First batch: Nut Brown Ale called “Not the End of the World” because I brewed it on Dec 21, 2012. At first it kinda sucked. Had some weird off flavors. I tasted it again after it had been in the bottles for about three months, still not great. Tried it again today after almost 6 months in the bottle. This time, it really tastes quite good. All the off flavors are gone, has a very nice typical nut brown ale flavor. At one point I was ready to dump the whole lot, but now I’m thinking this is going to be my summer refreshment.
Second batch: Black IPA called “Black Eye”. I brewed it per instructions with one exception - I used about 1 1/2 oz. more priming sugar because I had some left over. So, it tastes pretty good, carbonated nicely, about the right ABV. Here’s the problem: way too much head. It’s a rich chocolatey brown creamy head, but way too much of it and it doesn’t subside. I can pour literally only about 4 ounces into a pint glass before the head reaches the top. Any ideas what I can do about this and prevent it from happening next time?
Yeah, don’t use so much priming sugar. You used 6.5 oz of priming sugar… What you’re seeing here is over carbonation.
You could pop the cap off a little and let them de-gas, then recap. I haven’t bottled for years so check into this process more on this site.
Open the bottle and put it in the sink, wait five minutes, then pour.
Use the tastybrew.com carbonation calculator. This takes into account how much CO2 is already in the beer prior to priming for carbonation. It also lets you pick the right volumes fo CO2 for a particular style.
If you added extra priming sugar then thats the obvious problem. If you added it to the boil then its fine.
I’d recommend not rushing to bottle too, if there is even a little activity still going on this is going to contribute to the carbonation in the bottle. Seems like my dark beers are more prone to this, maybe some of the sugars are slow to be metabolized or maybe there is just more body and this makes for more and longer-lasting foam.
When I have over-carbed beer I just pour into a decanter first, let the foam subside then pour into my glass.
