Over carbonation? - Brewium.com Community Forum

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Author	Message
recks1 Dedicated Member	# Posted: 30 Aug 2007 10:40:08 We just tasted 2 batches that we brewed simultaneously, and one turned out to be a lot more carbonated than the other. We're talking a lot of head, and a lot more tiny bubble activity. One of the batches was a barleywine and the other was a brown ale. The brown was the one that was over-carbonated. Is there a general error that we could have made to cause this?
Anonymous	# Posted: 1 Sep 2007 09:38:00 recks, A couple of possibilities come to mind. One, bottling beer before fermentation is completely finished will cause it to over carbonate. Two, another thing that causes over carbonation is using too much priming sugar. I hope this helps. Steve
recks1 Dedicated Member	# Posted: 6 Sep 2007 10:00:37 We've tasted over half of them now, and none of them are as carbonated as the first ones we tried. In fact, the one I had yesterday was completely flat, which leads us to think it's an uneven distribution of priming sugar. We're definately sure fermentation is done at the point we bottle, but we've never been sure of our method of adding the priming sugar. We've been adding the sugar (after dissolving in water) during the syphoning process, thinking it will mix it up while it's syphoning. I don't think this is working well. How do people usually add priming sugar? And do they stir it after they add it?
scwenger	# Posted: 6 Sep 2007 23:06:08 hmmm... Yep - thats how to do it. If you do add the priming solution after syphoning, you can stir the beer, just try to be gentle to avoid oxygenation. Just to be sure we are on the same page for adding it before syphoning, bring about 1 pint of water to a boil, add 3/4 cup priming sugar. Bring back to boil for 3-5 minutes then cover and let cool a while. I usually do this before cleaning and sterilizing bottles to give it a chance to cool off. Pour the priming solution into the bottling bucket after the bucket has been sterilized. Its okay for the priming solution to still be warm at this point, as long as it is not right off the burner. Siphon the beer into the bottling bucket after sterlizing the tubing. My tube reaches the bottom of the bottling bucket to avoid splashing and excess oxygen. That is normally enough to get even distribution. Do all of the beers taste okay other than being flat? If they smell or taste strange, you might have picked up some contamination while syphoning that prevents the beer yeast from carbonating. If the beer smells and tastes good, I think you are on the right track with uneven distribution. Thanks for the support. Steve
recks1 Dedicated Member	# Posted: 7 Sep 2007 16:16:06 That's interesting, we never brought it back to a boil after dissolving the sugar, we'll try that next time. Other than being flat though, all the beers taste fine, so we think we've narrowed it down to priming sugar distribution. And we've always added the sugar half way through syphoning, so we'll try adding it to the bottling bucket before we start syphoning (that might be our problem in the first place). What would excess oxygen do to the beer?
scwenger	# Posted: 10 Sep 2007 17:53:15 Recks1, Oxygen is what causes bottled beer to spoil - commonly referred to as skunky beer. Since there are no preservatives in homemade beer besides hops, the oxygen will contribute to spoiling the beer over time. If you are like me, beer never lasts long enough to have the chance to spoil so I would not worry about it too much other than we homebrewers always strive for process perfection. After reading your last post, it definitely sounds like inconsistent priming sugar distribution since you added it halfway through and probably didn't get enough of a stir. Thanks again. Steve
forestgrl	# Posted: 23 Feb 2009 11:18:19 I have over carbonation in some of my beer as well. This is the first time I ever homebrewed and think I left it in bottles at room tempature too long, I went out of town, and couldn't move it before hand. Is there any way for me to reduce the carbonation?
scwenger	# Posted: 27 Feb 2009 18:38:10 forestgrl, Take a bottle opener and barely lift one edge until you hear some of the gas escaping. If the beer is way over carbonated, it will probably start to foam in the bottle up to the top. If you do it right, the cap will not be bent so when you let go, it should reseal. If you bend the cap too much and the beer hasn't started gushing, just put a new cap on. I have had some over carbonated bottles before that I had to repeat this same process several times letting the foam settle before repeating. I hope this helps. Steve