Bottled brew way too foamy

So I bottled my second batch about 6 weeks ago. It was a Morgan's Dark Ale kit with a tin of their caramalt added as well. They spent 2 weeks fermenting before I bottled the 330ml (12oz I think) bottles with a sugar drop each. My problem is, now that I'm starting to drink them, a few have been severely overflowing when I open them (as if they've been shaken up) and have been extremely foamy in the mouth. Almost to the point of being undrinkable. (Almost).

What have I done wrong?

1) could be that your beer wasn't done fermenting when you bottled

2) or that there is an infection in the bottles that are foaming over

3) or you primed too much - I don't know what a sugar drop is

Pappers_ said:

1) could be that your beer wasn't done fermenting when you bottled

2) or that there is an infection in the bottles that are foaming over

3) or you primed too much - I don't know what a sugar drop is

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Sugar drops are usually meant to be enough priming sugar for one 12 oz bottle. It's probably #1 or maybe #2

How long have they been in the bottles?

Thanks for your input guys, really appreciate it. They've been in the bottles for probably 6-7 weeks. It could well be #1 or #2. In fact I just remembered that I borrowed a mates glass carboy to ferment in and didn't have a siphon as I was still getting my kit fully set up. So I tipped it into my plastic fermenter which has a spigot to bottle. Could I have over aerated it in the transfer?

There is also a thin white film at the top of some bottles. I guess this could be sign of infection or maybe further fermentation, I'm not sure.

Have you tasted them? You might have to shake them some to get all the CO2 out. If it tastes terrible you probably had either bad oxidation (from pouring your mostly finished beer) or an infection. If they taste ok it probably hadn't finished fermenting yet. Be careful of bottle bombs...

How long have they sat in fridge. I made a watermelon wheat once and at room temp or after a week in fridge they would foam like crazy but after several weeks in fridge they opened/poured perfect. Idk if it makes a difference but did in my case.

I had carb issues until I started becoming more accurate with the sugar. Such as using a online carbing calculator, measuring sugar by mass not volume, determining the number of volumes(unit of measurement) to use. Still, my last batch was a bit too carbed for my taste, but at least I know how to adjust.

I don't understand why your adding priming sugar to each bottle vs. just making one batch of priming solution and adding it to the bottling bucket. I save the bottle drops for when I'm

Ryush806 said:

Have you tasted them? You might have to shake them some to get all the CO2 out. If it tastes terrible you probably had either bad oxidation (from pouring your mostly finished beer) or an infection. If they taste ok it probably hadn't finished fermenting yet. Be careful of bottle bombs...

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I have had a fair few and shared a fair few. Some have foamed up, some haven't. They don't taste too bad. It is fairly bitter, and I only used about an oz of hops (half boiled, half dry), but I don't know how to recognise off flavours from infection yet so hard to say. But they are still drinkable so perhaps I'm leaning towards them not having finished fermenting yet.

Also, I don't understand what you mean by shaking them to get the CO2 out. Would this not cause them to overflow even more?

No1ukno said:

How long have they sat in fridge.

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Some have been in there about 3 weeks, some maybe a few days. I've been drinking some and replacing them with non-refrigerated ones for about the last 3 weeks and haven't kept track of which is which. But suffice it to say that max 3 weeks they've been in there.

Cider123 said:

I don't understand why your adding priming sugar to each bottle vs. just making one batch of priming solution and adding it to the bottling bucket. I save the bottle drops for when I'm

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It was more to do with lack of knowledge than anything. It was only my second brew, I was very much still learning and the priming tabs were all I knew how to do. I still am learning but since this brew I've done a stack more reading on the topic and I'll definitely be using a bottling bucket for my next one since I have a much better understanding of the entire process.

How long did the bottles chill for prior to opening? It takes at least 48 hrs for the co2 to dissolve into the beer. I just made an Irish red that foamed like crazy until I chilled it for 2 whole days. Once chilled they poured perfect with a nice head. If you chilled your bottles for long enough prior to opening than it may something else like others have suggested (fermentation not finished, infection).

I know people tend to jump to the infection conclusion way too quickly on here. Did you sanitize everything? Did you boil your brew? Did you cool as quick as possible and pitch as soon as possible? The only thing i think you did wrong is not batch priming and calculating the exact sugar mass you would need for your beer style. My first 3-4 beers i just used the whole priming sugar pack in my bottling session, then discovered the benefits of calculated batch priming.

BCH said:

How long did the bottles chill for prior to opening? It takes at least 48 hrs for the co2 to dissolve into the beer. I just made an Irish red that foamed like crazy until I chilled it for 2 whole days. Once chilled they poured perfect with a nice head. If you chilled your bottles for long enough prior to opening than it may something else like others have suggested (fermentation not finished, infection).

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Yeah that's a good point. Some of them may have been only the day before. Which may have also happened before as well. I'll see if it happens next time and keep an eye on how long they've all been in there and see if that does it.

scottab said:

Did you sanitize everything? Did you boil your brew? Did you cool as quick as possible and pitch as soon as possible? The only thing i think you did wrong is not batch priming and calculating the exact sugar mass you would need for your beer style.

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Everything was sanitised well as far I can tell. I didn't boil the brew but I did add the tin to boiling water per the instructions. Cooling and yeast I think was all fine as well. Needless to say I've left the kits behind and have started doing partials. So much more control and excitement.

Thanks all for your feedback

Next time give the beer time to get down to FG by testing with a hydrometer. Then give it another 3-7 days to clean up any by products of fermentation. The beer will settle out clear or slightly misty at this same time. Give the bottles at least 3 weeks at 70F or a lil better to carb & condition. Then a week in the fridge to settle any chill haze & get co2 into solution well. It's not a quick process. Especially when you need to get them to stop foaming over. And I date the cap for when they went in the fridge so I can tell which is which.