Problems with Big Beer carbonation

[razyrsharpe]

i have brewed 3 batches of big beers in 2014-15. All three have resulted in explosive foaming and bottle bombs. Obviously my priming calculator is inadequate for the task. The last batch was in the primary 2.5 months (a honey red ale aiming at about 9%abv), the carb calculator gave me a range of 2.2-2.7 units of carbonation for the style and the amount of (table) sugar to use, and it resulted in what i described above. My question is: Can i simply bottle the beer without using priming sugar and still get carbonation? i think my yeast are still active enough to do it without priming. Is this a thing? If it is, how do i go about it? thanks!

 

[JLeuck64]

Those big beers are a tough nut to crack! I too have struggled to understand when they are done, what to do when they are not done, and how to prime them to carb properly.

Tasting them when taking gravity samples really helped me fine tune when they are done. If they taste sweet at all... they probably are not done. Letting them be a while longer may get them to finish. Sometimes very gently stirring the yeast back into suspension will help it finish. Adding some champagne yeast and letting that work it's magic will always get them to finish. Sometimes that will push the ABV even higher than you want though...

If you are getting bottle bombs it's because you bottled too soon, stop that! LOL

But seriously we first need to understand what is leaving the extra sugars in your beer before bottling. Getting that question answered will help with avoiding over carbonation issues.

I've had some big beers lately that have been finishing fermentation very well. Those batches I intentionally over pitched the yeast I normally would . Since they finished so dry I figured I would let them bottle condition without adding any champagne yeast. What I am realizing now is it takes a LOT longer for the yeast to carb up in such a high ABV brew. It's to be expected but just points out the opposite of what you are experiencing I guess. Some yeast strains poop out when the ABV gets too high.

 

[pdog44450]

i have brewed 3 batches of big beers in 2014-15. All three have resulted in explosive foaming and bottle bombs. Obviously my priming calculator is inadequate for the task. The last batch was in the primary 2.5 months (a honey red ale aiming at about 9%abv), the carb calculator gave me a range of 2.2-2.7 units of carbonation for the style and the amount of (table) sugar to use, and it resulted in what i described above. My question is: Can i simply bottle the beer without using priming sugar and still get carbonation? i think my yeast are still active enough to do it without priming. Is this a thing? If it is, how do i go about it? thanks!

2.5 months primary seems plenty for a 9%, unless you are racking a bunch of sediment into the bottling bucket. If not, perhaps you should try cold crashing to get an even smaller amount of suspended yeast in the beer.

At 2.5 months of fermenting, I think that the remaining fermentable sugars would be extremely minimal, practically nonexistent so I would not try bottling with no priming sugar. Maybe try less priming sugar, a different calculator, or bottle conditioning at a colder temp.

 

[Beernik]

Without gravity reading and recipes and mash schedules, it's impossible to know if your problem was underattenuation or a stuck fermentation. Sure 9% is high ABV, but if you bottle at 9% and you have enough sugars for an 11% beer, you are going to have a problem.

The other reason I can think of for gushers in high ABV beers is an infection.