Can beer keep carbonating after fridge?

[Jhonntan Gonzalez]

Hello guys, I've been homebrewing for almost 2 years right now, I have always bottle condition my beers but recently I found after a year or so of not having any over carbonated beers that two batches were over carbonated. On the first batch, it was over-carbonated from the beginning, my second batch was great after two weeks of bottle conditioning, after that, I added all the bottles to the fridge at 38F degrees. Then, going to a friend house I brought some of the beers and when we opened them, there was only foam leaving the bottle.

Recently I changed from fermenting at room temperature to fermenting in the fridge for primary and secondary at a temperature of 62F, do you guys think that has something to do with the over a carbonated beer?

Also, some friend manifested that after I gave them the bottles the stored them at room temperature for almost one week, when they finally opened the beers they were also over carbonates, there is a possibility also that after being in the fridge at 38F the yeast could wake up again an over carbonate the beer?

I appreciate any help you guys can provide on this topic.

Thanks!

 

[kh54s10]

62 is on the low end of most ale yeasts so fermentation would be slow. Did you take gravity readings to be sure fermentation was complete. If not you might have had more fermentation after bottling.

Did you use a priming calculator to determine the right amount of priming sugar? Fermentation temperature has an effect on how much priming sugar you should use. In the calculators you should input the highest temperature the beer reached during fermentation.

How long did you have the bottles at room temperature before putting them in the 38 degree fridge? You could have had further carbonation after cooling and re-warming, though that should not have resulted in over-carbonation.

The other possibility is that you have an infection. Either in the fermentation period or introduced during bottling.

 

[LittleRiver]

...Recently I changed from fermenting at room temperature to fermenting in the fridge for primary and secondary at a temperature of 62F...

The lower temp will slow down fermentation, so it's possible you are now bottling them before fermentation is complete. Give them more time in the fermenter.

 

[Lefou]

Cold will slow your yeast down.
If you have sugar left over in the bottle it will take longer to carbonate in the refrigerator. Keep the bottles at a warmer temperature after bottling. It generally takes two to three weeks at 62F to properly carbonate in the bottle, but that depends on the health of your yeast and the beer style. After that a few days in the refrigerator will help the CO2 dissolve into your beer and prevent the foaming.

 

[Jhonntan Gonzalez]

Hello guys, based on your comments I am adding some more info.

I am fermenting on primary for 7 days and fermenting on secondary for another 7 days, after primary mi reading was 1.010 then after secondary fermentation it was still on 1.010 so I decided to bottle.

I do use the priming calculator from Beersmith all of the time what I do is I take a temp reading before bottling and that is the temp I input into the priming calculator, I am not sure on how to take the highest temp reading since I pretty much set the temp on the fridge and let the fermenter sit inside.

Bottles were at room temp for 2 complete weeks before going to the fridge at 38 degrees.

I am fermenting at 62 because I read at active fermentation the beer could raise 3 or 4 degrees its temp, so that was a way to keep it in the range, do you guys think I should increase the temp a little bit?

Thanks for your fast responses, much appreciated!

 

[kh54s10]

Hello guys, based on your comments I am adding some more info.

I am fermenting on primary for 7 days and fermenting on secondary for another 7 days, after primary mi reading was 1.010 then after secondary fermentation it was still on 1.010 so I decided to bottle.

I do use the priming calculator from Beersmith all of the time what I do is I take a temp reading before bottling and that is the temp I input into the priming calculator, I am not sure on how to take the highest temp reading since I pretty much set the temp on the fridge and let the fermenter sit inside.

Bottles were at room temp for 2 complete weeks before going to the fridge at 38 degrees.

I am fermenting at 62 because I read at active fermentation the beer could raise 3 or 4 degrees its temp, so that was a way to keep it in the range, do you guys think I should increase the temp a little bit?

Thanks for your fast responses, much appreciated!

Are you using a temperature controller with the probe measuring the wort temperature? If so, the wort should be staying at what you set the controller for. If your fridge is not temperature controlled, you are right, the fermentation temperature will get higher. But not the whole time. So in your 7 days the temperature might have been above 62 for only a day or two.

For the priming calculator you should enter the 62 degrees and the 4 or more that would be the maximum fermentation temperature. Or, maybe, 66 degrees.

On a side note. Skip the secondary. It is unnecessary and you risk oxidation and possibly contamination for very little gain. A tiny bit of clarity is all that is accomplished. Unless you do a secondary to add fruit etc.

 

[Jhonntan Gonzalez]

Are you using a temperature controller with the probe measuring the wort temperature? If so, the wort should be staying at what you set the controller for. If your fridge is not temperature controlled, you are right, the fermentation temperature will get higher. But not the whole time. So in your 7 days the temperature might have been above 62 for only a day or two.

For the priming calculator you should enter the 62 degrees and the 4 or more that would be the maximum fermentation temperature. Or, maybe, 66 degrees.

On a side note. Skip the secondary. It is unnecessary and you risk oxidation and possibly contamination for very little gain. A tiny bit of clarity is all that is accomplished. Unless you do a secondary to add fruit etc.

Hi, I currently not use any temperature controller, my fridge has a thermostat I use to set the desired temperature and I just let my fermenter sit inside. Is there any site/paper or any information I can refer to know how many degrees the wort can increase so I can better calculate this? or should I just assume during the max point is gonna be 4 degrees from what I set the fridge?

Thanks!

 

[kh54s10]

Hi, I currently not use any temperature controller, my fridge has a thermostat I use to set the desired temperature and I just let my fermenter sit inside. Is there any site/paper or any information I can refer to know how many degrees the wort can increase so I can better calculate this? or should I just assume during the max point is gonna be 4 degrees from what I set the fridge?

Thanks!

I don't know of any documentation on exactly how much temperature rise fermentation can create. I assume there are too many variables that come into play. I have heard a range from about 3 degrees to 10 or even more. That is Fahrenheit.

I don't know if you can get one easily but the Inkbird ITC-308 is very popular, pretty accurate and inexpensive. You set the fridge or freezer to a cold temperature then plug it into the Inkbird, set it and it controls the fermentation temperature with a probe that you tape to the side of the fermenter with insulation over it so it doesn't measure the air temperature, or use a thermowell. That is a metal tube the is inserted into the wort and the probe goes inside that.

 

[Jhonntan Gonzalez]

I don't know of any documentation on exactly how much temperature rise fermentation can create. I assume there are too many variables that come into play. I have heard a range from about 3 degrees to 10 or even more. That is Fahrenheit.

I don't know if you can get one easily but the Inkbird ITC-308 is very popular, pretty accurate and inexpensive. You set the fridge or freezer to a cold temperature then plug it into the Inkbird, set it and it controls the fermentation temperature with a probe that you tape to the side of the fermenter with insulation over it so it doesn't measure the air temperature, or use a thermowell. That is a metal tube the is inserted into the wort and the probe goes inside that.

I will need to also buy some sort of a heating element right? would this work if I have multiple fermenters on the fridge? or should I test one by one?

Thanks for all the information!

 

[kh54s10]

I just use the cooling by the Inkbird. It will cool until the wort is at the offset you choose. I have it a +/- 1 degree F. Then it shuts off the fridge or in my case the freezer. When I have 2 fermenters at one time I have one that has already been there for at least a week. I then control the temperature of the new one. If the first one has hit FG, I will often take it out of the chamber and let it sit at room temperature until I can get it packaged.