Cause of Gusher

[koostomize]

Just started home brewing this year.

Yesterday I opened up the first bottle of my 7th batch, which was made from SMASH American Session Ale Extract Kit from NB, and faced my first volcanic gusher.

As I understand, (correct me if I'm wrong)
Gusher is the 'result' of overcarbonation,
which is caused by either,
i) Overpriming (too much priming sugar?)
ii) bottle conditioning under-fermented wort, or
iii) (gusher) infection.

Since there are some remainder even after the gusher, I'm not sure whether to throw it away or drink it anyway. Is there any way to tell from taste or odor of the finalized beer to diagnosis which of three caused gusher to my precious beer?

If i) and ii) is the situation here, I would drink this with no hesitation, however, I want to avoid drinking anything randomly infected.

Thanks.

 

[jjw5015]

If they are overcarbed and taste fine, it is possible to lightly vent each cap and re-seal it. I have seen videos showing it done successfully. If it's infected, there's no fixing it. It's not going to harm you if you drink it. If it tastes ok you can still certainly drink it.

 

[porterpounder]

The only thing you can Dx by taste/aroma is infection, so it would be worth it to test it out. Otherwise you'd have to rely on your pre-packaging measurements. Then you an tell if it was over-primed or wasn't finished out before bottling.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Koostomize - and welcome.
You may have all the data you need to be able to determine the cause of the excess CO2.
1. You bottled the beer at what gravity? How confident are you that the gravity was not still falling when you bottled it? If you simply bottled it because three weeks had passed since you pitched the yeast unless you measured the gravity over days and saw no further movement then continued fermentation is a likely cause.
2. You primed the beer? How much sugar or wort or ? did you add?
3. If you allow the CO2 to slowly, slowly escape by simply very slightly deforming the cap with an opener to create a tiny vent and repeating this tiny action a half dozen times over a few hours you should release the excess CO2. Can you then take an hydrometer reading? If it is now lower than when you bottled the beer (and if the reading was stable over three readings before you bottled) then I would argue that you may have an infection. But if you bottled this only two or three weeks ago I am not sure that bacterial infection would work so quickly unless your storage area was warm...

 

[koostomize]

If they are overcarbed and taste fine, it is possible to lightly vent each cap and re-seal it. I have seen videos showing it done successfully. If it's infected, there's no fixing it. It's not going to harm you if you drink it. If it tastes ok you can still certainly drink it.

Great idea! I should also try that.
All the bottles that I use are either fliptops or PET Soda bottles which makes it much easier.

Anyhow, if it taste anywhere edible, it will not harm me?

You know what? I should just man up and try it anyway.
What will happen more than making my own 'human gusher' right? ahahahha..

 

[koostomize]

The only thing you can Dx by taste/aroma is infection, so it would be worth it to test it out. Otherwise you'd have to rely on your pre-packaging measurements. Then you an tell if it was over-primed or wasn't finished out before bottling.

Problem is... I frankly don't know how this beer actually should taste or smell like as its my first Pils Malt and First Simcoe.

What is common and expected taste/aroma from infection?

 

[koostomize]

Hi Koostomize - and welcome.
You may have all the data you need to be able to determine the cause of the excess CO2.
1. You bottled the beer at what gravity? How confident are you that the gravity was not still falling when you bottled it? If you simply bottled it because three weeks had passed since you pitched the yeast unless you measured the gravity over days and saw no further movement then continued fermentation is a likely cause.
2. You primed the beer? How much sugar or wort or ? did you add?
3. If you allow the CO2 to slowly, slowly escape by simply very slightly deforming the cap with an opener to create a tiny vent and repeating this tiny action a half dozen times over a few hours you should release the excess CO2. Can you then take an hydrometer reading? If it is now lower than when you bottled the beer (and if the reading was stable over three readings before you bottled) then I would argue that you may have an infection. But if you bottled this only two or three weeks ago I am not sure that bacterial infection would work so quickly unless your storage area was warm...

Thanks for the reply.

I do understand that what I 'could have done' during the process which might caused the gusher.

Point is, I'm not using hydrometer yet as it is extremely hard to find one where I am living now. You will be surprised by how many difficult procedures I go through for ordering stuff from NB (yes i am living in a very rural 'country'). And fortunately, my previous 6 batches I brewed came out wonderfully by following instructions from the recipe, being precise with volume measurements and leaving it about 1 or 2 weeks more than recommended fermenting period. I know my previous experiences doesn't make this batch any confident with full-fermentation. That was why I wanted to know whether if I can diagnosis with the finalized beer. I do plan to obtain a hydrometer in future not far from now.

Although I am very curious about #3. I thought that bottle conditioning generally decreases numbers in reading since it is also fermenting process. I would love to have more detailed information on this. Can you explain or give me some links which i might find a good read?

Thanks again for great info.

 

[bernardsmith]

Not sure I know of anyone who goes into priming in detail. Palmer may. But the issue is this: The yeast have fermented all the simple sugars they can ferment and what is left in your ale or beer are larger sugar molecules - molecules that the yeast cannot break down and ferment. That's why your beer or ale has a final gravity of say, 1.015. That's why beer is in fact sweet (I am ignoring the hops which has the dual purpose of inhibiting spoilage and balancing the sweetness.). If you add corn sugar or sucrose to prime your beer those are simpler sugars which yeast can ferment and they will, but what you have done is increased the gravity by one or two points which the yeast will attack and reduce back down to the 1.015 you bottled at. Adding sugar to prime should not make any difference whatsoever to the final gravity. If simply adding priming sugar would enable the yeast somehow to get at sugars they were not able to get at before then you could not in any simple way predict how many volumes of CO2 the addition of say 4 ounces of sugar added to a 5 gallon would produce. But you know that the yeast cannot make more CO2 than from the sugar you just added to prime the beer. So, if your beer had finished fermenting and the final gravity was say, 1.015 and you bottled the beer then you can prime all you want but the gravity of the beer that pours into your glass should still be 1.015 assuming all the added sugar has been converted to CO2 (and a smidge more alcohol).

