"Problem" with CO2 supersaturation

[Hero Zzyzzx]

I say "problem" because my beer has been ass-kickingly good.

I built a fermentation chamber (into a kitchen cabinet, no less) loosely based on the "son of fermentation chiller" and with it I'm able to ferment at temperatures down to ~ 45F. So incredibly worth it for ales and lagers . . and I think it's lead to this problem as I never had it before.

The last couple batches I've found have become supersaturated with CO2 - fermentation is done, but when I dry-hop the co2 quickly comes out of suspension and will potentially blow over, probably blowing off all the hop aroma in the process.

I've tried shaking the carboy a couple days before I dry-hop and I've found it doesn't ever seem to return to the clarity it had before. How do folks deal with CO2 supersaturation? Or is this just a problem for me?

 

[Kai]

Hm. Not had that problem (lowest I ferment is ~62) but I'd think bringing the temperature up to about 70˚ for a couple of days after fermentation and before conditioning would force much of the CO2 out, perhaps with some extremely gentle agitation.

 

[Hero Zzyzzx]

Hm. Not had that problem (lowest I ferment is ~62) but I'd think bringing the temperature up to about 70˚ for a couple of days after fermentation and before conditioning would force much of the CO2 out, perhaps with some extremely gentle agitation.

Yeah, what I may try next time is something akin to that - I'll let the temperature rise up to around 70F for a day or two and then throw in a few hop pellets to give the CO2 some nucleation sites. After that bubbles off, I'll dry hop for real.

It's odd - 3 of my last beers had this issue - two lagers, one ale, both fermented at appropriate temperatures. It was carbonated enough to bottle as-is out of the primary, assuming you could do it without making a huge mess.