Over-carbonated

One ounce of table sugar into how much beer?

Also, extra yeast does not result in more carbonation than the fermentable sugar content can produce.

Also, the CO2 produced via bottle conditioning is already as dissolved as it's going to be.

 

You got about 76% attenuation, which doesn't sound stuck/under-attenuated to me. Certainly one ounce of sugar in 5 gallons is not going to cause gushers. Are you certain about your gravity readings?

 

I would crack one open, let it gush out, then take a gravity reading on that at 60 degress and see if its quite a bit lower that 1.022. 1 oz of priming sugar should not cause gushers as i'm enjoying a 1.084 OG 1.012 F.G. DIPA of mine that i used 4.2 oz. of priming sugar on and carbonation is perfect. I didn't add any extra yeast at bottling on my beer either but as vikeman had mentioned that yeast is only gonna eat up the fermentable sugar thats in the bottle. Does it taste infected???

 

One ounce of sugar for 5 gallons seems a little bit low. Here is Palmer's idea on the subject:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-4.html

It does take some time for the CO2 to dissolve into the liquid. But it has been 23 days since bottling, usually that is enough.

I inadvertently overcarbonated some pale ale once. The pressure continued to build over the months until it was dangerous to open them. Fortunately I had swing-top bottles, so after putting on eye protection I flipped the swing-top and let them off-gas for about two minutes. The liquid "boiled" as if I had a flame under it. Re-sealed and they were still good (and safe to open).

 

Sounds like a plan. But one thing... if your FG was really something higher than 1.022 (and the wort sugars continued to ferment in the bottle), you really have no good reading to compare the later (post bottle conditioned) reading to. I would agree that if it tastes fine, letting off some pressure and recapping is probably the way to go. Also, if you do take a gravity reading, make sure the beer is de-gassed (flat) before measuring. CO2 will affect the hydrometer reading.

 

How many bottles have you opened so far? Assuming your FG reading and priming solution measurement is accurate, the only way any bottles should be overcarbed is if the priming solution wasn't mixed very well with the beer. Maybe try opening a bottle that you filled at a different time during the batch than the others.

 

Also you need to make sure your priming solution is mixed well with your beer. If you put your solution in the bucket and rack on top of it without a good mix your last few bottles can get over carbinated. I do not think one once did this.

 

I am a little suprised that your beer was not finished after almost 2 months of fermentation. Usualy WLP007 is done within a week.

 

If the WLP007 had quit on you, then yes, this is a possibility. But with all the information presented, my guess now is that the WLP007 was still doing its thing, and the result would have been similar whether you added the S-04 or not.

 

What was your original pitching rate like?? I recently (probably) over pitched a 1.084 Dipa with 2 packs of wyeast 1084 In a 2.5l starter. The beer took off and fermented out in like 5 days to 1.012. I also used a minute of pure 02. My apparent attenuation was 86% from over pitching I assume and the yeast is rated at 71-75%. Maybe if you over pitched slightly and during fermentation the beer experienced a drop in temp causing the yeast to floc out early and once warmed back up to bottling condition temps it really started chowing down sugar?? I'm just trying to figure out how this happened because you did get a really good attenuation but it boggles my mind that you have gushers??

 

While overpitching can, indeed, cause issues, over attenuation is not one of them. Once the food source (fermentable sugars, in this case) is exhausted, fermentation is complete, no matter how much yeast was pitched or, in this case, added at bottling. It won't attenuate any further because there's no more food left. Ten guys eating ten lbs of baked beans will produce the same amount of bean induced methane as fifty guys eating the same ten lbs of beans (joviality induced methane, while abundant during such an experiment, doesn't count). And inviting more guys to the experiment after the beans are gone will not affect the outcome (again, joviality notwithstanding).

Two months should be more than enough time for that beer to have finished fermenting. 1 oz sugar at bottling should not have caused the beer to be over carbed. The additional yeast at bottling was likely irrelevant (and likely unnecessary). The additional attenuation is puzzling, to say the least.

The only three plausible explanations that come to mind (there may be others that I haven't thought of):
1. the sugar was not sufficiently mixed in the bottling bucket
2. there is an infection that has not yet manifested itself in a way that you can detect through taste or aroma.
3. S-04 may be a higher attenuating yeast than 1084, so it went to work on sugars that were not palatable to 1084.

I think #1 is unlikely, since that would not explain the additional attenuation. I have no experience with 1084, so I don't know if #3 makes sense or not.

#2 and #3 are more likely. Given that no infection is evident, I'm going with #3.

 

Very nice!! The op didn't actually use 1084, but wlp 007 instead. I was just giving a personal example where I got much higher attenuation than the yeast is rated for and didn't really know if that had anything to do with the op's issue. I've heard that the English yeasts can floc out early if a temperature decrease during fermentation occurrs and is significant. ??? Puzzling situation.

 

You're right. My bad.