I have had tons of bad luck with my homebrewing career (series of wild yeast infections, at least I think) and I am almost ready to throw in the towel, or buy a keg and be done with bottling. I bottled a pale ale yesterday afternoon. And after looking at it today I saw a small krausen ring at the neck of the bottle and some bubbles coming from the yeast on the bottom that looks like fermentation activity within a primary fermenter. I opened one up and got a hiss and a bit of a gusher after just 24 hours of carbing. I put another in the fridge and everything dropped out an hour later. I opened it and it had no gushing. At this point I am so frustrated with myself that I want to just dump them all now, rather than deal with bottle bombs and potential shards of glass later down the road. Details on the brew Brewed on 12.16.17 Bottled on 01.15.17 2.5 gal batch session Pale Ale Yeast - Wlp002 OG- 1.048 FG- 1.012 I dry hopped at week 3, and when I dry-hopped it looked like it started another fermentation, with consistent airlock activity. I waited 5 days and it wasn't clearing like 002 should so I cold crashed for 2 days at 38 degrees and it dropped clear. I brought it up to my kitchen and left it overnight to get up to room temp and it got hazy again. Which I just thought was chill haze. I checked the FG at bottling and was happy with 1.012 because it is what I was expecting with a low attenuating yeast. But now I am pretty sure it wasn't finished. I should have taken gravity readings a few days apart before cold crashing but I didn't and now I am extremely frustrated. Anything that can be done? Or am I over-reacting and I should just ride it out? Thanks
A few questions: 1. You didn't mention anything about your priming sugar measurement, so are you okay with what you procedure was there? 2. Was the beer still chilled from the cold crashing when you bottled it, and what is the temp where the bottles are stored for conditioning? It could be that if the beer was still cold when bottled, it has expanded from the temp change to the warmer conditioning beer if it is being stored at room temp. 3. Did you taste the beer that you opened?
When I open a room-temperature beer (which I seldom do), I sometimes get a gusher even if there is nothing wrong with the beer. I've also sometimes observed tiny little krausen rings inside the necks of my bottles (though I've never observed bubbles forming within a closed bottle). So in other words, I think it's too soon to panic. The beer might be fine. That said, I would put the bottles somewhere safe in case they explode. And I would also try to set it up so that any mess is contained.
1. Good point. I used the Brewers Friend calculator and boiled, cooled and mixed in 2.4oz of corn sugar. 2. The beer was right around 66 deg. and has been stored at 65-67 deg. F in a dark closet 3. It tastes a bit worse than my sample at bottling but I guess expect as much since it's going through another mini fermentation/it's green.
Thanks for the feedback. I think I am on edge because I have had a slew of problems with infection and gushers. Except for my last batch (milk stout) which turned out great! I went ahead and put them in a big rubber made container with a lid and I will sit on them for a while. Not literally...
Things sound okay on all three points, so I think it is a matter of waiting to enjoy your beer in a couple of weeks. Have confidence. If you've had what you think were infected beers, and you've taken steps to improve sanitation, I think your beer is going to all right.
Thanks for the feedback. The homebrew community on here is great. I’ll update whether these signs were real precursors to bottle bombs or just my paranoia. Here’s to hoping I’m paranoid! Cheers!
I was going to give you a Like for saying that you will post a follow-up, but I don't think I want to be a part of any encouragement that you are paranoid.
I quit using white labs a few years ago. After switching to wyeast I noticed my bottle carbbed up as expected, they seemed overcarbbed when using wlp. I recently heard left hand is suing white labs over contaminated yeast. It seems the contamination is from sacc cervasea diastaticus which slowly amalyses your beer post fetmentation. Essentially this yeast produces amylase which breaks down your long chain carbs into simple sugars which are consumed and produce higher levels of co2. If you remember the left hand nitro recall, this is the bug that was behind it.
I had read that! And if I trace back all my problems they have come from white labs yeast. Over carbed with an eventual phenolic off flavor. I hadn’t imagined that WL could be the culprit because of the reputation but after reading that article I picked up some Imperial and Inland Island for my next two brews (IPA and RIS) to test it out. We’ll see.
And not to hijack my own thread. But it seems that wild yeast contamination has been a problem in the industry this past year as I have had multiple slightly phenolic, over attenuated gushers from CO Breweries. One brewery has had multiple recalls because of it. Which, kudos to them for owning it but that has to be unbelievably frustrating. It has been for me, just dumping 5 gallons...
It's not just an issue in the U.S., here is a scary photo from Australia. That said, I wouldn't jump to conclusions. There are a lot of variables in homebrewing. Personally, I will wait for better evidence before I attach much weight to the idea that White Labs is responsible for the issues described above. [edited because embedding a tweet didn't work very well]
Just an update on this. I did indeed get bottle bombs. I heard one blow a couple days ago and now they just keep going almost daily. Really glad I stored them in a Rubbermaid container with a lid! I learned a lesson about highly floculant yeast and not assuming it’s done just because it’s been a few weeks.
Looking at all the details you posted, I doubt the yeast strain was responsible. What's left is some combination of the following: - Priming sugar not evenly distributed - Beer volume and/or sugar mis-measured - Infection
I haven't bottled in a year and a half but the only reason I ever had a gusher was inappropriate priming sugar. I think this is much more likely as human error is the greatest denominator in most of human civilization's catastrophes (I'm not counting Mother Nature)
You do know that if you chill these bottles it will lower the pressure and almost sure to stop fermentation. I'd spread a bag of ice in the container then transfer the cooled bottles (carefully) to fridge to get well below 40°. Then re'cap 'em (allow some gas to escape, trail and error involved). Keep them cool thereafter and they should have no additional explosive power. Or have the bomb squad bulldoze the entire lot. FWIW, I've encountered just about every example of too much priming sugar, unequal distribution, incomplete fermentation, wild bugs, and probably some more that I'm not even aware of. It can always be corrected . . .
Just to clarify. In hindsight I don’t think it’s the yeast strain or neccisarily a wild yeast problem but my human error of bottling too early. It floc’d out fast- But it was probably stuck and I assumed 3 weeks and change was enough time and that it was done based on the FG at bottling but i guess it was not finished. I think I fermented wlp002 to low In hopes to minimize the ester profile and it severely slowed it or stuck it. You brew and you learn I guess. Cheers!
