Foam pouring out of the bottle straight after opening...

When I started brewing almost 4 years ago, I pulled the "open too early" trick and got foamouts. Then I learned better, and waited. Never had the problem until my first batch of Black Pearl Porter (see recipes section) that I brewed last fall. Routine fermentation, put the priming sugar in that I always do (5 oz corn sugar, weighed), and for the first 4 months everything was fine. In fact, when I started drinking it I was getting plenty of carbonation but no head whatsoever. When I was down to 2-3 sixes, I started getting a head. Over the course of drinking the rest of the beer, it built and built. For the last six, I had to pour a 12 oz bottle into an imperial pint glass over the sink, an I'd still lose 1/4 of the beer to foaming out of the glass.

I tend to go with getting some sort of infection. This recipe uses both lactose and malto-dextrin.......maybe something started chewing on them after bottling....???

 

Funny years ago I had the same issue with the same beer. And it happened right at the time the beer was being judged for a contest. I opened a bottle the same weekend, and it gushed. Opened another and the same thing, turned out the two contest bottles did as well. Late onset infections are fun, aren't they. Pretty interesting that it was the same beer. You're right about the MD and the lactoste....good point. I wonder if they're more succeptable to that.

But this is a big point....bott,ling infection don't tend to happen initially. They usuallly happen weeks or months down the road. That's why I hate when folks jump on the bottle gushing = infection bandwagon, without paying attention to how long the beer's actually been IN the bottles. If it's gushing when then beer has only been in the bottle for a few weeks (especially under 6 weeks or so- conditioning time) it's not going to be about an infection.

 

The only time I have had any type of gusher is when I stored the beer on its side. I purchased a six pack of IPA from the liquor store, took it home and stored it in a small fridge on its side. Every bottle I opened was a gusher. A friend told me not to store it on its side. I thought he was crazy, I tried storing the remaining bottles upright and they stopped gushing. I don't know why but they did.
I don't know if this is related to what you have going on, but I have seen a lot of people blame the beer as being infected when the issue is the way they store the beer, just a thought.

 

what little beer I buy is always stored on the side. no gushers...

 

What's the point of stoing you beer on the side? It's not like you're trying to keep your corks from drying out like you do for wine, and with bottle conditioned beers all you're doing is having sediment pooling on the sides of your bottles which is MORE LIKELY to end up in your glass. There's no real reason to store beers on their side.

 

sure there is.. store bought beers are rarely bottle conditioned.. and I store then in what used to be the vegetable drawer of my beer fridge/keggerator. not enough room in the keggerator to stand up a 12 pack or more.

 

Hi all,

After more than two months from bottling the beer is still gushing (not as much as before though). Chilling it clearly helps prevent the foam formation straight after opening the bottle, but the beer is clearly over carbonated.



The important part - it tastes pretty good :-D