If you have a very accurate means of measuring the alcohol content (not the specific gravity) then the amount of alcohol in the beer will have gone up a hair and that means in fact that the gravity will have gone down a fraction because alcohol is less dense that water but I am not sure that an hydrometer will show a readable difference as the volume will be essentially identical and the amount of unfermentables will be unchanged... But others with far more knowledge than I may have a different story.

 

[porterpounder]

Problem is... I frankly don't know how this beer actually should taste or smell like as its my first Pils Malt and First Simcoe.

What is common and expected taste/aroma from infection?

If it's there, you'll know it. There are a lot of different infections with lots of different interesting aromas and flavors. Common ones are sulfury aromas, dirty, earthy, farmy brett infections, acetic acid (vinegar) from acetobacter infections and sourness from lactic acid producing bacteria.

 

[ncbrewer]

Chances are your bottle bombs are caused by something on your list, but there are some other possible causes:
- Not mixing in the priming sugar (Some could be overcarbonated and some undercarbonated)
- Bottle quality
- Storing bottled beer in a hot or bright area (This is not found in most literature, but I read it here: http://beersmith.com/blog/2009/08/27/5-home-brewing-tips-to-avoid-the-dreaded-bottle-bomb/

 

[koostomize]

Not sure I know of anyone who goes into priming in detail. Palmer may. But the issue is this: The yeast have fermented all the simple sugars they can ferment and what is left in your ale or beer are larger sugar molecules - molecules that the yeast cannot break down and ferment. That's why your beer or ale has a final gravity of say, 1.015. That's why beer is in fact sweet (I am ignoring the hops which has the dual purpose of inhibiting spoilage and balancing the sweetness.). If you add corn sugar or sucrose to prime your beer those are simpler sugars which yeast can ferment and they will, but what you have done is increased the gravity by one or two points which the yeast will attack and reduce back down to the 1.015 you bottled at. Adding sugar to prime should not make any difference whatsoever to the final gravity. If simply adding priming sugar would enable the yeast somehow to get at sugars they were not able to get at before then you could not in any simple way predict how many volumes of CO2 the addition of say 4 ounces of sugar added to a 5 gallon would produce. But you know that the yeast cannot make more CO2 than from the sugar you just added to prime the beer. So, if your beer had finished fermenting and the final gravity was say, 1.015 and you bottled the beer then you can prime all you want but the gravity of the beer that pours into your glass should still be 1.015 assuming all the added sugar has been converted to CO2 (and a smidge more alcohol).

If you have a very accurate means of measuring the alcohol content (not the specific gravity) then the amount of alcohol in the beer will have gone up a hair and that means in fact that the gravity will have gone down a fraction because alcohol is less dense that water but I am not sure that an hydrometer will show a readable difference as the volume will be essentially identical and the amount of unfermentables will be unchanged... But others with far more knowledge than I may have a different story.

Oh, I actually got mixed up with final gravity with gravity after adding priming sugar.
So as i understand this, overcarbonation by infection is simply infectious organism (wild yeast, bacteria and so forth) breaking down remaining sugar that my dear Danstar BRY-97 could not convert into CO2 and Alcohol causing drop on the readings? Am I on the right track?

 

[safcraft]

If it is infected, it will continue to carbonate and eventually explode.
The infected beer will taste OK on the first 2 weeks, detereorating in flavor in the upcoming weeks. By 1 month it will taste bad.
So drink them now if you like them, or just throw them all away.

 

[koostomize]

If it's there, you'll know it. There are a lot of different infections with lots of different interesting aromas and flavors. Common ones are sulfury aromas, dirty, earthy, farmy brett infections, acetic acid (vinegar) from acetobacter infections and sourness from lactic acid producing bacteria.

I tried it and Thank god it was edible!!

There were slight sourness which I didn't find pleasing though I am still uncertain whether it is off-taste by infection or its normal characteristic that I just didn't happen to crave much (it was really 'slight').
It was definitely edible alright with no signs of distinctive dirty or earthy taste/aroma (Sadly, I have no insight what sulfury is).

 

[bernardsmith]

sulfur is the smell of burnt matches or if hydrogen sulfide, the smell of rotten eggs

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

It's not only overcarbonation. It can also be an infection. I had that happen once. The beer turned brown and disgusting. And every single one blew up when opened. Well only 6 of them exploded. The rest volcanoes when opened.

 

[Sadu]

I have had several gushers for a variety of reasons. The infected ones were very obviously infected, not nice at all. Others were not mixing the priming sugar correctly, and storing a bottle in the cold part of the fridge and possibly freezing it.

 

[timdillon36]

I think this might not be a problem with over carb or infection at all.

It's only 3 weeks in the bottle. Is the beer hazy or is that last bit of yeast glued to the bottom of the bottle. I would chuck a few in the fridge for a week, colder is better. This will do 2 things.

If it is over carbed more co2 will be absorbed into the beer and when you open it will be more like a soda carb but pour into a warm glass and enjoy.

More likely is that everything is just fine but there are still particles, yeast or proteins in suspension in the beer. These provide nuclation points for the co2 to release when the bottle is opened. (Mentose in soda) Same thing, chill and wait.

Time heals all wounds.