ViperMan
Well-Known Member
I found a partial case of beer buried in the back of our living room over the weekend. When I uncovered it, I discovered a shattered bottle. I realized quickly that it still had a cap, and - most oddly, I couldn't find any hint of beer!
On a whim though, I chilled the other bottles in the case (of the same beer) and opened them tonight. They were MAJOR gushers...
I've been having this problem a lot. Having recently joined a local brewing club (Pittsburgh TRUB club!) I've been bringing in a lot of homebrew to share. Almost every bottle I've opened has foamed or spewed over the past few months, and it's starting to piss me off...
In MANY cases, I've let the beer sit with an inactive airlock for SEVERAL days after fermentation. A lot of them have had additions in secondary - apples for one, hazelnut extract in another, strawberry preserves in the one that burst... But I've still let the beer sit for a while after the airlock quit hopping.
(Sidebar - I recently purchased a refractometer and have been modifying my airlocks so that I can pop the cap and slip my 1ml ultra-thin glass pipette through the airlock to grab samples, allowing me to start grabbing multiple samples like I SHOULD be instead of relying on the airlock as my guide...)
I read an article recently about diacetyl, and how not letting the yeast grab the rest of the diacetyl can somehow lead to overcarbonation later in the beer's life, but honestly I didn't memorize the article and now I can't find it.
Also, I know that a lot of the beers I made last year were slightly underpitched and VERY poorly oxygenated. This year I've purchased a oxygenation kit and O2 tank. I also plan on getting a stir plate and making some much better starters. Lastly with my new refractometer, I should be able to make sure that fermentation is complete.
The weird thing about the bottle that popped is that I served a bottle over Christmas and it was great. I brewed the beer back in September or so - I'd think it would have been a gusher by end-of December. So I'm really puzzled. It COULD have been an infection, but the beer doesn't taste very thin (it was a pale ale already), and most of the batch that was already consumed was delicious.
Anyways, sorry for rambling. The question is, besides bottling before fermentation is done and infection, what else can cause overcarbonation?
Thanks folks. Happy Brewing.
On a whim though, I chilled the other bottles in the case (of the same beer) and opened them tonight. They were MAJOR gushers...
I've been having this problem a lot. Having recently joined a local brewing club (Pittsburgh TRUB club!) I've been bringing in a lot of homebrew to share. Almost every bottle I've opened has foamed or spewed over the past few months, and it's starting to piss me off...
In MANY cases, I've let the beer sit with an inactive airlock for SEVERAL days after fermentation. A lot of them have had additions in secondary - apples for one, hazelnut extract in another, strawberry preserves in the one that burst... But I've still let the beer sit for a while after the airlock quit hopping.
(Sidebar - I recently purchased a refractometer and have been modifying my airlocks so that I can pop the cap and slip my 1ml ultra-thin glass pipette through the airlock to grab samples, allowing me to start grabbing multiple samples like I SHOULD be instead of relying on the airlock as my guide...)
I read an article recently about diacetyl, and how not letting the yeast grab the rest of the diacetyl can somehow lead to overcarbonation later in the beer's life, but honestly I didn't memorize the article and now I can't find it.
Also, I know that a lot of the beers I made last year were slightly underpitched and VERY poorly oxygenated. This year I've purchased a oxygenation kit and O2 tank. I also plan on getting a stir plate and making some much better starters. Lastly with my new refractometer, I should be able to make sure that fermentation is complete.
The weird thing about the bottle that popped is that I served a bottle over Christmas and it was great. I brewed the beer back in September or so - I'd think it would have been a gusher by end-of December. So I'm really puzzled. It COULD have been an infection, but the beer doesn't taste very thin (it was a pale ale already), and most of the batch that was already consumed was delicious.
Anyways, sorry for rambling. The question is, besides bottling before fermentation is done and infection, what else can cause overcarbonation?
Thanks folks. Happy Brewing.