In need of some advice

[RedBEERd]

I know this topic has come up before and likely even from me but I'm trying to find out the source of my foamage.....today I popped the top on another of my 3 month old Blind Pig clones that was once a pretty decent beer. I know time has hit her hoppage but now she seems to be foaming and causing a good 1/2 of my liter bottles to lose beer and worse, to mix it all up so that the beer is full of sediment from the bottom of the bottle.

I'm SURE that I sanitized (actually for over 20 mins) each bottle and I don't think we over carbed, in fact I'm sure of it since some bottles don't seem to have this problem. the bottles in question seem to be either small 160z pet's or the big glass liters...all of which were sanitized. I'm wondering if there is something I'm missing.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[FedoraDave]

I've had a similar problem, although it seems to affect entire batches with gushing. I've changed out my LBKs for 3 gallon carboys, and I'm hoping that solves the problem, as I believe it was an infected LBK.

For your situation, I wonder if it's not excessive yeast in that particular bottle. You may have no way of knowing at this point, but the last bottle can contain more yeast and trub than the previous ones, and that may contribute to incidents such as you describe.

I bottle in 12-ounce glass bottles, and I've taken to capping the last one with a different colored cap, so I know which one may be a trub bottle. It doesn't change the fact that there may be excessive foaming or more yeast in my glass, but at least I'm not flummoxed by the question "why".

If the rest of your batch was fine, I'd just chalk it up to being the last bottle filled and excessive trub.

[RedBEERd]

Thx Dave. I' ve actually originally thought that was DEFINITELY the problem since on previous batches, it was always the smaller and later bottles that I bottled, thus I figured it had more trub etc and it reacted with the yeast and foamed. But in this particular batch, while I'm not sure where these last liter pop top bottles were bottles (as in, what order) I've found that maybe every other one had an foam out. Some fully would release the whole bottle had I not capped it again, while others would foam just enough to bring the little sediment on the bottom up enough to ruin the whole beer. I know it's not skanky, funky beer as it's not off taste so I figure it has to be some sort of mini bomb.

I guess I'll see what happens with this latest batch and try to learn from it. thx for your opinion.

[John Sand]

As Dave pointed out, it may be that your fermenter is infected, or your bottling equipment. Maybe even your spigot if you use an LBK or BDC. I recently found a bottle from last year. That batch had had no problem, this one was a gusher. So either the bottle was dirty or a very slight infection grew over time. Good luck with it.

[jimjohson]

fwiw I had 1 batch do that and I inspected the bottles and detected a slight film inside the problem bottles and others. so I been using a bottle brush on all bottles every since, haven't had another gusher batch. (knock wood)

[haerbob3]

What method of priming did you use? Once the type of sugar that beer yeast eats is gone it is gone and the beer-yeast cannot ferment anymore, no food. However other yeast types & bacteria have no problems with more complex sugar types.

[Kealia]

For your situation, I wonder if it's not excessive yeast in that particular bottle. You may have no way of knowing at this point, but the last bottle can contain more yeast and trub than the previous ones, and that may contribute to incidents such as you describe.

Hey Dave, I think I would challenge that statement. The amount of yeast/trub shouldn't make any difference in carb levels since it's the amount of sugar that is going to determine the carb level.
If there is X amount of available sugars to be eaten, the amount of yeast available shouldn't make a difference in the CO2 produced.

I am happy to be told that I am wrong here, but that's my thinking based on what I know.
Thoughts?

[John Sand]

I think I'm with you Kealia. I find that trub bottles carb faster, but not farther. I do find that warmer bottles carb much better, but not to gushing.

[mashani]

I think I'm with you Kealia. I find that trub bottles carb faster, but not farther. I do find that warmer bottles carb much better, but not to gushing.

Agree pretty much. Only reason I might think it would matter is if there is "other stuff" besides yeast trub that might get into suspension when you are carrying around or opening the bottle. That "other stuff" might provide nucleation points for CO2 and lead to more foam. More "other stuff" means more nucleation points.

[FedoraDave]

On reflection, I have to agree.

I've noticed more trub-like particles in my gushers, and was perhaps misinterpreting the cause and effect. I've also taken to marking my final bottle with a different colored cap, so I know which one may be a trub bottle, just to see if there's any difference, but that experiment hasn't gone far enough for me to come to any conclusions, other than I probably need to be more careful when I'm racking to my bottling bucket.

[myhorselikesbeer]

I always thought I could run faster, jump higher and drink more when I had my "Buster Brown" Trub bottles

[duff]

I'm not really sure what advice I can give other than to try and keep track of every piece of equipment you use during fermentation and see if it happens again while using that same equipment.

I have only had one batch of foamers and I have used all the equipment used in that batch on other batches since but I haven't had any other foam issues. You can see how much foam there is in the picture below. That was as slow as I could pour it. If you can see in the neck of the bottle there is some foam still in the bottle but it doesn't keep foaming like I have seen with other peoples. If you wait long enough the foam will collapse and the beer is quite tasty although undercarbed. It just takes around an hour to pour one beer. I have found that if I can get the temperature as close to freezing as possible it foams less than when it is warmer.

Foam.jpg (244.48 KiB) Viewed 4463 times

[Brewbirds]

Just opened one of the last three cherry porters (brewed 8/22/13) for BB2 and it wanted to foam out a bit.

So this is a trend across our Borg and I wonder if we should consolidate these GUSHER posts somewhere so that we could collect the info we have when we get gushers, such as grain bill (dark malts ?), (fermentation temps?) , (dry hopped commando?), etc. into one area to see if something comes out as a commonality.

We all live in different geographical regions and use different suppliers and use different brewing methods but so many seem to be getting this gusher syndrome this year that I'm curious if we can't find something that points to a single target.


??????????

[RickBeer]

Beyond everyone knowing BB, I don't know what could be in common amongst those with the issues beyond a) brewing a lot and b) trying different things.

[RedBEERd]

I see now why this borg is so successful with their brewing.....all great minds............

I've tried to consider all these things as I go along...I'm so anal about cleaning and sterilizing that I think I actually go overboard. I soak my bottles in a bucket of fresh star san for sometimes more than 15 mins (I did say I was anal). I clean and soak the spigot, hose, top, wand thief, primer, you name it. So I'm feeling like it's likely not that, but I guess since it's happening it still can be so..........

All of these have occurred since I've been batch priming. Before when I just put sugar in the old PET's, I never had this problem. I don't think there's really any correlation there. And since it's happened on small 16oz bottles, glass bombers and even 1 liter pop tops, I can't say it's relegated to just one type of bottle.

So, I'll continue to brew, drink and enjoy beer and yet still bitch, whine and moan when some don't quite come out like behaved adult beverages.

Thanks again everyone for the help.