Help! WAY too much head

[tahlorn]

Brewed my first batch, Telford's Nut Brown Ale. Worked fine, tastes great. Didn't have any for a couple weeks, then shared some after about 2 1/2 months. To my suprise and everyone else's amusement, the beer when poored turned into ALL head. It was bottled in a wine bottle, the second poor was only 80% head, same with the rest of the pours. I tried another bottle just now (a week after), too see if it was just the bottle, but the same thing happened.

What reasons could cause this? I did not add too much sugar, and used the appropriate amount of yeast. Any help would be.... helpful. I made another batch before I saw this happen, and I hope it isn't going to have the same problem.

~Tahlorn

 

[Sasquatch]

Tahlorn, you could have a couple of different problems, but I bet I can nail down some possibilities. One, and I think the most likely, is that you didn't have complete fermentation when you bottled, and adding priming sugar gave you too much CO2 in bottle. The fact that this has all occured so far down the road indicates to me that some fermenting is continuing in the bottles. What kind of brew process did you use? Temperature of fermentation, length of fermentation, etc?

Second, could you have used the wrong amount of some other type of sugar to prime? Thirdly, you could conceivably have some kind of infection that is beginning to get the upper hand, but if the beer tastes okay still, I would say that the first idea is the most likely.

 

[SwAMi75]

To piggyback on Saquatch's comments/questions: What was your gravity at bottling, and what/how much did you prime with?

 

[Pumbaa]

Try taking a bottle and stick it in the fridge, realy chill it down, I mean like to just above froze . . . wont "slove" the problem but may reduce some of the head when ya try to drink it. My first batch of cider actually foamed outa the bottles when I opened them like champainge, but if I chill then WAY down I can open it without a big mess

 

[God Emporer BillyBrew]

Please don't ever start a thread with a headline like that! It's just not possible.

 

[tahlorn]

What kind of brew process did you use? Temperature of fermentation, length of fermentation, etc?
Second, could you have used the wrong amount of some other type of sugar to prime?

Again, I am new to this, so I hope I am not answering stupidly ("How long were you in the army?" "Five-foot eight!"). Boiled water and mix as instructed, was in primary for 3 days at 66-70 degrees F, then glass carboy with airlock for about 2 weeks (bubbles showing in airlock every 58 seconds). I thought it was coming too often still, but the one who had done this before said that it was fine. Stored bottles in the same temperature. Used a teaspoon per bottle-equivelant per volume (added all sugar to primary after racking, was told this was a good way to keep things even). The sugar I used for all steps was cane sugar, as there was no corn sugar sold anywhere, and the brew shop was out at the time.

I figure that it just was still fermenting then, makes a lot of sense.

What was your gravity at bottling, and what/how much did you prime with?

For the second part, see above. For the first part, I have no idea, not even sure how to measure that besides Newtonian physics.

Try taking a bottle and stick it in the fridge, realy chill it down, I mean like to just above froze

Might try that, if anything just for kicks.

Thanks all for the feedback! One more question: If it is the fact that it didn't ferment long enough, do I just deal with it and have foamy beer (and use the old nose-grease trick) or is there a way to fix it?

~Tahlorn

 

[Darth Konvel]

Was it bubbling that often when you bottled it or when you moved to secondary?

When he refers to gravity, he's asking for the specific gravity of the beer. You would need a hydrometer to measure this. It's not something necessary to brew, but it does help troubleshoot things like this.

Any idea how much sugar total you used for the total volume?

 

[casebrew]

TOOoo much priming sugar!!! 2/3 cup for 5 gallon is the usual neighbohood. I think 54 teaspoons is slightly too much.

You could open all the bottles, pour them into your secondary, let them ferment til bubles stop (more than 2 minutes between), then re-prime and re-botttle. Or, get some larger glass's, and wait for the head to settle...

 

[Genghis77]

Tahlorn, I have had the same problem on occassion. Each time the cause was incomplete fermentation. That's where a specific gravity gauge proves its worth. Just use big glasses until you drink upthe problem.

 

[loopmd]

I'm with Casebrew. Way too much priming sugar. Typically for 5 gallon batches it's 1/2 to 2/3 cup sugar boiled in 2 cups of water. Then when you rack to your bottling bucket, add the sugar/water mix. Not sure if you want to dump all of your beer back into a bucket and let it ferment out, then bottle again, but the ideas is good. Or you could just pour very, very slowly.

I'm with billybrew also....too much head? What on earth is too much head!!!

 

[Beer Snob]

Here is what we're talking about:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4707

At first I was a bit confused in using it. You just have to make sure you are reading the right scale and everything falls into place. You will need something called a wine thief, http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4356 and a test jar to fill with beer and drop the hydrometer in, http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4708 .

Like people have said it does help you in this sort of situation when your not sure if its still fermenting. When you get one for instance you would not wait 3 days before taking the next step as you did with this batch, but before taking the next step you would check the specific gravity to make sure it has stopped fermenting. You know this when you, for example, take a reading to begin with and it says... 1.040 and you take another reading when it stops bubbling and it says 1.005. Well you wait a few more days, take another reading and if its says 1.005 again, you know fermentation has basically stoped. You can now bottle or rack.

Above all, if you do decide to get a hydrometer... don't get too obsessed with it as many may do... it's just a tool

 

[loopmd]

Here is what we're talking about:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4707

At first I was a bit confused in using it. You just have to make sure you are reading the right scale and everything falls into place. You will need something called a wine thief, http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4356 and a test jar to fill with beer and drop the hydrometer in, http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4708 .

Like people have said it does help you in this sort of situation when your not sure if its still fermenting. When you get one for instance you would not wait 3 days before taking the next step as you did with this batch, but before taking the next step you would check the specific gravity to make sure it has stopped fermenting. You know this when you, for example, take a reading to begin with and it says... 1.040 and you take another reading when it stops bubbling and it says 1.005. Well you wait a few more days, take another reading and if its says 1.005 again, you know fermentation has basically stoped. You can now bottle or rack.

Above all, if you do decide to get a hydrometer... don't get too obsessed with it as many may do... it's just a tool

Now I'm confused

 

[tahlorn]

ALrighty, so too much sugar and didn't finish fermenting... grrrr. Too much sugar was, interestingly enoug, caused by foolowing the insstructions that the owner of the brew shop gave me. Hmmm. Not done fermentling must have been due to my impatience and inexperience. I think my second batch, which has been bottled now for 3 weeks, will have the same problem, thoguh I think I will jsut go with the "pour very slow" method rather than unbottling, putting it back in the fermenter, rebottling and priming. Too much hassle, will just be more careful next time, and will invest in a hydrometer. Thanks all for your help!

And true, nothing wroing with too much head. The head tastes really good too, so I don't know what my buds were complaining about....

~Tahlorn