Foaming at high carbonation?

[topherman]

Hey all,

Backstory: So, a brown ale I bottled a few months ago had a bit of an issue. The issue was that I can be a big dummy when not paying attention, and added priming sugar twice. (Don't ask how, it had been a long day. I promise I'm not usually that much of a moron.) I believe the bottles were at around 3.8 volumes of CO2, and I was extremely lucky, because they held together without becoming a bunch of grenades. Since it was a brown ale with lots of oats, it had crazy head, and so what would happen was I'd open the bottle, foam would gush out for a good five minutes, and then the foam would hang around pretty much forever, and continue to form even after pouring.

This got me thinking; this level of carbonation close to the range recommended for some wheat and Belgian beers (which IIRC, can go up to 4 volumes). If this explosive brown was carbonated to a similar level as, say, Westmalle Tripel, why doesn't the Westmalle gusher the same way?

There was a lot of sediment in the bottle, which gives me two theories:
1) Fermentation re-started after bottling, and I had more than 3.8 volumes, and the "Nittany Ale" bottles from Midwest are super-strong.
2) Something in the sediment acted as a nucleation point, and pressure drop from opening the cap + high carbonation + nucleation sites + tons of foam positive proteins = mess.

Can anyone tell me if one or both of these theories is possible, or will it remain the mystery of the expoding brown? Or am I just misinformed about the level of carbonation in wheat and Belgian beers?


Thanks all!
topher


PS. In case you're curious, I ended up dumping the last few, because I was annoyed by how difficult it was to serve, and because I had re-brewed it. Nut Brown Mark II was bottled last night, this time with an appropriate amount of priming sugar.

 

[malkore]

It sounds like you might have bottled too soon, along with 2x the priming sugar.
I think you were on the verge of exploding bottles. I've had one batch explode because I bottled prematurely, and the ones that didn't shatter all foamed for 5 minutes, even after being chilled.
Sad because they tasted fine...so it wasn't a gusher infection, just my own inexperience

 

[SweetSounds]

What was your FG?

 

[topherman]

My FG was 1.016, which seemed a touch high (OG was 1.052), but had been stable for a week. However, it was before I had started using yeast starters, so I suspect the yeast (Wyeast's Scottish Ale) were not in top form. The second attempt of this recipe finished up at 1.012 with the same yeast and a higher OG (due to dramatic increases in my efficiency), so now I'm almost certain that the issue was a stuck and then unstuck fermentation.

 

[devilishprune]

Do they still do the same thing? How long were they in the fridge before you opened them?

 

[topherman]

Do they still do the same thing?

I don't know if you mean the last of the old batch, or the new batch, so I'll answer both. the old batch did it for the 4 months up until I dumped the last of it a week ago. The second batch was bottled last week, so I don't know, but I'll probably check one tonight. However, no explosions yet.

As for how long they were in the fridge, it varied, and didn't seem to have an effect on the foaming. Some were in there for an hour, some were in there for days. Still, it exploded.