Why am I getting so much head?

[marubozo]

Unfortunately, I'm only talking about one of my beers

My winter warmer is out of control. I've brewed a number of different beers and haven't had any odd carbonation issues. When I pour a bottle the beer instantly turns to foam the second it touches the glass. It doesn't foam out of the bottle or gush out when opened, only when poured. I've tried to pour it super slow and just trickle it down the side of the glass but it doesn't help.

So, it either takes me a half hour to pour a bottle and let the foam settle, or I end up losing half the beer to foam or have to suck the foam up. Either way, this sucks because the beer is otherwise delicious. If you get past all the foam it seems otherwise carbonated perfectly. Not flat and not super carbed.

Some vitals on the beer:

OG - 1.078
FG - 1.016 (both were exactly within the target range)

Sat in primary for a month. Got to 1.016 there, and moved to secondary for 2 more months. Then I bottled and they have been in bottles for about 11 weeks. When I bottled I used 4.5 oz priming sugar.

I've been sampling a bottle here and there over the past month or so and they all behave the same way. I've also had a few that were in the fridge for weeks prior to opening and it was the same as a bottle that just spent a few days in the fridge.

I'm just a little stumped and a bit annoyed. Any ideas?

 

[Walker]

Unfortunately, I'm only talking about one of my beers

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title, too. What a shameful lot we are....

Alas, I can't explain why your beer foams like hell.

 

[smizak]

How much sediment is in the bottles?

I've had a beer foam like that before because of excess sediment in the bottles(last few fills from the bucket). The small particles tend to make the CO2 come out of solution much faster than if they are absent. I also notice that if I chill my beers for a week or two and the chill haze drops clear, I get a much "tighter" carbonation. Smaller bubbles, less foaming, and a nice mousse-like head that persists for the entire pint.

EDIT: Just noticed you wrote that some were chilled prior to opening. That's a little strange. Did your grain bill have some higher protein malts/adjuncts? Like 6-row or wheat/rye?

 

[zman]

Did you add your priming sugar according to style and temp? Check out the guide in "How to Brew"

 

[Sacdan]

Have you tried a chilled glass?

 

[marubozo]

I forgot to mention, this was just an extract with specialty grains. Virtually no sediment to speak of.

And yes, I used the nomograph for determining how much sugar to use. I was shooting for a little under 3 volumes of CO2 and it was about 65 at bottling, which actually called for almost 5 oz of sugar. So I even dropped it back a little bit to 4.5 oz.

That's why nothing adds up. I've bottled a bunch of beers and have used the same process and every other one has come out as expected and to style.

Haven't tried a chilled glass though, so I suppose that's worth a shot.

 

[Revvy]

Sadly 'bozo, if you say you underprimed, then I have to think gusher infection. But where in the line could it be? Talk about sanitization, whatcha do?

 

[marubozo]

Sadly 'bozo, if you say you underprimed, then I have to think gusher infection. But where in the line could it be? Talk about sanitization, whatcha do?

Could be a gusher bug I guess, but I thought I'd have bottle bombs or some funky off flavors as well.

Sanitation is pretty standard. I use starsan on everything. Have about 3 or 4 gallons in a bucket used for dunking smaller equipment, a spray bottle, and just go through the motions. The ONLY thing different about this beer compared to all of my others is that I did use a secondary for bulk aging a few more months. So that is the most likely point of entry.

I guess it doesn't matter that much since the beer still tastes good, but I'm kind of bummed since I did want to give a lot of these away as gifts during the holidays. But I'm not going to be giving people beer that's going to result in mostly foam.

 

[Revvy]

Check your bottling bucket spigot...a couple people have pulled theirs apart to find a nice bit of gunk wedged in....I'm going to actually replace mine before I bottle again.

 

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I had that problem with an oktoberfest (with ale yeast) extract kit I bought. Lots of sediment in the bottles, and 95% of the bottles foamed tremendously, the other few were still very foamy but not problematic. All of the beers tasted the same, and I've been opening them for about two months.

Not really sure what the issue was...I suspect it was the volume of sediment.

Solution = big glasses

 

[Malticulous]

Rinse the glass with cold watter before you use it.

 

[dantodd]

The only things that make sense are
a) incomplete fermentation that took off again when you bottled and warmed the fermentation up a little.
b) dirty glasses
c) infection.

I'd take a sample and de-carb it, then check the gravity, see if you've had further attenuation since bottling. If the gravity is the same I'd try with a super clean glass that has been rinsed with star san.