Carbonation issue.

[Aarong2008]

I brewed Northern Brewers Cream Ale on 7/11 and bottled 7/25. I heated up the water/suger mix as directed and put that into my bottling bucket and and siphoned my beer into it afterwards. My issue is that the carbonation on every beer is different. I had some that were perfectly carbonated or none at all. The curve ball was I opened up one I put in the fridge and it was overly carbonated and foamed like crazy. Any ideas what could be going wrong?

OG 1.036
FG 1.011

 

[Aarong2008]

I store my bottles in a dark closet, I'm not sure about the temperature in there, but the AC has been on in the house almost every day. I can't imagine it gets very hot.

 

[unionrdr]

Sounds like you may not have gotten the priming solution mixed evenly. Ambient temp of at least 70F is also needed to ensure they carbonate in the usual 3-4 weeks time.

 

[2drunk2]

It does sound like the sugar didn't mix well. If my bottling process isn't going as quickly, I'll sometimes stir it gently half way through.

 

[fartinmartin]

Was your sanitation 100% ?

 

[Peruvian802]

We need a little more info:
-how long were they conditioned?
-What temp?
-same sized bottles?

It doesn't sound like infection (although a crazy eruption might be caused by one).

 

[hopbrad]

i do exactly that then give it a little swirl and never have an issue.
so my suggestion would be to give it a little swirl too.

You could also stick the siphon in the bottling bucket along with the end of the tube and give it a few pumps. just be careful there isnt any air bubbles in the siphon to reduce oxygenating your beer.

 

[MikeBTexas]

I've had the same problem before. I'm sure it was because of the sugars not getting mixed well enough.

Now when I add my priming sugars I will mix slightly my moving a large spoon from top to bottom gently.




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[Aarong2008]

The bottles were conditioned two weeks as of today.

I'm pretty sure I sanitized all my equipment 100%. I filled the bottling bucket and bottles to the brim just to be safe. I sanitized the siphoning equipment and ran sanitizing solution through it and let it sit for a few minutes. I use one step for sanitizing.

I was also thinking that it didn't get mixed well. I never encountered this issue before but I am out if practice by 3 years. Maybe I should try and let them sit a little longer?

 

[Aarong2008]

Here's the overflowing bottle.

 

[fixitoscar]

couple of things. how much priming sugar was used?
how many gallons did you bottle?
How long did you leave them in the fridge before opening?
With this we can determine if too much priming sugar was used or if the co2 had enough time to get into solution.
I try for 24hrs minimum in the fridge, better after 2 days.

I always gently stir my beer after racking it onto my priming solution too.

I have my primed beer sit in 24 pack boxes until they are primed up. I notice that the beer on the outside rows of the box prime faster than the ones in the middle. The inside ones are just a tad cooler because of the others insulating them against ambient temp.

 

[unionrdr]

That's another thing well worth mentioning. The outer rows of bottles insulating the inner ones. Not to mention, being against an outside wall vs inside wall, basement,whatever. They all have bearing on how fast or slow they carbonate & how evenly from bottle to bottle.

 

[Aarong2008]

5 oz of priming sugar was used. It was a 5 gallon batch. The bottle was only in the refrigerator since Monday.

There was about an inch if room in each bottle left. I let the auto siphon full each bottle until it reached the top and when I pulled it out it seemed like a good gap.

Next time I will def swirl the mixture.

I stored them in a similar manner, I will try grabbing a beer from the edges of the box.

 

[hopbrad]

i recommend this tool as well - http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/
works out great for just about every style. i use plain table sugar (sucrose) to carb.

 

[Aarong2008]

Ok. I will use that as well. Thanks.

 

[unionrdr]

Just re-read the thread. You said you filled the bottles to the brim? That could be part of the problem. you need a little head space for the co2 to compress in. Using a bottling wand will do this automatically in any size bottle by way of volume displacement.

 

[thegreatmaibockaddict]

Siphoning onto the priming sugar in the bucket automatically will evenly distribute the sugar. I have been doing this method over the course of 20 years and 500 batches and have never had an issue and have never once stirred the batch.

There is something else amiss

 

[Aarong2008]

@unionrdr I fill the beer to the brim of the bottle with my bottling siphon still in the bottle and when I take it out and it leaves about an inch gap between the cap and beer. Sorry I wasn't very clear.

@thegreatmaibockaddict I'm starting to think I need to let them condition longer. But then that leaves the foamy bottle, so I'm not sure.

 

[2drunk2]

That's how I fill my bottles. Works great.

 

[WayFrae]

I had an overflowing bottle once. I think I just didn't let it cool long enough. I was eager to try the beer so I stuck it in the freezer for 30 minutes, when I opened it everything seemed fine and about 5 seconds later it started gushing. That was the only bottle in the batch that did that and I just assumed it was from trying to cool it too quickly or something.

 

[unionrdr]

I did that early on myself. gotta give the bottles 1 week fridge time to make sure they're good to go.