Hi guys this is my first post as an AHA member but i have been a homebrewer going on 2 years. I was hoping you guys could help me with an issue I have been running into with the last couple brews i have bottled. The past 4 beers i have bottled have all been over carbonated. I know for a fact i have not been using too much priming sugar but may think it has to do with a possible infection. The issue though is that my beers have no off flavors besides an over carbonated taste. My last batch i even made sure to deeply sanitize all my equipment and bottles. Does this type of nfection linger on and is something star san has issues with? I also can’t find much info on this issue and it has been discouraging the hell out of me. Help and more information would be greatly appreciated.
It could be a minor infection; something that ate just a little sugar, added carbonation, and not a noticeable flavor yet. Possibly a brett? Give all of your plastic a good soaking in PBW, then Star San. If your bottling bucket has a spigot, do you take it apart and clean it every time? I don’t think there’s much that can survive Star San at a pH of 3.
Also, could it be possible that the beer wasn’t at terminal gravity yet? I’ve had a beer stall and look done, only to ferment a bit more in the bottle, resulting in over carbonation.
Simply stated, overcarbonation with no off flavors means there was too much sugar at bottling. Possibly the residual sugar in underattenuated beer added the extra. How long, at what temp and which yeast did you use to ferment?
I had the beer sit in primary for two weeks then secondary for another two weeks. I used white labs american ale blend for fermentation at 70 degrees. I used the low end of vol scale for carbonation with about 3.38oz of corn sugar for 4.5 gallons of brew. When you crack a bottle it looks normal then slowly bubbles start rising to the top quicker and quicker. Takes about a minute for the bottle to foam over. From the reply up there i have noT removed my spigot for deeper cleaning but i do make sure to continually flush it with star san.
You really should disassemble/clean your spigot every time you bottle. I had exactly the same issue as you’re having, and I traced it back to a dirty bottling spigot.
How can contamination at this point have that much of an effect over 5 gallons of beer? It isn’t as if the spigot was hiding an extra 2oz of sugar…? Plus, if it’s a matter of competition… wouldn’t that mean less yeast activity, not more?
And for Mr. Swayze: I’ve had this problem more than a couple of times. It always comes down to inexact priming sugar measurement on my part. “Ah, that’s not enough, look at it! Just drop in another scoop. It’ll be fine.” Stupid brain.
4-6oz for most beers. The highest successful pitch I’ve had for priming sugar was 8oz for my steam beer. That was brown sugar, actually. I recommend trying it out.
You’re probably right, and the eight batches of gushers I had in a row were a coincidence, and also the zero gushers for the forty-some batches I’ve done since I’ve started cleaning my spigot are probably just a coincidence too.
How can contamination have that much of an effect?
Wild yeasts/bacteria can ferment out more complex sugars than brewers strains can. It doesnt take much brettanomyces or whatever else to ferment out beer from 1.010 to 1.001. Thats quite a bit of co2 being generated in that little bottle.
Im definitely going to go ahead and disassemble the spigot and leave it soking in star san. But like i said above, im pretty sure its not over pitching priming sugar as i have never gone above 4oz of sugar for bottling.
I soak my spigots in hot water to soften them up, then they’re a lot easier to take apart. I have broken one spigot this way (the valve ripped off), so I always keep a spare on hand.
Not necessarily. Time is a factor here. How long have they been in bottles? It can take months before you notice any real distinguishing characteristics from Brett. Also considering that its such a small amount of sugar its fermenting there may be negligible flavor effects, especially after a short period of time.
Say you do an all Brett beer, no yeast introduced, the beer will have Brett character at a young age, however the character of that can be more or less pronounced, or a completely different type of flavor all together, depending on the pH of the beer/wort.
If you do a beer fermented with a primary yeast strain then add Brett to the secondary intentionally the character of the Brett will be much more subtle.
Also consider that Brett is only one of many “bugs” and one of the more flavor pronounced ones at that in most cases. Other things like Lactobacillus dont have much flavor at all, they just sour the beer over time for the most part…taste a Berliner Weisse thats a month old and one thats 3 months old, big difference!
If I were you I would keep a bottle or 2 of this beer and tuck it away for a couple months, then try and drink some. You may notice an off flavor that isnt there now.
Thanks i really appreciate it, so what would be the best approach to cleaning my equipment. All i have is star san and i would like to ensure that i clear off any infection from my equipement. By the wasy i use plastic buckets but i usually leave them with star san in them for a day before i use.
Plastic buckets are fine, but they do scratch easily. So be very careful when cleaning.
I know of a lot of brewers who replace plastic buckets every so many brews to protect against this.
Also cleaning and sanitizing are different! Star San is useless if youre equipment isnt clean. I personally use PBW to clean, and Star San to sanitize. Oxi Clean also works well for cleaning. Things like valves on bottling buckets should be disassembled and soaked in a warm(110-140F) cleaning solution to remove any debris. Then that should be soaked in Star San. Star San works quickly, recommended contact time is 3 minutes, but 30 seconds is actually enough to kill.
Make sure your stuff is clean before you sanitize. You saying all that you have is Star San is making me sway toward thinking infection is indeed your issue. and youre very welcome, being a homebrewer is all about helping out fellow brewers!