I apologize in advance for this question/angry rant. I’m sure there are a hundred other posts on this topics, here is mine. I have used corn sugar to bottle all of my brews (20+). Ive always used 2/3 a cup to get the job done and did just fine. For one reason or another I cut it back to about 1/2 a cup and to my surprise my beers became more carbonated.they’re carbonated to the point that they either shoot up when I open them or the head on the beer is all that is in the glass. What’s going on here? Could it be the temp at which I store the bottles (low 70’s)? I don’t think it has to do with incomplete fermentation. I take consistent hydrometer readings and don’t bottle until its finished. What’s going on!?
I was going to say the beer wasn’t finished. However, since you don’t seem to think thats it, my next guess would be an infection. I’m assuming we are talking about 5 gal batch size. My biggest problem when bottling is inconsistent carbonation from bottle to bottle. Thats because I didn’t always get the sugar mixed well enough.
I would maybe assume an infection. I’ve had some bottles that weren’t as clean as I thought they were, popped them open, then got a beer shower. I would just make sure your bottles are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized.
If it truly is infection and you have a lot of glass bottles around capped up “(20+ batches)”
I would be more concerned with exploding bottles causing unexpected harm to unassuming walls,floors, guests, wife, dog etc… Than I would gushing or overcarbed bottles. I am already imagining these cases boxed up in a dark corner, but if not keep them as cool as possible and box them up so you can contain shards if it happens. It may only have been a 1 batch thing or a 1 bottle thing. One “telltale” that I know of from judging is you can physically see a usually white “ring” at the top of the liquid in the bottle.
