Nothin but Foam in some first run Bottles

[nucleuscracker]

Okay- bottled by first batch, BIPA, a few weeks ago and have had a few bottles with excessive foam upon opening. Last night? 2 bottles were nothing but foam.

What did I do wrong prior to bottling?

Thanks!!

 

[Hex23]

Okay- bottled by first batch, BIPA, a few weeks ago and have had a few bottles with excessive foam upon opening. Last night? 2 bottles were nothing but foam.

What did I do wrong prior to bottling?

Thanks!!

Some possible explanations for excessive foaming (mostly in order of likelihood):

1) Bottling before your beer was fully fermented. E.g. if it was at 1.020 and would have gone to 1.015 with more time/coaxing that could cause excess carbonation.
2) Too much priming sugar. Many recipes just blindly call for adding 5 oz dextrose, which is usually too much.
3) Infection. The beer won't taste right if this is a problem.
4) Excessive protein. If this is your only problem, the beer won't taste/feel overly carbonated. I don't make IPA's, but I also wonder if the hops could play a role in head retention and thus excessive foaming.
5) Aggressive (bottling) yeast. I've had beers where I added the correct amount of priming sugar and a very aggressive yeast ate though the sugar so well it over-carbonated.

Over-carbonated batches can be fixed. One way to help mitigate foaming is to make sure the beer is well chilled before opening.

 

[doug293cz]

How long did you chill before opening? It's best to chill for at least two days.

Could you have overcarbed? How much priming sugar did you use and what was you batch size?

Another possibility is that you picked up an infection.

Brew on

 

[The_Bishop]

Poorly combined bottling sugar is also a possibility.

 

[doug293cz]

Poorly combined bottling sugar is also a possibility.

In this case there should also be a significant number of undercarbed bottles in the batch as well as the overcarbed ones.

Brew on

 

[The_Bishop]

Well, he did say only some of them were nothing but foam. It's either badly mixed priming sugar or gusher infections from dirty bottles.

How were the bottles cleaned and sanitized? How did you prime the batch?

 

[nucleuscracker]

Sorry for the delayed reply back and Thank You all for the suggestions. Got sidetracked on a home DYI. Always fun... 😡😡

Anyways.. I'm thinking too much priming sugar?? The gravity didn't change for about 5 days. Bottles were brand new and sanitized using 5 star Sani clean.

It was my first brew and so following the instructions but...

For sure, each bottles carb has not been alike.
???

 

[MindenMan]

I have had gushers that after 7 days in the fridge, were almost normal; a little fizzy but no volcanos.

 

[nucleuscracker]

Il have to put a few In and let em sit and see what happens.

It's hard to say if the ones that had less foam were in longer than those that exploded all over.

 

[nucleuscracker]

Quick update: I've left a few In the fridge for 2 weeks and still... Foam bomb.

Thinking it had to be either it wasn't done fermenting or, I messed up yet priming sugar process somehow.

 

[MindenMan]

Unevenly carbed bottles is usually due to priming sugar not being mixed in evenly. Some will be "okay" some will be a little foamy, and some are just foam... I would put the bottles in a covered container of some sort to avoid possibly getting sprayed with glass. A while back, I had a unevenly carbonated batch and almost a case were glass grenades. Granted, it was summer and above 80*F most days. Good luck, and please be cautious.

 

[Dynachrome]

What yeast did you use please?

Can you beat filling 7 pint glasses from one 22 oz bottle?

Does it taste like what you were expecting it to taste like?

 

[MindenMan]

One batch I made filled two 44 oz. cups from a 12 oz bottle. Lots and lots of foam.

 

[Dynachrome]

How does it taste? Is it beer correct?

 

[nucleuscracker]

Sorry Dyna! Crazy few weeks for work putting a meeting together that's this week.

The first few bottles tasted great, as I hoped, however slightly more carbonated that I hoped for.

As for the yeast- it was a kit so used the yeast that it came with.... First batch so it was my total learn from mistakes batch. LOLOLOL

 

[Onkel_Udo]

So next time's checklist:

Use a hydrometer to determine that fermentation is really complete
Measure an appropriate amount of priming sugar for the type AND actual volume of beer to carbonated (if you have 5-gallons in the fermentor, likely you will only be carb'ing 4.5 gallons of beer)
Boil the sugar for a couple of minutes with a couple of cups of water and add to the bottling bucket
Rack beer onto the sugar solution in the bucket
Using a sanitized spoon, give a few good stirs but try not to introduce too much oxygen
Make sure all bottles have been sanitized per the instructions on the sanitizer (more concentration is not better...Star San is worth its weight in gold here)
Bottle, cap, and, if using oxygen barrier caps does not hurt to invert each bottle after capping before placing them in their 6-pack holders.