Over primed PB?

[OliH]

Hi All,
I'm a bit worried about one of my brews. I haven't used my pressure barrel for a while as I've been doing small AG brews. However Ive been finding bottling a bit of a chore so thought I'd give a Maxi BIAB ago. Everything went well, just about hit the right gravity and it hadn't changed for 4 days. The beer tasted great when leaving the FV.
Now it has been in the barrel for over 2 weeks but tastes and smells like it is fermenting.
There was 20l that went into the barrel and I wanted it to be well carbed so I used brewers friend calc and it came back with 130g of sugar.
The barrel is bulging at the bottom! Do I need to release pressure to allow the yeast to consume the rest of the sugar, or is it just a matter of patience and allowing the pressure release to do its thing if it gets too much?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[marshbrewer]

130g of sugar is a lots for a plastic PB - I'd *very carefully* unscrew the lid a fraction at a time until you start to hear the CO2 hiss out - let the PB return to normal shape then tighten again and keep an eye on it, and repeat if required. The beer may turn out a bit less fizzy than you would like, but that has to be better than a split or damaged PB.

I used to prime my King Kegs with 85-90g of sugar.

 

[Clint]

Has it got a vent?

 

[Dutto]

If it's a Wilco Keg then mine bulges at the bottom with only 85g of carbonation sugar.

I guess they aren't built as strong as the King Keg which has coped with 125g of DME; but still bulged a bit.

Personally, if it has a relief system I would just let it do its job. If it has the "rubber band" type of S30 top then the rubber can be pulled to one side with a blunted tooth-pick to let some of the pressure off.

What I would never try to do is to try and slacken the cap. A four inch diameter cap with 15psi in the PB is holding back just under 190lbs (95kg) of force!(*)

Even after I have depressurised a PB when it's empty, I've found it difficult to get the cap off, so attempting it with that amount of force at the back of it would be beyond my capabilities.


(*)
Force = Area x Pressure (i.e. 2 x 2 x 3,142) x 15 = 189lbs

 

[OliH]

Well The cap released very easily. So I let the pressure off carefully expecting a lot of gas but it was a gentle hiss and that was it. The barrel has not gone back into shape.
Don’t know what’s going on with it.
Guess I’ll just leave it and fingers crossed it will sort itself out. I’m quite happy with flat beer, but it is APA style which could do with a bit of fizz. Should have stuck with bottles!

 

[OliH]

Just thought I'd update this incase someone comes across it! Basically I've just left this brew for about a month and tried today, so about 6 weeks total in the barrel, the funny fruity/ yeast flavour is fading and the hops are coming through.

There were a lot of Motueka hops in it and I used US05 yeast. I did find, with this combination of hops and yeast in bottles, it took longer than expected to condition.

I have just done a brew using the CML Pale Ale yeast which has come out lovely, I think I'll use that in the future.

 

[The Baron]

Hi OliH i used to use CML real ale yeast and it was good but not as flocculant as I would like, it used to stir up a little in bottles however I have just used the CML Midland yeast which will replace that and it is good also and stick solid to the bottom of the FV so on your next order from CML order some to try its meant to be the same as Nottingham

 

[OliH]

Thanks Baron. I'll give it a go. I'm pretty new to this and there are so many variables. I have used the S-04 yeast and that seems to be easy, ie no off flavours and flocculates really well. The US05 didn't flocculate very well and I seem to have had some funny flavours, but that's probably lack of temp control.
The CML pale ale yeast seems to have flocculated better than US05 and tastes really clean. But that might just be luck!
I've got a batch on at the moment that I'm trying Danstar Nottingham, I'll see how it goes.