Home Brew won't stop carbing...

[OldStyler]

Hey guys,

I've got a few batches under my belt and each one of them has become obnoxiously overcarbed. In one I even added only 3g of the dextrose to the bottling bucket before bottling. Is it possible that I'm just storing the bottles in too warm of a location? Is it advisable to store them at the same temp as they fermented at? I would have thought that there would only be so much sugar for the yeast to consume, yet each time I open a new one it seems more carbed than the last.

Would kegging maybe alleviate this? I've been thinking about heading that way as I don't like spending all my time bottling and having a bunch of empties lying around...

Thanks amigos...

 

[Taypo]

How long are you leaving the beer in primary/secondary before you bottle?

 

[birvine]

I'm guessing you're bottling before fermentation is done. Be careful of exploding bottles.

B

 

[phenry]

How long are you leaving the beer in primary/secondary before you bottle?

This. Make sure fermentation is completely finished, and the only way to do that is with a hydrometer. Some yeast strains work slower than others.

 

[frazier]

^^ Yes it sounds like you are bottling before fermentation is complete.

ETA: Man I'm slow to post!

 

[bottlebomber]

My suspicion is that you're drinking the beer too soon, before the CO2 has had a chance to moderate.

 

[Revvy]

Like everyone else is saying, how are you ascertaining when the beer is ready to bottle. Are you making sure the gravity is stable for two days? Are you doing what a lot of us do and simply leaving the beer in primary for a month, which should ensure the beer has plenty of time to finish?

The only reasons a beer would "keep carbonating' beyond the amount of priming sugar you added, is unfermented sugars still in the beer, OR infection/sanitization issues.

And NO if either is the case kegging would not "help."

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

yeah, if you've put as little as 3g of sugar in a batch and it over carbonated, you're most likely packaging your brew before FG is reached. that's assuming you don't have infected beer.
are you making sure that FG is reached and stable over a few days before bottling? Or like Revvy stated, are you fermenting your beer for a long enough period of time?

 

[jonmohno]

Get a hydrometer if you dont have one.

 

[OldStyler]

I have a hydrometer - I gather an original gravity (and since I'm a bit of a rookie, and I use extract kits I'm pretty close to what the recipe calls for) and I ferment typically for 4-6 weeks. At the end of this I grab a sample 2 days before I want to bottle, if it's what the recipe calls for then I wait until the day I want to bottle and then if the gravity is the same, I bottle away. I'm a big proponent of putting everything in the bucket of starsan and don't think I should have sanitation issues...

Well then I guess I will wait and see what the next batch does and take it from there... thanks guys.

 

[Revvy]

Well you ruled out not letting them finished.. Beers don't normally over carb....so sadly I think infection issues. Check your spigot for some biomatter like trub or hopgunk.

 

[bottlebomber]

How long are you letting the bottles condition before you're drinking them? I've had bottles I've opened gush a little, with carbonation that stings the mouth. The same bottles 2 weeks later are fine.

 

[jonmohno]

Did you rack on top of the sugar and did you preboil it/cool it. Maybe you have uneven carbonation. I stir mine with the end of the tube after racking ontop of my preboiled cooled priming sugar/water. Are you letting them chill good? If you are drinking them in the order you bottled them try one away from the others to see if its undercarbed or not overcarbed.

 

[Taypo]

When you say you're using 3g, you're talking about 3 grams? That doesn't seem right either....

 

[jonmohno]

Is your volume what it is suppose to be also like did you get your full 5 gallons bottled?

 

[OldStyler]

So my bottling process is that I auto-siphon (to sanitize the auto-siphon for putting the beer in, obviously) a bunch of star san into the bottling bucket and give it a good shake for about 30 seconds and then let it sit for a couple of minutes, then I'll run the star san from the bottling bucket back into the original bucket through the spigot to hopefully get that all clear.

Then I'll dump the sugar water, it has been cooled, into the bottom of the bucket and rack into that, trying to be careful to not splash, etc. From there, just regular bottling wand stuff, all of which had been sitting in starsan.

