Carbonated Beer + Nibs + Vodka = Giant Foamy Mess?

[thefost]

So I'm making a chocolate stout that I fermented under pressure in a keg so it is now carbonated. The recipe says soak some cacao nibs in vodka then add them to the primary. So I wen't ahead and did that.

And the keg erupted in a foamy stouty volcano like mess

I feverishly tried to put the lid back on but it proved near impossible because I couldn't see what was going on and I was now covered in beer. Eventually I got it back on and cleaned up the mess that caught me completely off gaurd.

So my questions:

1) What caused this reaction? Was it the nibs or the vodka? Would this have happened if it wasn't at room temperature?

2) Is my keg gonna explode? If I try to bleed co2 it just shoots out foam everywhere, but I'm worried too much pressure is building.

 

[uatuba]

See: Mentos & Diet Coke


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[tooldudetool]

You gave the CO2 nucleation sites to form on (I love any chance to say nucleation sites). Kind of like when you get a beer in a glass at a bar and you see the streams of bubbles coming up in a ring an inch or so from the bottom, which is where the glass gets scratched when they stack all the glasses together. Basically any rough surface gives the dissolved gas in solution a place to collect and come out of solution in the form of a bubble. I can imagine crushed cacao nibs look very rough under magnification, so dumping a bunch of those into a carbonated beverage which is no longer under pressure leads to beer foaming and going everywhere. Your keg won't explode, no additional pressure is being added, its just coming out of solution. Put the top back on, give it 15# of CO2 or so, and let it sit. Eventually it will reach equilibrium again and everything will be fine. I've had the same issue when I tried to dry hop in a nylon bag in a carbonated keg, then tried to remove the bag after 3 days... big foamy mess!

 

[salb29]

So to make things clear u carbed the beer and opened up keg then added the nibs ?

Usually you would add the nibs to a secondary fermentor rack beer on top and let sit for two weeks...then u would rack to keg to carb it

As for the chemical reaction I'm not sure on that part


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[uatuba]

It's not a chemical reaction...it's a physical one. Like I said: mentos and diet coke.

 

[thefost]

You gave the CO2 nucleation sites to form on (I love any chance to say nucleation sites). Kind of like when you get a beer in a glass at a bar and you see the streams of bubbles coming up in a ring an inch or so from the bottom, which is where the glass gets scratched when they stack all the glasses together. Basically any rough surface gives the dissolved gas in solution a place to collect and come out of solution in the form of a bubble. I can imagine crushed cacao nibs look very rough under magnification, so dumping a bunch of those into a carbonated beverage which is no longer under pressure leads to beer foaming and going everywhere. Your keg won't explode, no additional pressure is being added, its just coming out of solution. Put the top back on, give it 15# of CO2 or so, and let it sit. Eventually it will reach equilibrium again and everything will be fine. I've had the same issue when I tried to dry hop in a nylon bag in a carbonated keg, then tried to remove the bag after 3 days... big foamy mess!

Thanks, that was just the answer I was looking for :rockin:

I realized after I posted how ridiculous the idea of the keg exploding was. I was just a bit frazzled after dealing with the foam volcano destroying my hallway.

Ok, so your explaination makes perfect sense, but what would have been the correct way to add the nibs if my beer is already carbonated? Or is it even possible?

I'm thinking that if I put the nibs in a second keg, pressurized it, then slowly pressure transferred the beer from the primary to secondary keg that it probably wouldn't have foamed as much, but I'm not sure if there would still be too much foam to do it properly. Would cooling both kegs down would help?

I'm asking this because I'm guessing the exact same thing would happen if I tried to add hops, and I do a lot of dry hopping so I want to figure out the best technique when using already carbonated beer.

I could always just let all the co2 escape, but where is the fun in that?

 

[uatuba]

I'm just not sure why you wouldn't do it before carbing? You're losing basically all of the carbonation anyway, unless you do it in a pressurized system like you've described.

 

[davygoat2]

I normally don't like to get a chuckle out of someones misfortune but thanks for the uplift. Kinda a Little Rascals/Three Stooges film clip!! Complete with the slip and fall in the foam.
Sorry to hear about the Volcano, I don't know how it will turn out after recarbing it again. I could see some of the hops/essential oils getting carried out. But it's a guess and Fare thee Well

 

[thefost]

I'm just not sure why you wouldn't do it before carbing? You're losing basically all of the carbonation anyway, unless you do it in a pressurized system like you've described.

Well the idea is that I'm fermenting under pressure (a la wortmonger's post), which allows me to carbonate at the same time its fermenting. This keeps the yeast from expanding too much and creating off flavors, gets the beer carbed quickly, saves a little money since you don't need any extra co2 other than whats being produced from fermentation, etc. This way you can go from grain to glass really really fast.

Had never thought about problems with post fermentation additions tho...

 

[thefost]

I normally don't like to get a chuckle out of someones misfortune but thanks for the uplift. Kinda a Little Rascals/Three Stooges film clip!! Complete with the slip and fall in the foam.
Sorry to hear about the Volcano, I don't know how it will turn out after recarbing it again. I could see some of the hops/essential oils getting carried out. But it's a guess and Fare thee Well

Glad you chuckled, I thought the whole thing was pretty damn funny
I lost some co2 but not the vast majority of it, so it doesnt need a full recarb and hopefully didn't lose too much flavor. We shall see in a few days