Frothy Lager.

[Jobo88]

Ive brewed a batch of MYO lager, which i bought in the Range in UK, but it is very fizzy and frothy when pouring. Can anyone help a novice.

I think i may have added too much sugar into bottle at the bottling stage but thats just an uneducated guess.

 

[Leon103]

How much sugar did you add, that should tell you if you added too much

 

[Jobo88]

How much sugar did you add, that should tell you if you added too much

I added a heaped teaspoon in each 500ml bottle.

 

[Drunkula]

I just weighed a super heaped teaspoon and it was 7.5g, a standard one 5g. Even at 5 that's 3.4 volumes of co2 and it suggests about 2.7 max on this priming calculator:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

Best thing to do is get the bottles super cold before you open them and maybe bleed the cap when you're opening.

The health and safety police will be canvassing the area soon to advise you on dealing with non-incendiary explosives.

 

[Stib]

Get them super cold, room temp glass and pour nice an slow at around 45 degree angle, at best I use 1/3 of a spoon of sugar for bottling.

 

[An Ankoù]

A heaped teaspoonful is miles too much. You need about half that. Go for 3g in 500 ml with lager, that's a tad less than a level teaspoonful.
I've got some overcarbonated lager, too. I put the chilled bottle on a plate and just crack open the cap until the gas and froth has stopped pouring out and then drink it and belch mightily. Be careful, there's a few seconds lag before the gas starts coming out, which can lead you into a false sense of security.
Good luck.

 

[The Baron]

You need to be careful as said so chill and pop the caps on them all for a minute or two then try recapping as it should help to vent the excess Co2

 

[Leon103]

I added a heaped teaspoon in each 500ml bottle.

Not sure why people go down this route, must be a total faff trying to fill individual bottles. All spoons are different and you can never get a consistent approach like this.

 

[Winterbournebrewery]

I always go to brewers friend priming calculator & batch prime when bottling. Never had an issue yet.

 

[An Ankoù]

Not sure why people go down this route, must be a total faff trying to fill individual bottles. All spoons are different and you can never get a consistent approach like this.

On the contrary. I usually use sugar cubes (or circles) which come in 3, 4 and 6g, but I wanted to prime some 33cl stubbies with 2 g. I found that the 1/4 teaspoon measure on my set of kitchen measuring spoons gave me a consistent weight of 1.9g plus or minus 0.1g. The sugar gets poured into the bottle by sliding it down a bit of folded card and Bob's your uncle. I'm very concerned that batch priming is yet another transfer that gives yet another opportunity for oxidation. I don't keep cylinders of carbon dioxide around just for purging.

 

[terrym]

As an aside to this, one of the drawbacks of highly carbed homebrewed beers, in spite of best endeavours to minimise yeast carry over at bottling time and perhaps using a sticky yeast like Notty which may not suit all styles, is that the yeast is more likely to get dragged up when the bottle is finally opened, so you may have to leave more beer in the bottle than you would want, unless you are not too bothered by yeasty beer. I am not a particular fan of cold beer except a lager and so have recently lowered my priming rate to give my beers a CO2 content of no more than 1.9 vols (which some may find flat but OK for me ) and this does solve the carry over problem.

 

[terrym]

On the contrary. I usually use sugar cubes (or circles) which come in 3, 4 and 6g, but I wanted to prime some 33cl stubbies with 2 g. I found that the 1/4 teaspoon measure on my set of kitchen measuring spoons gave me a consistent weight of 1.9g plus or minus 0.1g. The sugar gets poured into the bottle by sliding it down a bot of folded card and Bob's your uncle. I'm very concerned that batch priming is yet another transfer that gives yet another opportunity for oxidation. I don't keep cylinders of carbon dioxide around just for purging.

I use a measuring spoon from a breadmaker (and a funnel) which is reserved for brewing and since it's cylindrical rather than flat it's as accurate as I need.
I sometimes batch prime as an alternative to bottle priming and find that there is not much difference in time or effort between the two methods. Bottom line is do what you feel is best for you.

 

[terrym]

Deleted

 

[An Ankoù]

Just a thought. I only get overcarbonation in lager and only when I use MJ -M84 Bohemian lager and it happens nearly every time. When I use Fermentis lager yeasts I don't get overcarbonation. I'm beginning to suspect that, as I like to keep my lager for 9-15 months, when it's at its best, the M84 nibbles away ever so slowly at otherwise unfermentable sugars. Has anybody else noticed this or is it just coincidence?

 

[Ghillie]

Batch prime.

 

[An Ankoù]

-

 

[peebee]

If you have too much head and gassy beer (as suggested by the OP), then of course just reduce the priming/pressure. But, you see a lot of posts from people making highly carbonated beers that have no head. The natural "solution" is bump up the gas, but such a solution often fails.

I prefer low carbonated (hand pumped) beer (though I do make the high carbonated stuff if I think its right). I do not have problems with head on these beers. Odd that?

The head is of course made of bubbles! Each bubble is a delicate skin of beer containing gas. Brewers, especially of high carbonated continental beers, try to improve the head by making additions or managing the brewing process to make that "skin" as strong as possible. E.g. many "mash" brewers use wheat which contains stuff that will strengthen that "skin". But however strong you can make the "skin", if there is too much gas the skin stretch's too far and the bubble bursts - the head collapses or perhaps never gets chance to form.

So if loads of carbonation but no head, reduce that priming. If you end up with head but carbonation too low for your tastes: First change the way you brew or make head enhancing additions, then, and only then, bump up the priming/pressure.