What Happened?

[ringo8553]

Been brewing about a year with generally good results, but this one is puzzling.
Over the past months I brewed clones of Stella, Sam Adams, and Duvel, all with the same results. Tremendous amounts of foam and carbonation out of the bottle, and when I let it settle, all tasted about the same.blah!..Bud has more flavor..sorry Bud drinkers! I just had to dump them. Temperatures were ok, gravities good, no excess sugar used, different yeasts and hops, and all had ample time in the bucket. any clues?

 

[Rockn_M]

Can you provide some insight into what your OG and FG were? How much priming sugar to how much beer? What was the ambient temperature when carbing? Did you put the bottles in the fridge for about 24 hours before opening?

Sounds like it was overcarbed and when it foamed up released all the carbonation and became flat.

 

[ringo8553]

I used 5 oz. sugar, the temp was 68..bottles in fridge for weeks....don't remember gravities, but there were correct at the time..

 

[JimRausch]

Consistent bad results over 3 batches with overcarbonation, points toward an infection somewhere in your system. Look hard at your bottling/kegging system. That seems to be a fairly common location of those nasty hidden infection sources. Take everything apart, clean obsessively, and sanitize beyond what you think you should have to.

 

[JimRausch]

Posted before I saw your 2nd post. I know kits come with 5oz. of sugar, but that's almost always too much for a 5G batch. I generally use 4 to 4.5 oz., and always check it first with an on-line calculator. But I would still check for an infection.

 

[Pappers_]

Will need more info than that the beer tasted blah to diagnose the issue

All joking aside, this sort of question really requires someone who knows what they are doing to taste your beer. Do you have anyone who can do that for you?

 

[Rockn_M]

When I use the 5oz of sugar that comes with kits I always get overcarbed beer. Like JimRausch said you'll want to look into piming sugar calculators to determine how much is needed based on a few inputs.

Also if you haven't I would give everything a good clean to make sure you don't have an infection somewhere.

 

[IslandLizard]

Infection!

Don't overlook the whole spigot assembly on your bottling bucket. That thing needs to be pulled apart, cleaned, and sanitized each time.

Clean and sanitize bottles correctly.

Don't mill grains where you ferment or bottle.

 

[flars]

I used 5 oz. sugar, the temp was 68..bottles in fridge for weeks....don't remember gravities, but there were correct at the time..

Was your decision to bottle based on the recipe indicating a final gravity?

Or did you have consistent specific gravity readings over a period of three to five days?

 

[duboman]

You are all stating infection but tasting like Bleh isn't necessarily a descriptor for infection. I would consider sour, vinegar, etc more descriptive of infection.

If 5 oz of sugar are being used for less than 5 gallons of finished beer then that would definitely lead to over carbonation. I agree with Pappers, best to have a more experienced taster sample the beer for true evaluation.

 

[ringo8553]

I should have been more clear that I have had great batches since these, so I would rule out the infection, but maybe not the 5 oz of sugar..thanks people!