Post-Carbonation Weirdness

So I just cracked a beer from my third batch and all kinds of weirdness happened. This was the first batch that I'd carbonated using DME instead of sugar. Same as when I used sugar, I boiled it in water for ten minutes, cooled it a little, added it to my bottling bucket, and racked the beer on top. I gave the beer three weeks to carb before putting any into the fridge. The first six I tried were well-carbed. The next twelve or so were almost completely flat. It's now been about a six or seven weeks since I bottled this batch.

When I cracked open this beer, there was immediately a thin layer of bubbles forming at the top of the bottle. I started a gentle pour and with only about two ounces out of the bottle, the beer formed a 5 inch tall head in my pint glass. In the bottle it started forming a one finger head, bubbles rising furiously from the bottom.

Lacking patience for such tomfoolery, I wiped a bit of oil off of my face and dipped my finger into the head to destabilize the foam. The carbonation has continued to yield bubbles for over 10 minutes. A particle patch of the foam took on a slight orange hue.

There are no off-flavors, and except for the surprisingly high level of carbonation, the beer is pretty good. I'm just confused as to what could have caused this, especially the orange blotch in the head of the beer. I unfortunately have no photos to share.

P.S. My roommate has had two beers that went into the fridge at the same time, and they didn't have this issue.

If it was just that one bottle then maybe that bottle wasn't completely cleaned and sanitized. If there was some gunk left behind that bottle could have become infected.

What is your bottling process? Due you stir your sugar? How long do you leave your bottles in the fridge before opening?

I've had my fair share of over carved bottles. I always have used corn sugar to carb though. To me it sounds like that bottle had something else in it for the yeast to eat at. Whether it was there before bottling, or if your DME had an undissolved pocket find its way in.

thood6 said:

What is your bottling process? Due you stir your sugar? How long do you leave your bottles in the fridge before opening?

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I completely dissolved the DME in boiling water, continued to boil for several minutes, cool the solution, add it to the bottling bucket, and then rack the beer on top. This particular bottle had been in the fridge for at least two weeks. I'd be very surprised if the sugars were unevenly distributed among the bottles or that I didn't give them enough time to carb or for the CO2 to dissolve back into the beer. However, given that many of them have been relatively flat, maybe there is more at play.

It's possible the bottle was infected, though it would surprise me. It's more that the head had a patch of light orange color than the excessive bubbling that confused me.

If you've got some that are flat, some that are spot on, and some that are over-carbonated AND the DME was indeed completely dissolved then my money is on the priming solution not being evenly mixed into the beer. BUT, the light orange patch sounds odd and I suppose could be indicative of an infection, but I don't really know.