RIS Carbed-up Quick!

[Lukass]

So I brewed an Old Rasputin clone a while back. Built up a yeast starter twice of WLP-001 california ale, and fermentation was a breeze for this yeast. Left it in primary for 1 month, and just bottled from there. Gravity was down where I wanted it. At bottling, I added cold-steeped coffee, and 3.7 oz of brown sugar to prime.

Only 2 weeks after bottling, it's already got a thin, tan head on it, and it's carbed up nicely! My only fear is, I hope it doesn't keep on carbing up in the next few weeks because I hear for some people that RIS's can take months to carb up fully.

I guess the reason I'm posting, is if anyone else has ever had a RIS carb up so quickly? And should I expect it to keep on carbing up? First time using brown sugar at bottling, so maybe the yeast ate up the brown sugar quicker than your normal corn sugar... thoughts?

 

[MrHopScotch]

What were your OG and FG? Percent alcohol? It's possible your yeast are just not terribly stressed and are already carbing but that does maybe seem a bit quick.

I've had a few beers that seemed to carb up really fast but those ended up being stalled fermentations that restarted in the bottle. Luckily I didn't have any bottle bombs but those batches did end up grossly over carbonated.

 

[Lukass]

What were your OG and FG? Percent alcohol? It's possible your yeast are just not terribly stressed and are already carbing but that does maybe seem a bit quick.

I've had a few beers that seemed to carb up really fast but those ended up being stalled fermentations that restarted in the bottle. Luckily I didn't have any bottle bombs but those batches did end up grossly over carbonated.

It was around 1.085 OG, and 1.025 FG. Im thinking that's around 8.5%.

I'm really hoping that's true that the yeast just ate it up quickly and weren't stressed. I just fear that it may be a bug in the coffee grounds, because the cold-steeped coffee wasn't sanitized, and it's eating up the sugars quicker than normal. I'll check by opening a few more bottles in about a week, and if they're really hissing then I may have to open them all and re-cap them. Just hope they don't turn into gushers down the road!

Just sucks is all, because they taste delicious right now.. don't want them carbing up anymore than they are. We'll see in a few weeks

 

[Harry482]

Store them in plastic bins with lids just in case you have a mishap! I've stained enough grout in my house to have learned my lesson. With high fg beers, you just never know.

 

[MrHopScotch]

Even though this was a big beer, that FG seems high enough that a stall is probable. I know this is not ideal, but if you like how the beer tastes now, your best bet may be to refrigerate all the bottles now and drink them. Refrigerator temps should force the yeast to go dormant and stop the beer from carbonating any further. Even though the beer may not be as mature as you'd like, it's better than risking injury and beer.

If you decide not to do this and take your chances, absolutely put them in a plastic bin in case they explode.

 

[Lukass]

Thanks guys. I'm just gonna keep drinking them, and if they seem like they are increasing in carbonation a few weeks down the road then I'm putting them all in my kegerator fridge. I'm not as concerned as I was yesterday. I figure if I bottled with plenty of healthy yeast, and they had been sitting some place warm for 2 weeks, then I see no reason why they wouldn't carb up quickly.