Excessive foam

I brewed a batch of caribou slobber. After 8 days I decided to open a room temperature beer. Half of the bottle emptied out due to foam all over the place. Too much priming sugar? I did add 2extra heaping tablespoons. Or just warm beer? Will basement cold storage help it? 62 degrees.

Sounds like it’s over primed. Could also be an infection, but I’m going with over primed since that’s more likely.

I would go lower than basement temp. I would stick them in the fridge. Right now, the colder, the better (above freezing, of course). That’s my opinion, though.

Paul

You probably had quite a bit of CO2 still dissolved in the beer when you primed, the standard priming sugar addition (4oz corn sugar) really leaves something to be desired when it comes to proper carbonation. Still, the level will be more manageable when the beer is chilled. A brown ale probably shouldn’t need to be really carbonated though.

If its an infection (and they do happen occasionally in spite of our best efforts) you’ll start to notice off flavors after a month or two.

It’s possible you are not finished priming after 8 days. Let it go another week and put a bottle in the fridge for a couple days. Then open it. Bottles that have not finished carbonating will foam up when opened. Same goes for a beer at room temp. you had a double whammy by opening it early and at room temp.

Thanks everyone. I will wait an additional week. Chill and then try it again.

Thanks everyone. I will wait an additional week. Chill and then try it again.

Thanks everyone. I will wait an additional week. Chill and then try it again.

Thank you all. I will wait the additional week and refrigerate prior to opening the next brew.

If after you wait and chill and they still foam over try this. Remove the cap and let it gas out for a short time. Then recap with a sanitized cap. Not a exact science but better then gushers.

One thing I have found out about homebrewers, is we can be very resourceful, especially when it come to risking the loss of our beer. I have actually been known to crack open (barely) a gusher in a very large glass, and let it foam slowly out of the bottle into the glass, so as not to lose any precious beer.

[quote=“tom sawyer”]You probably had quite a bit of CO2 still dissolved in the beer when you primed, …

If its an infection (and they do happen occasionally in spite of our best efforts) you’ll start to notice off flavors after a month or two.[/quote]

Tom Sawyer,
About the excess dissolved CO2 you mentioned, do you do any type of “degas” technique before adding priming sugar without risking oxidation possibility?

The reason I ask is even after about 10 months I have 22oz bottles of a Petite Saison and my clone for Dead Guy that foam about the same as the OP described. No off flavors, just very tiny bubbled foam approaching gusher status.
That was the first time I had bottled, I always keg, in about 30 batches and they were all brand new purchased bottles. I did go the route of adding priming sugar (white table) to each bottle so I had minimal stirring in the bottling bucket. So maybe some light stirring without splashing would release some of that CO2.

THX
VK

For me (and I’ve seen other comments on this forum), Caribou Slobber took a long time to ferment out, primary was fairly standard, but then secondary took a while to wrap up. After bottling I found that it took a couple of months of bottle aging/conditioning before the flavor really started to settle down, and then after that it was incredible.

Gushers could be part of trying it before it is ready, the CO2 hasn’t had enough time to fully dissolve in the beer.