I opened a bottle of Mystic Brewery entropy and it was a total gusher. I had to quickly take it to the sink, and easily 80% of the bottle emptied down the drain. Considering this is supposed to be an uncarbonated still beer I was understandably surprised by this outcome. Exactly how does a still beer turn into an exploding bottle?
Well, the only real sources of carbonation are forced and fermentation. As it seems quite unlikely that a brewery could accidentally force carbonate a beer, I'd say it was due to continued fermentation in the bottle. One such source could be infection, but I feel as though you'd have mentioned the accompanying off-flavors if that were the case. So my guess would be that the beer was bottled when the fermentation appeared to have been finished, but wasn't actually complete (fermentation can stall fairly easily at high ABVs); then, at some point after being sealed, something (perhaps warm temperatures) kicked the fermentation into gear again. Of course, that's kind of a rookie mistake and I'd be surprised to hear it happening to a commercial brewery.
This beer is intended to be still, as you said. It was definitely still when I had it on tap at the brewery. I'm never the one to say the I-word, but if a beer that's intended to be uncarbed is exploding...
Mine are in the 55° fridge. Bringing one to a tasting on the first, I hope this is not widespread as I traded some nice things and dropped some decent money on two of these.
The store I bought the beer at posted on their facebook that they spoke with they guys at Mystic and said there was a possibility the bottles could explode and they offered to take unopened bottles back for a full refund. They also urged people to keep their bottles in the fridge to slow the carbonation. I had mine in my basement where it is currently 58 degrees. I didn't pick up off flavors in the beer that was left, so I am thinking the yeast was just going nuts in the bottle and continued fermentation caused the issue.
We are indeed concerned about the stability of the bottles that were released and if you have one you should return it to the store or to the brewery for a refund. What appears to have happened is that when we blended barrels to taste best and get the alcohol below the legal limit (as stipulated Farmer-Brewers licence) a dormant yeast that was in the barrels may have come back to life at the new lower alcohol level. Since we don't, as principle, pasteurize beer, we did let them sit for a period and did forced fermentations to see if there was further activity. When no activity was observed we released the beer. However, it appears that the activity was initially dormant but slowly returned after the test period. The good news is that very small number of bottles were released and we may have a new alcohol tolerant yeast strain in hand, but more importantly the bad news is that you might not be able to enjoy or age the beer. If you do choose to enjoy it now, get it cold and be careful when uncorking it. After uncorking it it should be ok for a few weeks if you recork it lightly. I personally apologize for any inconvenience. We will most certainly use a new blending strategy for next years Entropy. If you have questions you can call me at 857.600.8553 or email me at [email protected] Regards, Bryan Founder, Mystic Brewery
The beer was just living up to its name. It's much higher entropy when it's all over your carpet/ceiling/face than when it's sitting neatly in a glass.
hope the next bottling (if there is one) is more stable. i've been excited about mystic ever since hearing about entropy well before they opened. the saisons and wilds are really shaping up too, loved the offerings at last year's ACBF.
Anyone know whether shaking the sealed bottle and looking for any activity in the neck is a reliable way to gauge whether your bottle has re-fermented? Mine looks completely still... I'm hoping we'll get lucky opening it this weekend.
Hmph, just opened one of my bottles last weekend and it was flat. Not particularly tasty but certainly very flat. I have another bottle I was going to age....hmmm what to do what to do.... Dope
Guess I am just "lucky". I did have it in the car for 3 hours or so on a 70ish degree day before I got it home and put it in the basement. Perhaps the increased temperature in the car jumpstarted the yeast in my bottle.
Opened mine last night in the interest of science. I chilled the crap out of it and had a container ready for overflow, but it was totally uneventful. Only thing is then I had ice cold beer, but I enjoyed trying it as it warmed up. Reminded me of a good quad. II wish I could try it at the higher alcohol levels; it would be more like a cordial.
Yeah, I feel like this final bottled blend is a bit thinner than what was sampled out at EBF. It's good, just not as rich as I remember. It could be because I chilled my intensely as well so maybe I just need to let it warm up a bit next time I sample it as I did re-cork it to enjoy over the next couple weeks. Great beer regardless
