California Common Carb madness

[Ibasterd]

Hey guys

Been a while since I've posted, but I'm still alive and lurking about on the Borg. Just wanted to share my experience with a recent batch of California Common that I made. The recipe can be found here (http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... nia-common) if anyone's interested. This came out pretty nice as far as flavor goes. A nice tawny brown, nice and malty with some light fruit notes. My problem with this batch is the carb level. It's insane! I use flip top bottles, and upon opening, it's like a champagne bottle. And then comes the gushing. The batch is not infected, it's just WAY too carbed. I used the same amount of priming sugar as always, so I think it's an incomplete fermentation or the yeast I used, which is "San Francisco Lager Yeast WPL810". I've read that this yeast is highly "effervescent". I went about 3weeks in the fermenter, which has always been enough, but I'm thinking that with this pseudo Lager yeast, maybe it needs to go longer.

I've been dealing with the problem by pre-opening the bottles to vent off some CO2. The nice things about flip-tops is that this can be done easily. I been having to pop a top and quickly re-sealing before the gushing. I have to do this maybe five times, letting the bubbles settle before each purge. I am guessing at how much CO2 to purge, but it has been working pretty well. After purging like this, I'll stick them in the fridge for a few days, and the carb level is much better.

Don't know if anyone has had a similar problem with this yeast? Anyways, the beer tastes good, I just can't hand any out, unless I'm trying to get back at someone.

Cheers

[Beer-lord]

Are you sure it was finished fermenting? I've not used that yeast and it says attenuation is 65-70% and it looks like yours was 68% if that final reading was correct.
We've had a few bottles that were overcarbed and others that were fine but the longer they sat, the worse they got.

[mashani]

I've used WLP810 a couple of times and not had that issue.

Did you make a starter or just pitch a vial? And/or how old was the vial?

That might be the difference between it getting done and stalling out a bit for a while.

FWIW, I'd have pitched a 800ml starter in a 2.5 gallon batch of that. A 2-3 month old vial on its own would possibly only have about 1/2 of the amount of viable yeast I would want to pitch.

[Ibasterd]

I've used WLP810 a couple of times and not had that issue.

Did you make a starter or just pitch a vial? And/or how old was the vial?

That might be the difference between it getting done and stalling out a bit for a while.

FWIW, I'd have pitched a 800ml starter in a 2.5 gallon batch of that. A 2-3 month old vial on its own would possibly only have about 1/2 of the amount of viable yeast I would want to pitch.

I made a starter for a 2.5 gal batch. Didn't check the yeast pack for freshness. I'm assuming the ferment wasn't quite finished. For some reason that I can't remember, I didn't take a F.G. sample, so I guess I'll never really know.

[Kealia]

I've made a CC 3-4 times and have always used that yeast without issue, so count another one for "no issues".

At least your silver lining is that they don't seem to be infected and taste good. That along with the ability to vent the pop tops easily allows you to save the batch.

And....it just caught my eye that you mentioned a 2.5G batch but the recipe linked to is for a 2.2G batch. With just a quick look at a priming calculator that could be 0.3oz too much sugar if that is in fact the case.
I haven't crunched the numbers to see what that would do to carb levels but is this possibly what happened?

[Ibasterd]

I bottle prime, not batch. I'm fairly certain that it's an incomplete ferment.

[Kealia]

Okie dokie. Like I said, glad you didn't lose the batch.

[Dawg LB Steve]

Wow that FG is high, I have used that yeast twice on C.C.'s and I believe both times it finished in the 1.007-1.009 range, so I would tend to go with it not finished fermenting. Both times I kept the fermenting temp at 62 same as yours from the recipe.

[FedoraDave]

This is of much interest to me. A couple years ago I brewed my South Ferry Steam Beer and entered it in a competition. It was also a 2.5g batch, and also used that yeast. The sample I submitted to the comp was a gusher, but none of the other bottles in that batch gushed. And I batch prime, so all of this is curious to me.

I ferment all of my batches for 3 weeks, and in my case, I can only figure that it was my bad luck to submit bottles that weren't cleaned properly and might have had a speck of something that acted as a nucleation point for the gusher. Or else some excess yeast happened to get into that bottle.

In your case, I can only guess that your sugar level might have been a wee bit high, and perhaps the beer wasn't completely fermented at bottling. The combination of the two might be doing a number on the batch as a whole.

But it's interesting, as I said, since this is happening with the same style, yeast, and fermentation time as mine.

[Ibasterd]

This is of much interest to me. A couple years ago I brewed my South Ferry Steam Beer and entered it in a competition. It was also a 2.5g batch, and also used that yeast. The sample I submitted to the comp was a gusher, but none of the other bottles in that batch gushed. And I batch prime, so all of this is curious to me.

I ferment all of my batches for 3 weeks, and in my case, I can only figure that it was my bad luck to submit bottles that weren't cleaned properly and might have had a speck of something that acted as a nucleation point for the gusher. Or else some excess yeast happened to get into that bottle.

In your case, I can only guess that your sugar level might have been a wee bit high, and perhaps the beer wasn't completely fermented at bottling. The combination of the two might be doing a number on the batch as a whole.

But it's interesting, as I said, since this is happening with the same style, yeast, and fermentation time as mine.

I think it's as you said and is a combination for me. For your case, since it was only one bottle, probably a bottle contamination issue. In any case, I was just pointing out that it's nice to have flip-tops in a situation like this.

[Ibasterd]

Here is proof that the bottles that I vented are worth saving. Pretty good beer!

[philm00x]

Looks great!


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