my bottles (probably high 70s or higher in the summer) matter much? This has happened more recently as summer temps have increased.

 

[Shakybones]

Hmm...that is a bit of a stumper. I'm no expert, but I don't think that bottle conditioning temps in the 70-80 range should cause over-carbing.

Do you chill the bottles for at least 24 hours (72 is best) before opening?

Otherwise, are you sure you're getting exactly 5 gallons into the bottling bucket?

 

[beerluvva]

I think the lack of a cold crash could be the issue. Is the resulting beer after the gushing carbonated, or kind of flat?