Gusher w/o priming sugar

[Tarnwright]

First homebrew here, and it doesn't appear to look good! Made a 5-gal batch of a Stone IPA recipe, opened up and they're gushing all over.

The odd part is that my brewing buddy and I realized shortly after that we never added any priming sugar (nor had we bought any). My understanding is that the priming sugar adds carbonation and we should have expected flat beer.

So I'm trying to learn from our mistakes here. Is it due to the lack of priming sugar, or did we likely screw something else up (infection, bottled too early)?

Also, should we have any concerns drinking what we can get out of them? For infection, not for explosions

 

[mrgoodlife]

Would need to know a few things before we can help. What was the fermentation schedule and did you take a couple of gravity readings a couple of days apart to make the yeast were all done. If your good there then mabe an infection.

 

[beermanpete]

Have you tasted the beer? If so, how does it taste?

Sorry, I missed your question. It is safe to taste the beer. The flavor will help diagnose the problem.

 

[treacheroustexan]

If you didn't add priming sugar I would definitely say you have it right with bottled too early or infection, but you will have to taste it to figure that one out! Drink away.

 

[glugglug]

Be careful of exploding bottles. I would put the ones that are unchilled in a plastic storage bin just to be safe until you get it figured out.

 

[dustinstriplin]

My understanding is that the priming sugar adds carbonation and we should have expected flat beer.

Priming sugar provides food for yeast. The yeast will produce CO2 when it consumes the priming sugar; thereby carbonating the beer. If no priming sugar was added then you would expect the beer to be flat

So I'm trying to learn from our mistakes here. Is it due to the lack of priming sugar, or did we likely screw something else up (infection, bottled too early)?

Gushers are not caused by a lack of priming sugar. Lack of priming sugar will result in flat beer. You definitely screwed something up. There are two possibilities.
1) Fermentation was not complete when you bottled the beer. I'm assuming you didn't take gravity readings as this is your first batch. How long did the beer sit in the fermenter? How did you determine the beer had finished fermenting? What was the OG(original gravity) in the recipe? What type of yeast did you use? Do you use a bucket or a carboy? Buckets are known to have sealing issues which will prevent the airlock from bubbling.

2) The beer is infected. Microbes were introduced that can consume the sugars left over by the brewing yeast. Is the beer sour or funky tasting(for lack of a better term, see info on infection off flavors for more info)?

Also, should we have any concerns drinking what we can get out of them? For infection, not for explosions

There are no health concerns. Your only concern should be bad tasting beer, but if that isn't a deterrent, then cheers . The acidity and alcohol content will prevent infection of microbes that are dangerous to humans. Personally, if the beer is infected then I'd use it as a learning experience. I'd drink one or two to help me isolate off flavors in the future.

If the beer was simply bottled too early, then you should get the bottles cold and pop the caps to burp excessive CO2. Recap after the bottles have been burped. Check the bottles periodically to make sure they aren't still fermenting, if they are then you may need to burp again, or drink faster!

Checking final gravity is a good method for determining if you should bottle or not. The method is to measure the specific gravity a few days apart, if the numbers match then you are golden. If they don't match then let it continue to ferment until they do. You use a hydrometer for the specific gravity measurements (Refractometers can also be used, but they require adjustments when alcohol is present).

Cheers and welcome to the hobby!