My First brew and its a Gusher

[Jim Gamble]

The first beer I've ever brewed is completely finished and the two bottles I've opened have had foam gushers. What could be the cause of this. I sanitized my bottles so I'm sure they're clean.
Anything anyone can offer would be helpful in figuring out how to prevent this for the next batch which is in the fermenter.
Thanks

 

[UncleAvis]

Need more info. Did you use a hydrometer? What were your gravities? If not how long did you ferment and what temp? Batch size and amount of what priming sugar?

 

[myndflyte]

Sounds like it either wasn't done fermenting or you added too much priming sugar. But like @UncleAvis said, we need some more details.

 

[RM-MN]

New brewers get gushers sometimes that aren't due to anything bad they have done except open the bottle too soon. Often there is some suspended yeast and/or hop material which form nucleation points that cause the CO2 to come out of suspension and the bottles then gush. That's why we recommend 3 weeks at 72 degrees after bottling and at least 24 hours in the refrigerator. That lets the beer carbonate, much of the yeast and hop particles to settle and matures the beer a bit.

 

[thehaze]

I agree with all the above... either not finished fermenting, you added too much priming sugar or you didn't properly cool it down before trying. If you are in hurry, I recommend 30-60 minutes in the freezer in an upright position. But making sure the bottles are untouched or shook or anything like that for 2 weeks, will take care of that for you. When you want to try one, keep it in the fridge at least 24 hours so any debris you might have in the bottle, has a chance to settle at the bottom.

I know what wait is hard and long , but is needed in order to enjoy the fruit of the labour.

 

[Jim Gamble]

Ok, made some mistakes on this my first brew. Still learning how to read the hydrometer and don't have those numbers. Didn't record the temp either. I left it in the fermenter for 16 days and carbonated for two weeks and its been the fridge cold conditioning for 5 days now. As for the priming sugar I used table sugar and as per the mr beer bottling instructions I used two tea spoons per 740ml bottle, although I didn't fill them all the way to the top, left about two inches in the top of each bottle. The fermenting time and carbonation time were all per the mr beer instructions.
Hope this is enough info to help figure out why I'm getting the gushers and get the info on how not to have it happen with my next batch which is fermenting now. Btw, its going to be a raspberry chocolate stout.
Thanks

 

[Rob2010SS]

Without knowing all of your numbers and just doing some conversion work, seems to me that you may have used a bit too much priming sugar. 2tsp per 740mL bottle equals out to be about 7.6oz of priming sugar for a 5 gallon batch. This in combination with not knowing your hydrometer results seems to be the culprit, in my opinion. Between possibly bottling before fermentation was complete and adding too much sugar, you ended up with gushers.

Just for reference, on the one batch that I bottled, I used just under 5oz of corn sugar for a 5 gallon batch. Just to give you an idea.

 

[GHBWNY]

Agree with Rob; sounds like you used about double the amount of sugar you need for priming. 1/2 tsp per 12 oz. bottle should give you decent (~ 2.5) vol's CO2.

 

[Rob2010SS]

To help you with your next brew, I would recommend different calculations for your priming sugar. I like the brewer's friend calculator, found here...
https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/
Plug in your information here and it will tell you how much priming sugar to use. Use the table towards the bottom of the sheet to figure out what volume of CO2 you want.

 

[Jim Gamble]

Thanks to ever one for their replys. I'll deffinetly use the priming calculator for this next batch

 

[glugglug]

Use corn sugar next time. Add it to the entire batch at once, and make sure it’s dissolved, and evenly mixed into the beer. Avoid adding directly to the bottles. Pain in the... Been a while since I bottled, but I seem to recall 4 oz corn sugar, stirred into 2 cups boiling water for 10 minutes, dump into bottom of bottling bucket, rack on top, make sure all evenly mixed, and rack to bottles.

Careful with the bottles that are gushers. Might have some bottle bombs.