What the hell man?! (Over-carbonated beer)

Cavalry brewing in CT started having frequent issues with over carbonation before they closed down. They used to be pretty good, but things really started to slide in their last couple of years.

 

The pic was after a couple minutes, and I even tried pouring at a 45 with the bottle directly against the glass on the second pour... insane amounts of head, but unlike the OP I did not have beer coming out my nose!

 

I would suggest you also respectfully converse with the brewery if at all possible. The information you shared with the store might never get to them, and assuming the brewery is interested in quality they would want to investigate further to see if yours is an isolated case or more widespread. The store has already made good on the money end, so you can tell the brewery there's no need for further recompense.

 

Exact same as me. I let it rest for a solid 20 minutes to see if it would settle down; I changed glassed; everything. Every subsequent pour, though, yielded tons of foam. And, of course, when you hazard to take a gulp over over-carbed beer, you get so much foam you really can't make out the flavors correctly (not to mention getting some wicked gas/burps)!

 

Head pressure shouldn't be much of an issue unless you have excessive headspace in your bright tank. If you aren't filling your bright tanks completely, keep the pressure at 12psi, not 15. What style beers are you packaging that 2.78 vols is a screamer? Typical ale vols are 2.50-2.70, so getting that sucker down a few vols should take only 10-15 minutes. If a 2.78 is the trouble maker at your brewery, that's where I wanna work

 

I brewed an IPA once and when i poured, it was 75 percent head. Apparently i put too much priming sugar in it. That can be a problem with bottle conditioned beers.

 

And next to a 360 controller at that.

 

And that's the bitch of it. (See my comment in this thread: http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...ite-thing-about-being-a-beer-advocate.197916/)

 

And that is how a customer becomes a regular.

 

This one was all my fault but I feel your pain ( I am not photogenic but spouse felt that my look of distress and puzzlement was worth documenting):

 

barrel aged stout.

 

Fair enough. That is pretty high for a BA stout. What brewery do you work for?

 

I've had this happen only twice in almost 8 years of drinking craft beer. Jolly Pumpkin Bam Noire and Clown Shoes Luchador En Feugo.

 

This actually happened to me tonight with a bottle of Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Blanca. My buddy also bought a bottle and his did the same (his was a few weeks ago, though).

Foamed all over my desk at work. I need to get rid of any incriminating odors and/or stains.
Night shift has its perks

 

People should take note of this. While this response downplays in some ways the seriousness of the situation by reporting factually, I can summarize it this way, and this is almost certainly the case with the beer OP bought. They ended up with underattenuated beer because they tried to save money by underpitching, tried to save money by not letting the beer fully attenuate the requisite amount of time a beer needs, and either tried to save money or tried to reward an untried local yeast supplier and used yeast that was (despite the claim of no infection) infected. Infections don't have to be the yucchy tastes awful kind, they can be the kind that is outmuscled in the fermenter but can eat more fermentables than the desired yeast, and continue to do so in bottle after the desired yeast go dormant, and don't produce tart garbagey off flavors.

If this happens to you, it is a sign that the brewery whose beer you purchased needs to stop being cheap and pitch properly, and wait the proper time for the beer to be ready. Beer tells you when its ready, and this doesn't change even if your fermenter schedule says different.

 

I wouldn't say it is by trying to save money. It is more than likely a lack of training issue than anything else if the problem is under attenuation. A lot of small breweries don't do yeast counts or viability tests, or don't know how much dissolved oxygen is in their wort, or don't know the pH at each stage. No one is saying "I'll save money if I under pitch and then I will rush the beer out." In our case, it was a lack of training. We now have that problem taken care of. I would venture to say that most breweries go through this exact problem at some time unless they are hiring a well-educated brewmaster.

As for our yeast lab problem, that wasn't a small, local lab. It was a large supplier (Not Wyeast or White Labs, for the record) that I would guess got overwhelmed with orders and tried to rush. Several breweries that I know of that use the supplier ended up a with some type of problem about 6 months ago. Many of them didn't/haven't realized that their problems could be traced back to the lab and continue to try to fix problems that are out of their control. Sadly, these breweries will likely get bit again by the same problem. I have done my part to try to warn my colleagues.

One last thing that can cause gushing is actually the malts that are used. We have seen malt on one occasion from a large maltster that was questionable about whether or not it had fursarium, which can lead to a toxin which can cause gushing. This problem is much less likely, but shouldn't be ruled out completely. In this case, it is not something that most small brewers know to look for.

 

Wow, I had never heard of fusarium. Did a search, and just wow. Masked fusarium with Deoxynivalenol oligoglycosides? Gushing or bottle bombs? Gakk.

Great info on factors that contribute to perfect beer. I hope all who read it realize how hard it is to guarantee great beer on a consistent basis, how many factors contribute.

 

HA! i have a whole case of these f'ers - every single one thus far does that. thinking about trying to sell the remainders to the fire department. fire extinguishers!!