Priming/Storing

[Daveg]

Hi, Fellas
I'm having a few problems with over carbonated beer.
I might have answered this question before I've asked it but I thought I'd ask just to confirm my suspicions. i've barrelled beer in the past but prefer to bottle.
I've just brewed my first 23L of beer using Beersmith, I hit all my targets and the beer itself is a treat but I've got foaming bottles now. It had most definitely finished fermenting.
I bulk primed with 60g of table sugar dissolved in boiling water and cooled added to my bottling bucket. The beer was siphoned onto this and very gently stirred, then bottled using my little bottler as I've done before. The only difference is now I have a temperature controlled fridge that I use to ferment in. I left the beer to prime for a week at fermenting temperature then turned it down to 11.3c. Is that too high, should I be storing it lower and serving it higher and does 60g of sugar sound right for a 23l batch of Bitter? Thanks in advance

 

[Scaff]

Sugar sounds ok,

The bottles need to be in a warm place for a week or two first then stored in a cool place prior to chillin and drinking.



Scaff

 

[Daveg]

Yep that's what I've done, I was wondering if storing it at 11.3 was a bit high. I know that's a decent temp for serving.

 

[Daveg]

Bit late for this brew but I'll try reducing the temp down to 8 or 9c to see if that makes a difference after a week in the warm.

 

[Daveg]

Have I posted this in the wrong place?

 

[brewpirate]

According to my calculations that's 1.55 volumes of C02 which is low so I would suspect something else is up.

Do you have your FG before bottling? You may want to flatten a bottle and test the gravity and see if its dropped at all. I would suspect its a possible infection or the yeast wasn't done.

 

[Daveg]

Fg was 1012 from 1050. It was in the FV for 2 weeks. I'll crack a bottle open tomorrow and flatten it, it tasted fine last time I tried it, but there's a first time for everything.
I'm right in thinking that the temp I'm storing it at isn't to high then, and it shouldn't be stored at normal fridge temps?

 

[brewpirate]

I have conditioned bottles in my car during the summer in San Diego California, they condition fast lol. I dont think its your temp or the higher temp woke up the yeast and it went back to work and lowered the gravity. Flatten it and do a reading with temp adjustment, I bet you it may be closer to 1.009-08

 

[Daveg]

1009, might be a tad lower because the gas brings the sediment with it. It tastes fine albeit fizzy, so it's possible that the yeast wasn't quite finished when I bottled it although it did look finished and it had hit the gravity I was aiming for. I used a Danstar Windsor yeast this time just to try it.
You live and you learn, thanks for the replies guys.

 

[brewpirate]

Now you want you can off gas the bottles, pop the cap then recap with a new cap. If it foams even better, cap on foam!

 

[Daveg]

Brilliant, I thought I was going to have to bin it. They're all swing tops so that's a job for tomorrow. Feel a bit better now.

 

[Daveg]

That was a job and a half, got drenched, talk about bottle bombs!
I normally leave my beer for 3 weeks, I don't bother with a secondary just a bottling bucket. This one I bottled after 2 so perhaps I was a bit premature. That coupled with a yeast I'd not used before.
I've lost a bit of beer but at least I haven't lost it all and it should be clear for Xmas so all is good, and 5.38abv instead of the 4.something it was before. Thanks Gents

 

[brewpirate]

Thats a bummer but at least you have salvaged the situation. Never fun but the sprays of your labor will pay off.

Tell the truth, did you wring out your cloths and drink the beer?