carbonation question

[Halifax_Jeff]

I bottled a batch of Belgian blonde (2 weeks ago tomorrow) and I cracked one last night after I ran out of patience. It was carbonated... so well that it basically foamed up and I lost a lot of beer.

It was sitting at room temperature, give or take, depending on the time of day.

Is this because I didn't cool it long enough before opening or did I over carbonate it?

[GAM]

Is this because I didn't cool it long enough before opening or did I over carbonate it?

Likley. Pop one in the fridge and see if it is better. Did you take FG and add the right amount to primer?

S

[Halifax_Jeff]

I did not.. I just used the amount that Dave gave me. I wasn't aware that you could adjust the primer based on FG.

Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely look into that next time! For now I'll let a few get really cold before I open another

[GAM]

You adjust for the volume ane amount of carcination you want.

The FG tells you the beer has little sugars left to ferment.

S

[mumblecrunch]

If it hasn't been in the bottle for a good three weeks (and even if it has) I find it's always a good idea to chill it for at least 4-6 hours before opening one to give the beer a chance to absorb as much CO2 as possible.

It's also possible, of course, that you've overcarbed it a touch. I overcarbed a couple of batches by not accounting for appropriate losses to trub and dry hopping and now I always measure my volume and then calculate my corn sugar based on that measurement. The temperature the wort was primarily fermented at makes a difference too, but moreso for lagers than ales.

I did not.. I just used the amount that Dave gave me. I wasn't aware that you could adjust the primer based on FG.

I don't think you generally adjust based on FG, but you certainly check your FG to see that it's somewhere around what it was supposed to be (or you've got a reasonable explanation for why it isn't) and definitely you make sure your FG is stable for a few days before you bottle. If your beer hasn't fermented out completely you're going to get more action off the bottle conditioning process because there's still fairly active yeast kicking around.

Also, I've had unexplained "gusher" bottles in batches that behaved completely differently than the other 40 or 50 bottles. No idea why, but it does happen sometimes.

[darciandjenn]

Also, I've had unexplained "gusher" bottles in batches that behaved completely differently than the other 40 or 50 bottles. No idea why, but it does happen sometimes.

I'm pretty sure "Gushers" are due to an infection. I've had a couple of these as well and, in addition to being a total mess (beer ALL over the kitchen!), the beer that I managed to salvage from these bottles was thin and terrible. I threw away the offending bottles and haven't had a problem since.

[Halifax_Jeff]

Also, I've had unexplained "gusher" bottles in batches that behaved completely differently than the other 40 or 50 bottles. No idea why, but it does happen sometimes.

I'm pretty sure "Gushers" are due to an infection. I've had a couple of these as well and, in addition to being a total mess (beer ALL over the kitchen!), the beer that I managed to salvage from these bottles was thin and terrible. I threw away the offending bottles and haven't had a problem since.

Infection.. fingers crossed it isn't but I have the bottle set aside if that is the case. If it happens again when I open one tonight I'll snap a pic. It doesn't gush out of the bottle... more so a very bad pour.. that tastes great.

[darciandjenn]

Probably not an infection then.

[dean2k]

Like mumblecrunch, I've also had the random 1 bottle gusher or 2 out of an entire batch and the remaining beer that didn't go down the sink was not infected. I can't prove it, but I often wonder if enough yeast or dry-hop material made it into those particular bottle and the priming sugars went nuts with it.