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Bottle conditioned beer - Foaming Issues

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  • Bottle conditioned beer - Foaming Issues

    We've had some issues with foaming beer... The beers are not gushers. The carbonation is good and pours without excessive foaming.

    However... If you uncap the bottle and let it stand the beer starts foaming over after a while. It is almost as if the decrease in pressure on the bit of yeast in the bottom causes some form of CO2 breakout.

    Has anyone else had this?
    We've tried tasting the beers at different age intervals and cannot pick up development of any contamination off flavors



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  • #2
    How long is a while before foaming? You sure you aren't seeing a CO2 release due to change in beer temperature?

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    • #3
      Say more than 10 minutes... Will time it next time


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      • #4
        We have had a similar problem, although I would say that 10 minutes is pretty good. I can't imagine many people opening a beer and not pouring it within that amount of time. And several big Belgian beers foam over much more quickly than that.
        Ours was less than a minute, and often times it was immediate.

        One thing we found was that we were just being impatient. Opening bottles while refermentation was still going on (and while they were still at refermentation temperature) tended to result in the bottle foaming over. Waiting until it was done did a lot.
        We also did two other things at the same time, so I don't know which one helped, but:
        1) We were not cleaning our brewhouse well enough (scale particularly). We worked with Sopura and greatly improved not only the cleanliness of the tuns but also the heat exchanger.
        2) We also worked on our water chemistry to get some more calcium in the water. We were a bit low, which may have caused some calcium oxylate buildup.

        One question would be is if you have this problem after it is finished refermenting and has been cooled to serving temperature for at least a couple of days.
        Br. Francis
        Birra Nursia
        Norcia, Italy

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        • #5
          Are you using biofine or some other fining agent? How brite it the beer? If there is excessive yeast in suspension it can create nucleation sites for the co2 to come out of solution and cause foaming.

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          • #6
            Well... I am pretty sure it was after refermentation.
            We are not using any fining agents, so the suspended yeast may also contribute.
            I think we need to check our water chemistry. The calcium content may also be an issue


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            • #7
              Possibly Fusarium?

              So instant gushing is usually caused by either over carbonation or a protein made by the fungus fusarium, which survives through the brewing process and has large nucleation sites in which CO2 can escape readily when the bottle is opened. The 10 minute wait is interesting. I wonder if there is some of that fusarium protein at the bottom of the bottle, but now covered by the yeast you mention. When the bottle warms up and that protein starts moving into the solution more, it becomes "active" again and starts the gushing.
              Peter Cronin
              Senior Quality Analyst
              AleSmith Brewing Company

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              • #8
                Ken Jennings Redhook

                Hi,
                Well, most maltsters screen for Fusarium, since Fusarium can also lead to vomitoxins (it is what it sounds like) in malt. So that sounds like a long shot. I know this might be not too obvious, but ....it has been a cold winter. Could the bottle of beer have been frozen. This could lead to carbon dioxide coming out of solution upon opening. But like I said, maybe this would be too obvious.
                Ken
                PS Opps "COLD WINTER", I see you are from South Africa!....my bad, but the beer could have been frozen just the same and caused such a problem.
                Last edited by Ken Jennings; 03-20-2015, 02:48 PM. Reason: being an idiot.

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                • #9
                  Hi guys. Thanks for the input. The Fusarium option is quite possible. I suspect a migration of the particles is highly likely due to the sediment we have in our bottles...
                  We've had quite a bit of malt quality variation. High protein contents, etc. Some of the bigger craft brewers had some major issues.

                  Ken... We can only wish for a cold & snowy winter here.



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