Excessive Carbonation

HuvBrauHaus

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I've been having an issue with my bottled beers becoming over carbonated. They seem fine for 2-4 weeks and then I need to pour them very slowly in a glass in order to not have excessive head. Some of them will begin to ooze out of the bottle as soon as the cap is removed. I typically use 3 - 3.5 ounces by weight of corn sugar, mixed into the entire 5 gallon batch prior to bottling. Is this a sign of contamination somewhere? The beers taste fine, just over carbonated. I also use an inline oxygenation system that is connected to the end of my wort chiller. Would the addition of too much oxygen affect the carbonation level of the beer?
 
Do you allow at least 2 weeks in the fermenter then another few days to cold condition? I don't think oxygen levels play a part in bottle conditioning CO2 levels but maybe another brewer here has some experience with that.
 
The oxygen shouldn't have any affect on carbonation. Considering the modest amount of corn sugar you have used to prime, the problem is either an infection, or you have bottled too early. Next time you open a beer, take a gravity reading. If your reading is below your FG reading you took before bottling ( you did take an FG reading, didn't you?) then there is a good chance you are dealing with an infection. I had a similar problem years ago, an infection that would over time take my beer down to almost 1.000, but never gave any noticeable off flavour. I heat sanitized what I could and bleached the s**t out of the rest and the problem was solved.
 
I've been having an issue with my bottled beers becoming over carbonated. They seem fine for 2-4 weeks and then I need to pour them very slowly in a glass in order to not have excessive head. Some of them will begin to ooze out of the bottle as soon as the cap is removed. I typically use 3 - 3.5 ounces by weight of corn sugar, mixed into the entire 5 gallon batch prior to bottling. Is this a sign of contamination somewhere? The beers taste fine, just over carbonated. I also use an inline oxygenation system that is connected to the end of my wort chiller. Would the addition of too much oxygen affect the carbonation level of the beer?
Nope. Secondary fermentation, the kind that creates CO2, is anaerobic. Oxygen at that stage contributes to staling but not carbonation.
 
So, not excessive on priming suger, maybe fermentation wasn't complete when you bottled. My only carbonation issues have been UNDER carbed, so I'm actually a little jealous:D
 
Does the beer itself taste overcarbonated? Or are you just getting excessive bubbling in the bottle when opened?

The reason I ask is because I've had a few brews that were not overcarbed but did the same thing and gushing foam out the top a few seconds after being opened. If I poured it right away, it was fine. I had posted about this in another forum and got this response that seemed to fit:

"I've been bottling every batch since 1999. Bottled thousands. My experience:

You most likely have excess sludge/trub in the bottom of each bottle, so when the cap is popped, this material provides "nucleation sites" for the CO2 to form, which then will gush if not immediately poured off. Did you rack this beer to a secondary before bottling? Was it more hazy than normal before bottling? Did you dry hop? Could there be coffee particles in there? Any solids in your bottles at all can lead to this effect.

I put up with this kind of thing randomly for many years. Only in recent years have I decided that I need to secondary in most cases to keep most of that stuff out of the bottles for a clearer and more consistently carbonated product.

If that's not it............ maybe you bottled a little too early and the yeast is still acting on the original sugars? This has happened to me a time or two as well.

Infections are possible but unlikely if you've sanitized well and your hoses aren't really old. All hoses should be replaced at least every 18-24 months just to be safe."
 
I've had a few of them that I thought had a highly carbonated feel on your tongue. I use FastFerment conicals. So instead of racking to a secondary, I empty the collection ball after about 7-8 days. I then fill the collection ball with distilled water to avoid introducing oxygen to the wort. After week 2 there is usually about 1/2" of trub on the bottom of the collection ball.

For beers that are dry hopped, I typically run the beer through a screened funnel when transferring from the conical to a bottling bucket to filter out any hops particles.

What kind of shelf life should I expect from bottled beer and does that vary with the type of beer?
 
The oxygen shouldn't have any affect on carbonation. Considering the modest amount of corn sugar you have used to prime, the problem is either an infection, or you have bottled too early. Next time you open a beer, take a gravity reading. If your reading is below your FG reading you took before bottling ( you did take an FG reading, didn't you?) then there is a good chance you are dealing with an infection. I had a similar problem years ago, an infection that would over time take my beer down to almost 1.000, but never gave any noticeable off flavour. I heat sanitized what I could and bleached the s**t out of the rest and the problem was solved.

Yes, I take gravity readings so that sounds like a good place to start.
 
It most certainly does... heavily dry hopped beers should be drank fresh within a few weeks I would think due to there propensity to oxidize... cleaner high gravity beers (Strong Belgian Styles), actually benefit from many weeks or months of bottle conditioning... I opened an 8% Saison tonight that was bottled 6 months ago and it was amazing.

What kind of shelf life should I expect from bottled beer and does that vary with the type of beer?
 
Do you allow at least 2 weeks in the fermenter then another few days to cold condition? I don't think oxygen levels play a part in bottle conditioning CO2 levels but maybe another brewer here has some experience with that.
Always a minimum of 2 weeks in fermenter. I never did cold condition the beer prior to bottling.
 

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