And yes, I used 3 grams in my last batch of porter - didn't want too many bubbles in it. Now I have a lot of bubbles - it does make for an attractive head though. Very dense, almost looks like marshmallow... so I guess I have that going for me!

 

[bottlebomber]

Something is wrong... 3 GRAMS of priming sugar? You should be using at least 3 OUNCES of sugar for a porter, 28 times as much as you used. Something is wrong, there is some piece of information you're not getting across, or yes you do have an infection. When was the last time you disassembled your bottling bucket and cleaned the spigot? Are these your first batches?

 

[jonmohno]

Maybe he used 3 grams per bottle? That would be over 5 oz for 50 beers which would be too much for a porter.

 

[BigB]

3g per bottle, assuming a 5 gallon batch, would be roughly 5.7 ozs for the batch... that would be a bit high.

 

[bottlebomber]

God I hope that's it... I hate these little unsolvable mysteries where the only logical explanation is infection, when I doubt there is one.

 

[Revvy]

God I hope that's it... I hate these little unsolvable mysteries where the only logical explanation is infection, when I doubt there is one.

Yeah, I got nothing else.

 

[Taypo]

Not that I'm an expert, but there's something going on with the measurements. Its gotta be.

 

[OldStyler]

Ooops! I must have meant ounces, 3/5th of the package of sugar that comes with the kits...

 

[bottlebomber]

Is there some way that your not actually getting 5 gallons of beer to the bottling bucket? Could you be losing beer somewhere in your process? How many bottles of beer are you getting? And to re-ask, are you new to this? and when I say you I really mean your equipment. I can't picture a brand new bottling bucket that went through the sanitation regiment you described having an infection. I am WAY more lax, have bottled about 50 batches through the same bucket and have never had an issue. I do take the spigot off and make sure the gaskets are clean each time.

 

[OldStyler]

I'm not losing a lot - I certainly lose a little bit, but not anywhere near a gallon or anything. And the equipment is all fairly new, as am I - I want to say the batch I brewed on Saturday was my 5th.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Do you chill the beer before you open, or do you drink at room temps?

 

[Taypo]

NOW we're getting somewhere. Are you getting a 5oz bag of sugar with every kit, what kind of kits are they? The reason I ask is that I got a 2 POUND 5 OUNCE bag of sugar with my Coopers Kit - 2 pounds for the brew, 5 ounces for the priming. If you're using 2 thirds of one of those, it explains a lot

 

[cshamilton]

Do you chill the beer before you open, or do you drink at room temps?

This.

Are you chilling for 48 hours prior to opening? If you don't chill then not as much CO2 dissolves in the beer.

 

[bottlebomber]

Another thing I thought of... how long are you refrigerating your beer before you drink it? I am really thinking that your not conditioning your beer long enough, and not refrigerating the beer long enough before drinking it. Undissolved CO2 in beer is harsh and fizzy, and it foams a lot. To illustrate, I had a pumpkin ale I did a few months ago. I opened one out of stupidity after a week. A quarter of the 22 filled my 20 ounce pint glass with foam, and the beer hurt my tongue. Now when I open one, it pours a mellow head, and is on the lightly carbonated side. If this describes your problem I think you just aren't giving your beer enough time, and you aren't chilling them long enough before you open them.

 

[OldStyler]

My beer will bottle condition for a minimum of 3 weeks before I'll even pop the first one. For the latest brew, a porter, I had a few of them at the 3 week mark and they were a little undercarbed, about where I would want them for a porter I would think. Now it's been a month since then and the carbing has only increased. I've had some of them in the fridge for a week, and when I open them, still too much carbonation.

As for the bottling sugar - I usually get Brewer's Best kits from the LHBS or a kit from Midwest. Both provide 5oz of sugar - the malt has always been LME, although the next kit contains DME, but I am aware of not throwing 3/5s of a pound of DME into the bottling bucket.

Perhaps one of the great mysteries of our times - although admittedly I haven't had the best of luck brewing - starting to get real tired of not liking my own beer...