Some gushers.. Some fine

Hi guys, I've noticed recently that when I batch carbonate my beers that some are perfectly carbonated and others end up to be gushers.

I always add the sugary solution first, then the beer. And I always make sure that it has reached is FG.. Any ideas?

Even though you add the sugar first, do you give the beer a bit of a mix after it's all racked to the bottling bucket? Perhaps there are more concentrated pockets of sugar? I'm not sure what else to contribute that to.

I guess the only other question is this: Are you opening the bottles at the same temp, e.g. some at room temp and others at lower temps like 40-45F? CO2 tends to dissolve better at lower temps. Maybe that?

Thanks for the reply. Mixing the wort and sugar solution is something I don't do out of fear of aerating the beer. But maybe I could give it a go. I usually let the bottles condition at room temp... Maybe I need to look at that a little more. Cheers

Normally, I'll add the priming solution to the bottling bucket and then snake the siphon tube around the bottom of the bottling bucket under the priming solution. When the transfer is taking place, the beer is entering the bottling bucket under the priming solution to help reduce the chance of aeration. The snaked siphon tube helps create a circling/swirling/whirlpool affect and the beer stirs itself. I always do this, and **knock on wood**, have not had any issues with carbonation. Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Adding a little priming sugar liquid and them racking beer on top of it should mix the priming liquid thoroughly. I had some gushers and some non gushers in a batch early on in my homebrewing. I attributed it to poor bottle washing and changed the way I wash/sanitize my bottles and have never had a bad bottle since (knock on wood!).

How long have they been in the bottles...that is the MOST important question to ask when someone says they have inconsistant cabontation or gushers more importantly than those silly pet theories about sugar solutions, of similar densities not mixing during basic racking.

If it's been under three weeks, then it's gushing because the co2 isn't in solution fully and is coming out before the beer is really carbed, hence the fact that you say it's flat after.

We get this all the time from impatient folks who open their bottles WAAAAAYYYYYYY early. If you opened them at three weeks, or more, you never would have noticed.

If you watch Poindexter's video on time lapsed carbonation, you will see that in many instances, before a beer is carbed it may gush, that's not from infection, or mixing of sugars, but because the co2 hasn't evened out- it hasn't been pulled fully into the beer. Think of it as there's a lot of co2 being generated and most of it is in the headspace, not in the beer, so there's still "over pressure" in the bottle, so it gushes when it is opened.

But when the beer is truly carbed it all evens out, across the bottles.



On the other hand. If you've waited at least 3 weeks, and all the beer were fully carbed and conditioned for awhile, THEN they started gushing, you more than likely have a late onset infection. Either your batch is infected, or you have some issues with bottle sanitization or your bottling process, and you need to deal with the infection. Check your spigot and bottling setup for issues. Or in your fermentation process.

Hey, i typically wait from 1 to 2 months before tasting!! I've learned to exercise constraint!! There doesn't seem to be too much issue with infection on either end.. Not that my pallet can detect. They are typically conditioning at room temp