First brewing b*lls up....

[Klemay83]

Just opened a bottle of an Amarillo SMaSH I bottled a few weeks back. Straight away after popping the cap it erupts out the bottle in a white foamy fountain of beer lava.... So I'm guessing that it wasn't fully fermented when it was bottled? Or too much priming sugar? I used about a half a teaspoon Bert 500ml bottle .

 

[Crystal_Ball]

Just opened a bottle of an Amarillo SMaSH I bottled a few weeks back. Straight away after popping the cap it erupts out the bottle in a white foamy fountain of beer lava.... So I'm guessing that it wasn't fully fermented when it was bottled? Or too much priming sugar? I used about a half a teaspoon Bert 500ml bottle .

Ive only had that a couple of times although both in the same batch. The other 30 bottles were ok though. Have you tried any others?

 

[wfr42]

Chill the others for at least 24hrs and cross your fingers that it's just the one foamer. Hop debris was the cause of a couple of my foamer young's ipas

 

[Klemay83]

I've opened 2 bottles . Same thing with both. Although the second not as bad as the first. The batch has been cold conditioning for just over a week. It is very fizzy in the mouth. It tastes fine!

 

[wfr42]

When you say cold conditioned what do temperature do you mean?

How was your sanitation throughout?

 

[GHW]

Several possible causes
1) over priming, either just plain old over primed, or primed before fermentation finished so there was still sugar to be converted to ethanol/co2
2) wild yeast, unlikely though possible
3) dirty bottle which leads to lots of nucleation sites for co2 (like when you have an etched pint glass bottom that makes bubbles appear), hop debris would do the same, co2 just needs something irregular to nucleate from (no idea why)

Or a combination of the above, 1&3 being the most likely.

No one truly knows why gushers happen though

 

[Leon103]

I have the odd gusher with my Saison. A couple of days in the fridge before I open works a treat.

 

[Klemay83]

I cold condition them in the outside storage cupboard which is about 10 degrees.

 

[wfr42]

Fridge the next one for a day or two, if you haven't been already, and see if that helps.

Glad it tastes good.

 

[Covrich]

I have had two gushers so far isolated and random, i think possibly dirty bottle in those cases you had two back to back it could be coincidence but just to be sure cold crash like you are doing.. next time you open one just open slightly leaving the cap on see how it goes.. you could pour into a 2L jug then when its settled decant back into a glass

 

[Klemay83]

I'm pretty thorough with my sanitation, and my other brews have been fine, no issues. I've stuck a couple of bottles in the fridge and will try one on Monday night. I'm not hugely bothered by losing the beer. It was only a small batch. More intrigued by what is causing it. Thanks for the replies. Appreciated as always. I'll post up the results on Monday.

 

[Niman]

Just opened a bottle of an Amarillo SMaSH I bottled a few weeks back. Straight away after popping the cap it erupts out the bottle in a white foamy fountain of beer lava.... So I'm guessing that it wasn't fully fermented when it was bottled? Or too much priming sugar? I used about a half a teaspoon Bert 500ml bottle .

i feel your pain

been there done that

did u take a hydrometer reading when bottling??


i did a brew about a year ago 50 litres

split it into 2 batches as i sometimes do (though less often now)


one i uses s0or 5 cant remember and sugar to prime

tother was mj workhorse and dme to prime


the mj one was a nightmare and erupted no matter what


tasted fine


could never narrow it down to what caused problem..tasted fine(ish) if u could get it out of bottle...


gave up in the end and poured em away..

glad i used pet bottles ...managed to bow the caps but bottles held..



fingers crossed for ya

 

[Sandimas]

Half a teaspoon per bottle is fine so it's not over primed. Infections tend to take months rather than weeks to produce gushers so probably not that. My bet is you bottled too early: did you take a gravity reading and how long had it been fermenting?

 

[Cwrw666]

I occasionally get whole brews that do this.
Best remedy is to:
1. refrigerate for several hours at least before opening. day before would be best.
2. as soon as you take the cap off, pour it instantly into a 2 litre jug.

You'll have a jug full of foam - just let it settle for a few minutes and you can pour it into a glass. Doing it like this avoids you getting too much yeast pulled up into the beer.

 

[Klemay83]

Tried another 2 bottles tonight that have been in the fridge overnight . There is only a 3 or 4 degree difference between the fridge and where I cold condition my brews. Any popped one open, same thing happened, another gusher. I think I'm putting this down to the batch not being fully fermented before it was bottled, since every bottle so far has had an identical overflow. It's the only logical reason I can think of. It was only a nine bottle batch and it's not a particularly special brew (apart from being my first AG). So I think I'll use the remaining bottles to harvest some yeast from.


update! Just taken a hydrometer reading of the beer. My last reading I took after 12 days of fermenting was 1014. I then bottled it 3 days later...but I can't find any notes I had taken a final reading...The reading I just got from the beer was 1010. So looks like I had presumed after 2 weeks it's fermentation as done , when it wasn't....