Foamy then flat

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

puttster

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2013
Messages
167
Reaction score
12
Location
Houston
My bottles have plenty of foam when I pour, too much really. Then after a few minutes the foam disappears and the glass of beer looks like a glass of iced tea. I used gelatin, FG was 1.02. In the bottling bucket I added table sugar, lactic acid and yeast. But that's history, right now I need to get some bubbles into my solution.

Would shaking the bottles up help?
 
What are your ingrediants?
Not every beer is designed to have "body" ..some beers simply go 'flat' fast...
especially when not served at cold temps.
 
Definitely overcarbonated. There are lots of potential reasons for that: Sometimes bottles overcarb slightly as they condition and settle down after a few days more. Could be too much priming sugar, or maybe it wasn't mixed in evenly so some bottles will be too much and others not enough. Could be a mild infection, or if the recipe called for brett or was bottled before FG was fully stable it could have created too much carbonation in the bottle.

1.020 is pretty high, depending on the recipe. I'd bet it wasn't finished fermenting yet.

You could let them warm to room temp, pop the caps off and recap them. If it's not gushing or isn't enough pressure to create bottle bombs, you could just drink them and be more careful going forward.
 
http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/06/25/enhancing-beer-head-retention-for-home-brewers/

Read the full article..but in a Nutshell

""Head stability depends on the presence of substances with low surface tension in the beer which can form stable elastic bubbles. The two primary contributors to head retention are certain high molecular weight proteins and isohumulones (alpha acids from hops). Therefore beers with more proteins that are highly hopped will have higher head retention.

Methods for Improving Head Retention

We will explore the following possibilities:

The use of body and head enhancing malts such as crystal, wheat, or carafoam
The altering of the mash schedule to enhance head retaining proteins
The use of heading agents – additives that enhance head retention
Addition of high alpha hops – which will increase bitterness, but also increas isohumulones that enhance head retention
Limiting the use of household soaps on drinking glasses and homebrew equipment
The use of a nitrogen and CO2 mix for carbonation and serving
The shape of the glass used to serve the beer
Head Enhancing Malts

The inclusion of proteins and dextrines enhance the body and head retention of finished beer. Unfortunately when used to excess, proteins and dextrines can interact with tannins and reduce clarity and promote cloudiness, so a proper balance must be struck. Crystal malts to include the light Carapils and Carafoam, and caramel malts."
 
Interesting. My recipe was 10# two-row, 1# Cara-stan crystal, 1 oz cascade at boil, 1 oz at end.

I think I will experiment. On the chance it is overcarbed, one bottle I'll remove the cap and recap. On the chance it is undercarbed, one bottle I'll shake it up. Thoughts?
 
It just needs more time. It sounds like it carbed up so leave a few in the fridge so the co2 can absorb into the beer. Give it a week at 40°
 
Somewhere once upon a time on this forum someone did an experiment and found somewhere around 5 weeks to ideal carbonation. But, then again an FG of 1.020 could mean over carbing like others have said. Try checking your gravity on one of the bottles and see if it is still attenuating in the bottle to get some actual data instead of relying on uncapping or shaking which will give you more qualitative results to your issue.
 
You need to refrigerate for more than two days. That'll drop the junk out of the beer that causes it to foam on pouring (lots of nucleation points).
 
Result of experiment using three 22oz bottles.
1. Baseline: 2+ days of refrigeration, poured 8oz, got 1-2 inch foam. Some foam build up in bottle then came out the top.
2. Bottle opened to let some CO2 out. recapped, refrigerated 1day. Poured 8 oz, Got 1-2 inch foam. 20 sec later foam gushed out of bottle.
3. Bottle well shaken, refrigerated 1day. Poured 2 inches of beer, got 4 inches foam. Foam continued gushing out of bottle. Beer cloudy.

Conclusion: Opening to let out some CO2 did not have much effect. Achieved same level of foam as baseline but with less refrigeration. Both glasses showed the little bubbles coming up for about 10-15 minutes.
 
Shaking them and refrigerating won't accomplish anything. The CO2 that's in there will stay there.
Were the bottles warm when you uncapped them? If not, they should be. If they are very overcarbed, uncapping and recapping might not be enough. If they're gushing, they're either infected, still attenuating, or too much priming sugar was used.

You listed ingredients above but didn't discuss your process. Did the FG stabilize before bottling? What was the FG supposed to be? How sure are you that you used the correct amount of priming sugar?

Again, 1.020 is too high for most recipes. I'm betting this batch wasn't done yet. Try brewing a new batch and make sure it finishes before packaging. This hobby is all about making improvements with each attempt. Just keep brewing and you'll start turning out great beer.
 
Back
Top