nikkuchan
Well-Known Member
Hello. I have a few years of brewing experience under my belt, but I can't say I'm very good at it. Living in Minneapolis, I get my kits mainly from Northern Brewer and sometimes Midwest. I haven't used any Mr. Beer products in years, but I still get their e-mail newsletter.
Anyway, they were having a big sale a few months ago, so I thought "what the heck. With free shipping, I could pick up a few things if it's a good deal. Well, their Winter Dark Ale cans were dirt cheap due to them approaching their expiration date, so I figured I could try some Mr Beer craft HME for a change, see if it was any good. I got 3 cans and brewed 6 gallons of it OG was about 1.051. Everything went normally, and after 3 weeks of fermentation I decided to bottle.
I went to take a FG reading, and foam foam foam. The crap foamed up like crazy in the tube. I waited for it to die down and took a reading of 1.010. Seemed fine, but all the foam was bothering me. It wasn't carbonated when I tasted it, but it was foaming in every bottle to the point where I was filling them all about half full and letting them sit for the foam to die down before filling the rest. I was telling myself that I shouldn't be bottling it like this, but then I would tell myself that it was probably something fairly common that I just haven't encountered yet. Besides, the FG is good, so what could go wrong?
Bottling done. I make sure to use a few plastics that I can squeeze to give myself some idea of how the carbonation is going or if I should be worried. 3 days later the bottles are hard. Also all the bottles had white rings around the bottle necks (looked like Krausen, maybe), so I wondered what was going on, but the weren't bulging like one time when I had a few gushers, so I let it be. I chilled a few beers to test. After chilling for a day I tried one. Not a gusher, but insane head in the glass (like 80% head). I didn't like that one bit. It tasted funny, but not really bad, and not necessarily infected (it fermented really warm, so I figured that was the problem). I decided to crack open a few of the resealable bottles (plastics, swing-tops) warm to check/vent. I got fountains. So many. They all went wild. It's been a week since bottling. I may dump the rest. I could drink it; tastes fine, but I don't want to risk any potential bombs.
I'm trying to figure out what the problem was. I've had gushers before, and they gushed even after being chilled. These gush warm, but not cold (but it's still all head after that). What was with all the foaming during bottling? Didn't look infected in the fermenter, and I take everything apart and clean it, so the spigots were definitely clean. I've had a few bad bottles before, but this is the whole batch. What's going on?
My biggest worry now is that my fermenting bucket is infected (plastic). I worry because I put a Pliny the Elder clone in there after bottling this batch (and cleaning/sanitizing of course). I have been absolutely anal with temp control and everything else to make sure this one turns out well, and I may literally cry if all that effort goes to waste.
Anyway, they were having a big sale a few months ago, so I thought "what the heck. With free shipping, I could pick up a few things if it's a good deal. Well, their Winter Dark Ale cans were dirt cheap due to them approaching their expiration date, so I figured I could try some Mr Beer craft HME for a change, see if it was any good. I got 3 cans and brewed 6 gallons of it OG was about 1.051. Everything went normally, and after 3 weeks of fermentation I decided to bottle.
I went to take a FG reading, and foam foam foam. The crap foamed up like crazy in the tube. I waited for it to die down and took a reading of 1.010. Seemed fine, but all the foam was bothering me. It wasn't carbonated when I tasted it, but it was foaming in every bottle to the point where I was filling them all about half full and letting them sit for the foam to die down before filling the rest. I was telling myself that I shouldn't be bottling it like this, but then I would tell myself that it was probably something fairly common that I just haven't encountered yet. Besides, the FG is good, so what could go wrong?
Bottling done. I make sure to use a few plastics that I can squeeze to give myself some idea of how the carbonation is going or if I should be worried. 3 days later the bottles are hard. Also all the bottles had white rings around the bottle necks (looked like Krausen, maybe), so I wondered what was going on, but the weren't bulging like one time when I had a few gushers, so I let it be. I chilled a few beers to test. After chilling for a day I tried one. Not a gusher, but insane head in the glass (like 80% head). I didn't like that one bit. It tasted funny, but not really bad, and not necessarily infected (it fermented really warm, so I figured that was the problem). I decided to crack open a few of the resealable bottles (plastics, swing-tops) warm to check/vent. I got fountains. So many. They all went wild. It's been a week since bottling. I may dump the rest. I could drink it; tastes fine, but I don't want to risk any potential bombs.
I'm trying to figure out what the problem was. I've had gushers before, and they gushed even after being chilled. These gush warm, but not cold (but it's still all head after that). What was with all the foaming during bottling? Didn't look infected in the fermenter, and I take everything apart and clean it, so the spigots were definitely clean. I've had a few bad bottles before, but this is the whole batch. What's going on?
My biggest worry now is that my fermenting bucket is infected (plastic). I worry because I put a Pliny the Elder clone in there after bottling this batch (and cleaning/sanitizing of course). I have been absolutely anal with temp control and everything else to make sure this one turns out well, and I may literally cry if all that effort goes to waste.
