Over Carbonation or Hop Debris?

[chato]

I've got a batch of APA that despite best efforts ended up with a lot of hop debris in the bottles. The bottles are gushers and the beer is very carbonated....makes you burp after each gulp. I made sure fermentation had ended and used a measured amount of priming sugar as indicated from an online calculator for carbing to style. So, could the gushing and high carbonation level be a result of the hop debris? I've seen some posts indicating that hop debris can provide 'nucleation points' for C02 to cling to.

If this is the issue, would slightly prying the caps to release C02 several times over several hours help in this situation?

 

[KepowOb]

I had a IIPA that had had some carbonation issues as well, so I'm curious as what others think here.

 

[chato]

I think I may have answered my own question. I was attempting to slightly pry the bottle caps to release C02 from my bottles and I came to one that I remembered was the last one bottled. This one had a particularly high amount of debris, clearly showing at the bottom. I thought to myself, "If my theory is correct, this one might blow". And sure enough, when I tried to release a little pressure, the top blew off and the entire beer basically exploded...gushing out at extreme volume. It covered the surrounding walls with beer and emptied all but a couple of ounces from the 26 oz bottle. What a mess! I'd conclude from this that a high amount of hop debris in the bottles does indeed lead to gushers and over carbonation.

 

[Calder]

Hop debris will provide nucleation sites for the CO2 to escape. However, you might want to take a gravity reading to see if there has been any further fermentation, in case you have high carbonation too.

Next bottle, pour some into an hydrometer jar, and let it go flat, take a reading, then drink the beer.

Don't like drinking flat beer ...... open another bottle, and add the flat beer from the hydrometer to that one in the glass.

I had a bottle break one time, and did this. I found my gravity was about 9 points down from where it was when I bottled. I immediatly placed all the bottles in a fridge and drank them quickly