over carbonation

[GluStick]

Well it might not be, maybe im just a major noob. But anyhow, im still relatively new to homebrewing and i have been having some trouble lately. Usually my beers turn out pretty good, if i say so myself. But i cant drink them if they are more than a few months old because they get over carbonated and they foam up like crazy when i open them. I am bottling and i add the recommended amount of priming sugar and they carb up nicely. But then when i want to save a couple beers to have later, lets say a few months, then they are way over carbonated. It is a little bit frustrating. I make sure that the yeasties are done working on the beer and after it reaches final gravity i wait a few more days to make sure it doesnt drop any lower.
I must be doing something wrong and i would be grateful for any sort of advice. I have a feeling its something simple and i am just over complicating things. Im about to get a keg setup, but i want to be able to bottle too without the issues.

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

Two things I think of first:

1) You say you add the recommended amount of priming sugar, but what do you mean? Did you add 5 oz to 5 gal, or less? That alone could produce a pretty high level of carb. You want to base priming sugar calculations off of bottled volume as well as desired volumes of CO2.

2) If your later bottles were gushing badly it is possible there was an infection in the bottle. I have had people approach me and open a beer that gushes everywhere, tastes pretty bad, and they say to me "but I added the right amount of priming sugar!"

Based on the actual procedure you used you should be able to tell if one, or neither, of these factors is responsible

 

[joshesmusica]

How long has it been that you've left them between the normally carbonated ones and the over-carbonated ones? What was the age of the good ones and the age of the bad ones? Did the bad ones also taste bad?

 

[GluStick]

Hey thanks for responding. I like to try to get around 2 volumes of carbonation on most of my beers. According to the priming sugar calculator there on the internets, i would have to add just over 3 oz of corn sugar to 5 gallons, which i did. No problem, they are nice and carbed up by a couple weeks, sometimes a little bit longer, but still not a problem. Ill set a six pack aside and ill try it out in lets say 3 months, then its way over carbonated and bottle caps flying off with a big pop and foaming everywhere lol. They can really put a scare into the wife. But I cant think of why they are getting all crazy. Im sure they arent infected because i did have an infected batch and these dont taste off, they just taste overly spritzy and foam a lot. Maybe just dispose of my bottles and get new ones? or add less corn sugar and see if that helps?
Thanks again

 

[joshesmusica]

don't dispose of your bottles if they're glass. definitely not the culprit. where are you setting them aside? is it a warm place? how long are you chilling in the fridge before drinking? i've never had an infection in the bottles, so i don't really know how "off" they taste. my assumption is a noticeable difference. one way to check, although it might seem like a waste of a beer, is to degas one of them and check the SG. if it's lower than your original FG reading, then all signs point to infection. if it's the same, then it points to over-carbonation. although according to your priming procedures it doesn't sound like that's the case.

the only other thing i can think of is how you're priming and bottling. what method do you use? it's possible that you're not getting the priming sugar mixed very well, then by chance grabbing the first 6 that you bottled and storing those aside.

 

[GluStick]

Okay i wont throw them. I will set them in my closet, which is usually in the range of 60-70. Its not excessively warm, and due to it being winter it has been a pretty consistent 65-67 degrees in there. I will put them in the fridge and let them hang out in there for approximately 4 days. The infection i had in bottles was one of my first batches and it quite off. Ill try out the degassing and taking a reading and see where that leads me.

After proper sanitization and everything, i let everything dry up, then bottle it all up. I will use a bottling bucket and bottling wand. Boil a little bit of water with the priming sugar, then put the sugary water at the bottom of the bucket, then put the tubing down to the bottom of the bucket to get a good swirl going. I heard that was a good method for mixing in the priming sugar.

 

[joshesmusica]

yeah that all sounds good. if you're using starsan or iodine as your sanitizer, there's no need to let them dry.

try the degassing thing and let us know if it was lower. then we can go from there.

 

[GluStick]

Alright, it took me a couple days, but i finally got around to degassing a couple of them and taking a hydrometer sample. When i first bottled my last beer, it was at 1.010, it seems that it may have dropped down to 1.009. But i couldve just been reading the hydrometer wrong, or seeing what i wanted to see.

I decided to try to degas and recap a couple of them, to see if that would help with the carbonation. I dont know if it was a good idea or not lol. I got the caps off of a couple bottles, no foam... for a second. Next thing i know, there is a geyser! lol! Is it possible that i didnt clean the bottles well enough? would that cause the carbonation to be overboard?

 

[Kent88]

You could just start cutting back on priming sugar a quarter of an ounce at a time. The first couple bottles might be a little flat, but it should even out after aging. Give it an extra week before cracking into the first one. Take it slow and the worst that can happen is you have a batch or two of somewhat flat beer.

Also, how do you decide if a beer is ready to bottle? Just thinking "it has been x many days"? Do you check gravity over a few days when you think it is done?

I have almost the opposite problem. I usually find I have decent (maybe a little low) carbonation after 3 weeks, and if I want any kind of foam I have to wait around 6 weeks, and what foam I do have subsides very quickly. I've been using priming tabs / fizz drops.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Just stick the couple you want to save in the fridge. Yeast, much like myself, stops working if it gets too cold.

 

[GluStick]

Yeah, that is probably what ill end up doing on my next batch. Ill just use less priming sugar and see where that takes me. I have a RIS in the carboy that i will be bottling in a month, i dont want that to get messed up because it took a few months to age. It still needs to mellow out, but it can do that in the bottle. Hopefully without any problems

I will wait until visible fermentation is complete, i will take a hydrometer reading, then i will wait a few more days, reading, then bottle if the gravity hasnt dropped anymore.