Too much carbonation in porter

[strongarm]

I bottled my porter 5 months ago. After the first 4 weeks of bottle conditioning the carb level was perfect. Once it hit 4 months the carb level was too high...no gushers just was too much. I used 5oz of corn sugar as recommended by instructions. Should I have used less? How can I avoid over carbonation?

 

[jonmohno]

Yeah i tend to think the oz per gallon is a bit much carbonation-wise. Depends on the style.For a porter i think that is high,did you use a priming calc figuring for a porter? I think sometimes you wont reach full carbonation even after a month. Ive overcarbed and it seems it took to reach its peek over a month. I would just let those warm up and maybe pour a little harsh to release the carbonation more,let them settle before drinking,its a porter so i think you could get by with letting it sit a bit.

 

[strongarm]

I just realized my iPhone autocorrected the subject heading and I can't edit. Ughh.

 

[beowulf]

5 oz does seem like quite a bit if I look back on my recipes, but it will depend on your volume and the fermentation temps. I use this calculator, which takes into account temps, volume, etc...

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

Also, even if you carbonate on the low side, I've heard of some yeasts that can sort of "wake up" after having dropped out of suspension early and cause higher than expected carbonation in the bottle after awhile. I could swear this happened to me before....I had a stout and a porter that seemed overcarbonated even when I thought the priming sugar was measured properly and gave it 4 weeks in the primary (and yes, checked the hydro like I should).

 

[tojo]

I just opened a vanilla honey porter I brewed a couple months ago and has that same issue. The bottles have been cellared since just after the two week conditioning period. I also used 5 oz (3/4 cup) priming (dextrose) sugar. I'm gonna let one warm up a bit and see if that "fixes" the issue for now.

Next time, less sugar!

 

[strongarm]

I just found a nice calculator for this. I will add later. I think 3.5 oz corn sugar would have bee more appropriate for me next time.