What happened?

[treacheroustexan]

I brewed this pumpkin cream ale a couple months back and it was pouring a nice 2 finger head, and now when I am pouring it I get nothing but foam to the point where i can't drink it and i'm trying to let it settle out and it just gets bigger lol. I'm in the process of moving and this is the only glass I don't have packed away by the way. Is it just from being in the bottle so long? I feel like I should know this by now but I don't.. never had it happen before this bad. All input welcome, thanks!

 

[rhys333]

When that happened to me it was because I bottled before the beer had finished fermenting. It kept going in the bottle, increasing CO2 until I had mega carbonation like in your photo. Do you get volcanos when you crack a bottle? You'll want to be careful to avoid extreme pressure and possible bottle bombs.

 

[treacheroustexan]

No volcanoes. I can open the bottle and it will be fine. I only have 2 left out of 5 gallons and I just put the min the fridge a few days ago. Only when I pour it is when it does that. But if i open the bottle and just let it sit there before pouring it doesn't do anything.

 

[Devilsnight]

how long did it ferment? was the gravity stable before bottling/did you hit the FG you were looking for? Maybe it wasn't done fermenting or you added to much priming sugar.

 

[RM-MN]

how long did it ferment? was the gravity stable before bottling/did you hit the FG you were looking for? Maybe it wasn't done fermenting or you added to much priming sugar.

The third possibility not mentioned is that you got a wild yeast that can ferment sugars that your brewing yeast cannot. The most likely though is that your beer simply wasn't quite done fermenting when you bottled it.:rockin:

 

[yeahfairly]

Was this a kit Beer or from your own recipe and ingredients? That looks different than any beer head I have ever seen. It looks more like detergent / or chemical induced foaming..... If it was caused by bottling before fermentation had stopped you would think you would have had a bottle bomb or two or at least a few beer gushers when you pop the top.

 

[Homercidal]

Looks pretty common. Looks like a carapils or wheat head. The excess foam could be from bottling early or a bacterial infection bumping the carb level up a bit. I had that happen recently when I bottled from my keg. The beer was overcarbed and it still gushed and foamed when poured into a glass from the bottles I filled. Some Belgian beers act that way adn require a slow pour.

It's not from being in the bottle too long. If anything, being in the bottle longer will only reduce the amount of head a beer generates.

 

[andy6026]

It's an over-carbonation of one type or another. Either you bottled too early, you got an infection that fermented the normally unfermentables, or you added too much priming sugar, or a combination of any of those.

 

[RmikeVT]

This can also happen when you use a kit and they provide 5oz of priming sugar for 5 gal of beer, and after brewhouse losses you have 4.5 or 5 gal of beer getting bottled and mixed with 5oz of priming sugar. I already think 5oz of priming sugar is a bit much for 5gal of most beers.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Yeah it was a brewers best cream ale kit brewed with pumpkins and pumpkin spice.

 

[dsaavedra]

I have had this with beers that I intentionally wanted to have a high carbonation level. What I chalk it up to is that I added slightly too much priming sugar and the beers were perfectly carbonated a few weeks in but the yeast kept munching on the excess priming sugar and create foam monsters several weeks/months down the road.

 

[JimEb]

I got a batch right now doing something like that. In my case I suspect incomplete mixing of the priming sugar with the beer in my bottling bucket.

Some of the beers bottled out of the same bucket are flat, others are gushers.

I used to rely on the swirling action when racking to mix in the priming sugar. I noticed with my new auto siphon my carboys empty slower. Guess I'll have to sanitize a spoon and do a careful stir.