Gushers without over carb?

[kh54s10]

I have had 2 batches out of 93 that would foam excessively out of the bottle. Neither sprayed when opened just a slow constant rise in the head. Once the head subsided the beers were very good. Both were high gravity dark brews.

Both all grain.

The first was a Winter Ale:

11 lb 2 row
1.5 lb C-120
1 lb C-80
.25 CaraPils
.125 Roasted Barley

1 oz. Galena 60 min.
.5 oz. Cascade 60 min
.5 oz. Willamette 60 min
.5 oz. Cascade 30 min
.5 oz. Willamette 0 min.
.5 oz. Cascade 0 min
.5 oz. Willamette dry hop
.5 oz Cascade dry hop.

Target mash was 152. Mashed a tad high at 154.
Target OG =1.072 actual = 1.073
Target FG = 1.014 actual = 1.020

Primed with 106 grams corn sugar.

This was in 2011 the other was a couple years later. I forget which was the other one.

I am thinking that they were not over carbonated or infected since there was no excessive pressure and they tasted good.

Maybe it is the recipes but I have made similar grainbills that did not foam over.

Any ideas what would cause this.

 

[STMF]

Contamination would be my guess.

 

[kh54s10]

Contamination would be my guess.

What leads me to believe it was not contamination is that there was no extra pressure, so I don't think there was any further fermentation after the priming sugar was gone. Unless there is contamination that doesn't produce any gas.

Popping off the cap produced a normal hiss then a few seconds later the foam would start pouring out of the neck of the bottle. If I set the bottle down upright it would foam over for a couple of minutes.

Also the beers tasted normal and quite good after waiting a while for the head to subside so I wasn't just slurping foam.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I had this happen, but I did use too much sugar and the recipe had double the carapils that usually gets me a nice head. The head lasted all the way to the bottom of the glass. Perhaps you had extra unfermented sugars increasing the body and thickness of your beer.

 

[kh54s10]

I had this happen, but I did use too much sugar and the recipe had double the carapils that usually gets me a nice head. The head lasted all the way to the bottom of the glass. Perhaps you had extra unfermented sugars increasing the body and thickness of your beer.

I definitely did not use too much sugar. The beers were heavy on crystal and other head producing malts, but not more than many others

The head was so big that I had to wait a while for it to subside just to drink it.

Again they were malty dark high gravity beers that should have a lot of unfermentables in them. Other similar ones did not have the excessive foam/head.

 

[RustyHorn]

Is there a ring around the bottle neck where the beer stops and the air starts?

 

[hottpeper13]

If you are using RO water without any salts you will get gushing from the calcium oxalate that was not precipitated out of the mash because of a lack of calcium. There needs to be a minimum of 50 ppm Ca in the mash for this and yeast nutes. The oxalate causes nucleation sites like when you pour a soda over ice and it foams all over.

 

[flars]

Have you checked the specific gravity of the bottled beer to see if it is lower than when bottled?

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Two possibilities come to mind. One is that it may be a very slow infection that created the gushers but hasn't yet effected the flavor. Another possibility could be hop particles. I've had a few hoppy beers, especially dry hopped, that had excess head apparently caused by hop particles that act as nucleation sites for CO2 bubbles. Once I started using gelatin before bottling the problem stopped.

 

[PADave]

I have had the same experience. Brewed a brown ale twice, both times got a huge head. The first batch ended up as gushers after being in the bottle for several months. I've never had this with any other batch, but this particular recipe has done it both times I brewed it. So in my case, I don't think it was an infection.

 

[ncbrewer]

I don't see details about fermentation time and FG samples. My guess is that they just weren't finished fermenting when they were bottled.

 

[kh54s10]

As I said they did not spurt. Normal hiss when popping the cap then FOAM!

FG was in range for the style. Fermented for at least 3 weeks in the mid sixties. No sign of infection. They were not over primed. They were not highly hopped.

I aged them and enjoyed them once the head subsided. One beer lasted about 3 years. The other over a year.

I have brewed similar grainbills without the problem.

Filtered tap water, the same as I have used since 2011.

No rings inside the bottles.

If it was infection it did not affect the taste or increase the carbonation??
It also did not change the amount of foam with age. They flowed foam out of the bottle after opening, lasting for a few minutes. It was the same with the first bottle at 3-4 weeks and the last bottle 3 years later.