Annoying gushers

[eadavis80]

I've brewed nearly 80 batches now and had pretty good success overall, but one thing that continues to plague a batch here and there is carbonation. I bottle and I use this: http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator

For some reason, some batches result in gushers later in the batch. Beers drank 2-4 weeks after bottling day will be fine, but then ones that linger into a month or more will sometimes turn into gushers. I'm experiencing this wtih an Irish Stout I have now. The nose and taste are great, but when I crack the bottle it foams over and I have to pour super gently on the side of the glass and I usually lose an ounce or 2 in the foam over process.

I am top notch on sanitizing bottles, the wand, bucket and caps. Any idea why bottles seem to overcarbonate slowly - over time?

I just bottled 4 gallons of a Hefeweizen and I fear it will be overcarbonated. The above listed calculator showed a pretty high amount of corn sugar compared to what I normally use. I am aware that different styles should have different levels of carb, but given the amount they told me to use, I'm afraid that any Hefes drank after Father's Day will foam everywhere...

 

[Revvy]

It sounds like you have late onset infection... somewhere in your process, something is infecting your beer. You might have biomatter in the valve in your bottling bucket for all you know. It's a good idea every now and then to replace things like the spigot, autosiphon and hoses, and make sure to dissasemble the bottling wand if you don't to make sure there's no hopgunk in and around the spring.

If your problems were due to the amount of sugar you're using, you'd have the gushers pretty much from day one, when you opened your bottles... not down the line. Your sugar is pretty much consumed in the initial 3 weeks of carb time... not further down the line.

Another thing to do is switch up your sanitizer... if you ALWAYS use starsan, then run an iodine based solution through your system like iodophor. Or even consider a one time bleach bomb. Just in case whatever the bug is, it hasn't built up a tolerance to what you're using.

 

[wolfej50]

I sometimes find the same thing with my dark beers. While infection can certainly be one factor, I'm also wondering if slow fermentation may be a factor. Perhaps keeping the beer in the primary longer (or racking to a secondary for a couple of weeks). Of course, racking to the secondary can be a source of contamination, if your sanitation processes are good, a couple of extra weeks before bottling may prevent the gushing, especially if your dark beer seems to be on the sweet side.

 

[flars]

I have had the same problem with the last few batches of beer. There was a heavy layer of sediment in the bottom of each bottle that had excessive foaming. All of the sediment would not rinse out using a jet washer. I began inspecting every bottle after pouring and rinsing. Most of the bottles retained a light film of sediment. Now I am soaking every bottle in a solution of PBW. After a day or more of soaking all of the bottles come clean with a jet rinse.

 

[eadavis80]

Yeah, I don't think it's the bottles themselves. I am totally OCD about my beer bottles and literally - every single bottle I pour - I have a silly routine. I grab the bottle from the fridge and I turn on my sink's hot water. I pour the beer. After pouring I rinse the bottle out 4 times with the hot water. They go into the dishwasher later (which has a sanitized setting) and I sanitize again on bottling day with Star San. Maybe Revvy is right and I should try out a different sanitizer or maybe I should get a new bottling wand. Not sure. I know I wash and sanitize my bottling spigot, nut and wand on bottling day too.

 

[nDub]

The infection can come before you go to bottle it.

Perhaps your fermenter? The yeast can out compete whatever might be in there for a while but once they stop working the infection can take place.

Does the beer taste drier from the gushers?

 

[Revvy]

The infection can come before you go to bottle it.

Perhaps your fermenter? The yeast can out compete whatever might be in there for a while but once they stop working the infection can take place.

Does the beer taste drier from the gushers?

Yeah, he's right, the infection CAN occur anywhere down the line (at least post boil) and just take several weeks to make itself known. More than likely it is in the bottling process, but that doesn't mean it can't come earlier.

 

[xben]

I'm also getting gushers sometimes.. I discovered it was due to the sugar solution slowly drowning to the bottom of the bottling bucket. I always fill larger bottles first, then medium and finally 12oz ones. The gushers were always on the 12oz. I started to identify the last 6 filled bottles and realised they were most of the time overcarbonated, then turned into gushers. Since that time, I stir the wort/sugar mixture when I'm half-way done in the bottling process.

Cheers!

 

[eadavis80]

I always gently stir the beer/priming sugar solution with the racking cane after the beer has been transferred to the bottling bucket, so I think the solution is pretty evenly distributed. I know I clean and sanitize all my buckets/ferementers with each use, so I'm really lost on it. It sucks to have good smelling and tasty beer, but have it was too carbonated where it's literally embarrassing to open one. If it was an infection though, would it smell or taste off? Both the smell and taste have been fine.

 

[nDub]

Do you see a ring right at the fluid level in the bottle?

I had similar problem. The ring of gunk in the bottle was a indicator of an infection. I started over with a new fermenter/bottles and no more problems. Good luck OP.

I also keg now so that'll stall infections too.

I kinda live in the mentality that all beer is infected to some degree its just how well you give the yeast a fighting chance to beat it out.

 

[eadavis80]

I have seen rings on a few bottles, but I guess I haven't made a specific effort to see if the ring is only on gushers or not. Even if I can deduce that rings = gushers, I still don't know what's causing them. I guess one thing I should have done ages ago was track which ferementers were used in which beers. I do take careful notes about brew day/OG/when I rack, etc, but I don't track which beers go in which buckets/carboys. I will start doing that and maybe then I'll find the culprit. I don't really want to buy all new fermenters as I have 2 buckets, a 6.5 gallon Big Mouth, 2 5-gallon plastic fermenters and a 5-gallon glass one.