Gusher infection

[andruss15]

Hello folks!

I bottled a Red IPA two weeks ago and had no issues when initially opening a few bottles (admittedly I opened a few early...) but just today I cracked open a bottle and got a gusher. It wasn't bad, mind you. It only gushed if I let it sit in the bottle, when I poured it into a glass it was fine. So I tried another, thinking it was just that one bottle, then another - all gushers.

I actually UNDERcarbonated this beer so I believe what I'm experiencing would constitute an infection, but the taste isn't bad (again, only two weeks conditioning so far). I was extremely meticulous in trying to keep this beer clean from infection but alas, I was not successful.

My question is: I placed all the cases of beer in the fridge in the hopes that cooling the beer down (they've been at 72 F for the past two weeks) will slow/stop the gushing from getting worse. Am I correct in this? Or is it too late and it's time to dump/drink immediately. As a side note, I was HOPING to give some of these away at a function in 2 months.

Thanks!

 

[Brownalemikie]

How does the beer taste? My first thought is that you bottled the beer before it was done fermenting.

 

[Rockn_M]

We need a little bit more details on how long you fermented, how much sugar did you use and your bottling process.

 

[andruss15]

Brown - The beer tastes fine, like an extract red IPA should. Doesn't taste funky or have any detectable off flavors.

Rockn - I fermented the beer in primary for 2 week at 72F then dry hopped in secondary for 1 week. The OG was 1.062 and the FG was 1.016 which stayed for 3 days. I bottled using cleaned and sanitized bottles only and used 1/2 cup priming sugar for the 5 gallon batch. The beer has been conditioning in the bottles at 72F for two weeks.

 

[Northbank]

That'd give you about 2.3 volumes I believe --- not enough for gushers...

 

[andruss15]

Ok - well I have gushers... That's why I'm thinking infection. The original question is - if there is an infection or if somehow there was more fermentation going on, will putting the bottles in the fridge help slow the problem or is it too late

 

[Transamguy77]

Ok - well I have gushers... That's why I'm thinking infection. The original question is - if there is an infection or if somehow there was more fermentation going on, will putting the bottles in the fridge help slow the problem or is it too late

Short answer yes it will slow the problem. Long answer is that if it truly is an infection you will need to try to figure out what infected it and where in your process it was picked up, that could be the tricky part, and then make that change so it doesn't continue.

 

[andruss15]

The only thing I can think of is not brushing out the bottles (though they say in cleaning solution) or my bottling spigot/wand have some gunk in them even though those are also cleaned regularly. I may try brushing the bottles and buying a new spigot and bottling wand and see if that helps the issue