Gushing!

[DocAnna]

Hi. Coming to this a bit late. there has been a lot of good sense written here, however I think it is important to consider the known information and the impact this has on cause analysis:

• Since the over carbonation applies to batches not individual bottles, the issue cannot be a sanitation problem in the bottles or inadequately mixed sugar in secondary as that would be variable bottle to bottle.
• The cold crash will increase carbonation, however unless fermenting under pressure and cold crashing from pressure, this will have only a minor impact, and would affect all your batches.
• The over carbonated beers were with the batches with comparatively less sugar added. While microgram scales are necessary for an individual bottle priming approach, when scaled to a whole batch normal kitchen scales will be adequately accurate to 1g scale, so this is unlikely to do with the amount of sugar added.
• in bottle carbonation only occurs with the additional production of CO2, either by bacteria or yeast.

On this basis, there are the only possibilities I can see:

• Bacterial contamination at the time of secondary mixing with the additional sugar leading to digestion of residual sugars in the beer in addition to those added at the time of bottling - this will be evident by a progressive increase in carbonation. Ie if left in a warm situation the bacteria may slowly progressively continue to digest the carbohydrates yeast cannot metabolise - otherwise known as a bottle bomb, some weeks after bottling.
• Sugars available to the yeast which had not been fermented out, which includes all the discussion above about temperature at the end of fermentation to ensure it is complete.
• That you are fermenting under pressure - which I've not seen reference to.
• That you miscalculated the scale up of sugar to volume not allowing for trub, ie added sugar on the volume in the fermenter rather than the volume being bottled - this would have to be way off though, which seems unlikely based on your approach.

You may want to consider using 50% by weight sugar solution added to each bottle by syringe prior to filling with beer, or just be empirical about the whole thing and reduce your priming sugar in secondary .

A

 

[moto748]

I don't do cold crashing, but I have to say (not for the first time) that those priming sugar levels look high to me. I don't use more than 2.3-2.4 g per bottle in any type of beer, considerably less in bitters. After all, not so long ago, some experts were telling us that priming wasn't necessary at all!

 

[lancon]

The points I would raise are a) taking beer out to dissolve the sugar in a saucepan and only heating to dissolve. I put the sugar in the bottling bucket then pour boiling water from the kettle to dissolve. And b) to me they look quite high sugar amounts?

 

[CeeJayCee]

Thanks to all for the comments. This is all very helpful and I really appreciate the assistance :-)

My plan for my current batch is to bottle directly from the fermenter using a very well cleaned and sanitised bottling wand. I hope this should reduce possible causes of infection from the secondary bottling bucket or siphon.

I’ll use oxicleaner on the bottles and sanitiser. As others have said, this seems unlikely to be a cause of infection due to the fact it’s consistent across a batch, but worth doing anyway.

I have jewellery scales now, so I’ll prime each bottle individually with sugar. I’ll use significantly less than before, maybe around 2-2.3g per bottle. I think my calculations were incorrect - either forgetting to remove the trub and other losses, or just being inaccurate!

I’ll report back how that goes after a couple of weeks of carbonating.

 

[Sandimas]

When were they brewed?

My guess is sometime between May and Sept. I get this every year, to varying degrees - sometimes just the odd batch, sometimes every batch. I thought I'd got away with it this year, but no, a couple of batches gushed. Hard to say exactly what it is but probably some sort of air-borne infection, many of us stop brewing in summer for this very reason - I reduce my brewing considerably but usually run out of homebrew so have to start again.

It should pass if you sanistise all your equipment. I'm back to normal now, no more gushers, the season has passed. Good luck trying to pinpoint it, I've failed to over 12 years, I just accept it now.

 

[bigshineybike]

I've two batches recently brewed both neipa and gushing. I'm guessing it's too much sugar at bottle priming. I used a new measure, very consistent but inaccurate.

I need some tips for getting the beer into glasses.

I've tried removing and recapping. Even from the fridge, the beer just turns to foam in the glasses.
I'm using a large jug letting it foam then decant into the glass.messy but relatively easy

 

[DocAnna]

I need some tips for getting the beer into glasses.

I've tried removing and recapping. Even from the fridge, the beer just turns to foam in the glasses.
I'm using a large jug letting it foam then decant into the glass.messy but relatively easy

You’re best bet is getting the bottles really cold, down to just below zero if you can and holding it there for a couple of days to stabilise the carbonation. You should then be able to open your bottles without them gushing. If need be get them down to -2, if you are able to put them in a fridge a leave the door closed on maximum for a couple of days.

Once able to open a bottle without it gushing: open the lids but leave them resting on top but allow the bottles to slowly warm at ambient temperature. After they get to about 10 deg or so then recap them. The excess CO2 will be released as the liquid warms and the lids will limit any air or dust ingress during this time.

I hope that works for you.

 

[MashBag]

My first thought when reading the op was infection.

I’ve been cleaning with hot water immediately after using and recapping.

And I am reasonably sure now. You can't safely recap, unless you include a splash of vodka.

Prosecution rests your honour.

 

[tutshiveandspile]

I've had a occasional problem with lively bottles. My system is to just ease the cap very slightly to release some pressure. Stand for 5 minutes then recap. With my bench capper. Then back to cool place .Brick shed concrete floor.
When opening to drink the conditining is like a cask beer.