Dry hop causing overcarbonation?

[wntbtrbeer]

Recently I brewed a Caribbou Slobber from Northern Brewer and split my 5 gallon batch in two. One half I bottled in the original recipe, the other half I dry hopped 5 days with 1/2 oz of Fuggle, then bottled. Two weeks later the first batch carbonated just fine, but the second batch with the dry hop addition is REALLy overcarbonated. I used 1/3 cup of white sugar for each 2 1/2 gallons. The question is: is there any relation to Dry Hopping and over-carbonation given identical bottling procedures?

 

[elerten]

Hops in of themselves don't affect carbonation. The act of dry hopping can introduce things that would. Also the white sugar, was it boiled? Or otherwise sanitized? It's possible you caught an infection on the dry hop batch and not on the regular batch just out of chance.

 

[wntbtrbeer]

Sugar was boiled, same process as the regular batch, give or take a few moments in the saucepan. I havent noticed any odd or off smells or flavors in the dry hopped batch, in fact it smells and tastes much better than the first half. I will dry hop again. One thing was different though, in the first half I was two 12 oz bottles short of a case, and in the dry hopped batch I was four 12oz bottles short of a case. I didnt think this was a big concern since the recipe called out for 2/3 cup of sugar for 5 gallons instead of 3/4 cup I've seen in many other writings, split in half of course for the 2.5 gallon batch.

What kind of infection would cause over-carbonation?

 

[PlinyTheMiddleAged]

Wntbtrbeer,

You could try de-gassing a sample of each beer (pour each back and forth between glasses to make each sample flat) - check the fg of each. They ought to be very close to the same. If the dry hopped version has a lower fg, then it likely got infected along the way.

Cheers!

 

[duboman]

Did you weigh the sugar or simply measure in a cup? Its possible that if you simply measured in volume they were in fact not equal amounts, measuring to the gram is much more accurate

 

[douglasbarbin]

What kind of infection would cause over-carbonation?

Brett or any other wild yeast that can ferment things that S. Cerevisiae can't. May or may not have a noticeable smell, especially if there are dry hops involved.

 

[wntbtrbeer]

Duboman, I measured the sugar, I didn't know enough to weigh at the time. Pliney, I will work on the de-gassing this week and let you know. Thanks for the input, so much to know here, this helps a lot!

 

[joshesmusica]

did you use pellets? did some of the hops debris end up in the dry hopped bottles? how much overcarbonated are we talking here? did you just leave the half that got dry hopped in the same fermenter?
i will often bottle up all of the beer in the bottling bucket, even when there's lots of hop debris in the last several bottles. if i haven't let that debris settle out and compact with the yeast, it will seem overcarbonated, my assumption is that it's because it's giving it many more release points.

 

[wntbtrbeer]

josh, good questions: yes pellets, I strained the dry hop batch before bottling, I'm sure it is possible that some of the hops ended up in some of the bottles though I didnt notice when bottling and since drinking I havent noticed. I have drank about half of the dry hopped case. When fermenting I racked the 5 gallon batch from the primary into two 3 gallon carboys for the secondary. I let sit for two weeks, then bottled half, added the dry hops to the second , let sit for another 5 days and bottle that. The overcarbonation is in the form mostly of lots foam upon opening of the bottle. I have to immediately pour into a glass where I get about 1 - 2 inches of beer in the glass and the rest is foam. The remaining beer in the bottle then continues to foam and drip down the side of the bottle. It's an irritating task of trying not to lose good beer to the table top and not having enough room in the glass to take more beer. Again thanks for the reply!

 

[joshesmusica]

It sounds like it could be an infection. Did you have a lot of headspace in the carboy?

 

[chuckcomm]

Off subject a bit but how is the beer tasting? I got this kit as a gift and will make it in the next week or two. Just curious how it is.