carbonation problems WHILE bottling

[bcocc4cp]

apologies. this question was just asked by one of my brewing buddies. duplicate post. see boozehoundbrew.

I'm on my 20th batch of the year, and had a really weird experience. I should say, though, that this is only my second belgian dubbel, and only my third or fourth high gravity brew.

The brew: standard belgian dubbel. a few lbs of rock candy in the wort. wyeast 1762 belgian abbey II strain. initial SG of 1.092 @70'F. After three weeks in primary, final SG of 1.014 @70'. After another month in secondary, 1.010. wanted to bottle to free up a fermenter for new brew. noticed some small bubbles exiting air lock, but assumed this was OK because of the low final gravity measurements. (*first mistake?*)

Next steps: i decided to prime with honey. i boiled 2/3 C. of clover honey in 2 cups water for five minutes. Let cool a few minutes, then poured into a clean fermenter and siphoned the brew in on top. stirred gently, then tried to start siphoning the brew into bottles. that's when things started getting weird.

The problem: immediately, the autosiphon began filling with bubbles, and the bottles were bubbling as i filled them. the bubbles were bigger than what you'd observe in normal "head" of carbonated beer, but they were similar insofar as they kept flowing over the tops of bottles, then slowly subsiding back into beer.

Controls: i checked all my fittings and tightened all siphon connections. the racking cane was free of any visible bubbles or air, but the outer siphon and bottles continued to fill rapidly with bubbles. the beer itself looked still, with no visible surface bubbles or air bubbles on the priming vessel. but i couldn't solve the problem, so finished bottling (not happy!). afterwards, i bottled another two brews using the exact same equipment and techniques, and both of those went normally with no bubble problems. the only difference, besides the brew, was that i primed the latter two with beet sugar instead of honey.

Questions: What caused the bubbling? Is all that oxygenation going to ruin the dubbel? Should I be worried about exploding bottles over the next few weeks? (My small apt necessitates bottle conditioning at room tempterature - about 75'-80'F).

Thanks for any comments, suggestions, theories, etc.

 

[WCrane]

I ran into something very similar when I bottled my old ale the other day (primed with Brown sugar). Figured out it was most likely Co2 coming out of suspension from my bottling bucket being a good deal higher than my bottles (like 3 feet). The extreme flow rate caused the foaming. I let it die down, topped the bottles off and proceed as normal. From what i gather you should be okay.

Was you bucket a lot higher than the bottle?.

 

[bcocc4cp]

yes - the base of the bottling bucket was about two feet above my bottles. i usually use the spigot on the bucket, but it was leaking last night. So i used my auto-siphon instead, and the height difference from the top of that to my bottles was at least 4 - 5 ft.

 

[boozehoundbrew]

yes...i usually use the spigot on the bucket, but it was leaking last night...

yeah - our bottling spigot is kind of junky, and very temperamental. does anyone have suggestions for other ways to bottle (without using keg or reverse carb)?

i wanted to use bcocc4cp's 15 gal. stainless mash tun, which has a great spigot welded on it, but we didn't know what to sanitize that with. (I ruined my first 5 gal economy pot by sanitizing it with chlorine). Any suggestions?

 

[WCrane]

You could use the auto-siphon and some tubing connected to the bottle filler. Or go get another spigot for the bottling bucket and

to fail safe pick up some Silicone Caulk (just make sure it says 100% silicon on the back) and put a bead around the hole, allow to dry and then put the spigot back on. little extra security.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]i wanted to use bcocc4cp's 15 gal. stainless mash tun, which has a great spigot welded on it, but we didn't know what to sanitize that with. (I ruined my first 5 gal economy pot by sanitizing it with chlorine). Any suggestions?

Pretty much anything other than chlorine-base products. StarSan, Iodophor, boiling some water for 15 minutes with the lid on so the steam hits the entire inside surface (let some out of the faucet as you go along, of course)...

Cheers!

 

[NewTexian]

BrewVint Cleanitizer works well too.

 

[boozehoundbrew]

Thanks for the sanitizing tips. i know many brewers prefer kegging, and thats where the industry has innovated, but i really wish there was better equipment out there for bottling at home.

 

[boozehoundbrew]

You could use the auto-siphon and some tubing connected to the bottle filler.

That's what we did this past time. But the connection between the siphon and the filler has to be lower than the level of the liquid one's transferring. And the filler rod is a little longer than a foot. So when you use that method, how do you manage to keep the bottles less than a few feet below the brew? (As you suggested in your first response)
Thanks

 

[Revvy]

Any bubbles that you're going to find in your bottling wand/spigot, or een your autosiphon, 99.99% of the time are going to be co2 bubbles, and NOT oxygen, and nothing to worry about.

Co2 is always present in fermention to one degree or another.

 

[WCrane]

That's what we did this past time. But the connection between the siphon and the filler has to be lower than the level of the liquid one's transferring. And the filler rod is a little longer than a foot. So when you use that method, how do you manage to keep the bottles less than a few feet below the brew? (As you suggested in your first response)
Thanks

Do you have a milk crate or box or stack of books (phone books would work well) to raise the bucket high than the bottles.Just enough so that the bucket bottom is higher than the top of the bottles would be great. I have a 2 gal and a 3.5 gal bucket from Lowes/HD i sometimes use to lift the bottling bucket a bit higher. I would think even another 5g bucket would be high enough but not to too high.