what's going on here? shot some video but really don't have the energy to sort out adding that here. opened a Stone Chocolate & Orange Smoked Porter yesterday afternoon. by the time i set the opener & lid down, a slow very dish-soap like stream of bubbles began rising out of the bottle. bottle was placed in the sink, i did tilt & attempt to pour some which foam & a few clumps splashed out. nose - was normal. i took a small taste of an early pour & it actually didn't taste off or bad at all, that possibly needs to take into account i was mentally prepared to taste something horrendous. in advance this isn't a blame/pile on Stone issue. over the years i've seen the same/similar issue arise with other beer titles but i'm not that much of a 'student' of the game - so i'm genuinely curious to know what's happened here? anyone else had a similar issue with this particular title? also wondering is it likely just a single anomaly OR indicative of what i should expect in the remainder of the case (i believe 8 bottles left). in the next day or so i'll dig the case box out to open another & see what happens. were it not for the gushing stream, i'd probably assume it was a poorly filtered bottle full of orange peel(?) some of what poured into the sink: after pouring a bit in the sink, here's what poured in a glass about 5 minutes in: moving away from science, maybe this bottle was possessed? is it just me? seems like the head was trying to form Stone's gargoyle there. (see the white foam portion + use your imagination... a lot!) this is what getting towards the last third of the contents looked like: what the bottle looked like about 30-40 minutes after opened & the stream finally stopped flowing: i loaded the same set of pix larger (unreduced) , in case anybody needs more detail. . . or would like to print a billboard - didn't want to link those directly here tho'. would be happy to provide the link(s) via message.
I get these every once in a while as well, though usually only with bottle fermented on unpasteurized beers. I think it occurs when the beer is kept in a fairly cold fridge (37-39° F) and opened immediately upon taking it out rather than when I have let it sit for a few minutes. Did your ever get stored on it's side? I saw a posting on Reddit that Stone had recalled a specific bottling run of this beer, so you might reach out to Stone and see if that is indeed the case and it you have some of that bottling.
I recently experienced the same with a St Bernardus Tripel. It got tossed around a bit on the way home, which kicked up some sediment. I put it in the fridge to let it settle for a bit but probably should've waited longer for it to fully settle. The beer still tasted great despite the gush, so I'm chalking it up to that recent sediment disturbance.
I often wonder if it is a dirty bottle, which can happen, and I think there a couple of critters can eat the sugars regular yeast can't eat, and don't have much taste (at first). Have had it happen to me with a single bottle of bottle conditioned homebrew, rarely, but it happens, but no reason it can't happen with other beers I would think. The floaties are thick in that one pic. Really don't know, just a thought from the pics, maybe better minds can chime in. If I was a betting man I would bet the rest of case is fine.
I get this at times with my homebrew. Exactly as described. I was worried about infection also, but have had some of these many months later and there is no off flavor. The weirdest part to me is after the foam settles down the beer is not overcarbed. I would expect it to be very fizzy and it is not. My only guess is that the bottle conditioning allows for a lot more nucleation sites and when the pressure is released it boils over. What I have done is release the pressure with a bottle opener by carefully lifting until I hear a hiss and then let it reseal. A few minutes later I open it and if it boils over I have enough time to get it in the glass so I do not lose any.
I see the date stamp on the bottle is last October? Where previous bottles okay? How long ago did you have the last one? I've had beers that do the slow foam thing, that you can tell by the taste having some brett flavor that it must have been mildly infected by some brett that had taken a long time to eat the residual sugars in the beer. Since a porter like this has strong flavors, that could have covered up any mild off-flavors when fresh. Or - maybe that bottle just wasn't filtered enough, and too much orange peel or something else got in the bottle that was fermentable, and the regular yeast ate and created the excess carbonation.
the case & bottles have always been upright (not laid sideways etc AFAIK) this was the 3rd bottle - first 2 were fine. gave a bottle to a friend, checked last night, his was fine also. bottle had been in the fridge for roughly 3 mos, just got around to opening it. had a different case (completely different beer title from a different country of origin) where i suspect time & possibly poor storage conditions did similar BUT the floaties seem entirely different. in the other example, the floaties were scaly, scab-like slithers that i was able to catch many particles in a strainer. the strainer caught nothing with last nights example. also, oddly there was zero sediment in the bottle when finished pouring & i poured very gently. in other instances where there's been obvious floaties, i've always experienced at least some sediment left in the bottle ~ often had to rinse to loosen the last dregs too. absolutely nothing here. i'm inclined to go with cavedave & hope the bottle had something funky going on pre-fill. i also think maybe what i / we see is possibly orange peel??? i was not able to capture the color as well i would have liked but the floaties definitely appear to be orange in tint. in a couple of instances they breached the surface where i could see a couple of specs. i've used orange peel before to spice rums & syrups etc. the glass/photo displaying the "last 3rd of the contents" does look somewhat reminiscent of a what the mason jars of rum have looked like after a couple of weeks of orange peel soaking in em'.
you were wrong & i'm glad you're not a gambler! sort of inspired after wading through a current hot thread, i wanted to follow up on this before but gave it time to digest as i got the impression the parties involved were strictly interested in resolution & almost seemed against any acknowledgement. i'm hoping the statute of limitations is up on that now. as reported before the bottle we were discussing had been in the fridge for months. aside, i had about half a case remaining that was in the cellar. the bottle featured in the pictures above was mildly off in flavor, tasted like orange flavored carbonated water had been added but otherwise wasn't funky or completely turned. however, shortly after, i refrigerated a cellared bottle & well, it gushed too same sort of lazy 40+ minutes of foaming out the bottle but it wasn't mildly anything. the aroma was distinctly sour. that's the back story. here's the real reason i'm taking time to revisit this. the title of the thread purposely did NOT call out any brewer, nor had it been my intention to engage the brewer at all. my view on it was you win some, you lose some. i was genuinely curious what exactly the issue was & if there actually was any exact diagnosis. i don't know if pure luck, someone here quietly alerted them, or if Stone's staff is just that f'n attentive, but a rep saw this post, reached out, put the local rep in contact with me, who shortly after came to my job, at my convenience, took the balance of my bad case & handed me a brand new, full case of what i suspect is/was a much more sought after product. i maintained my stance that i would give the rep the half case with no expectation other than my hope Stone could analyze em to see what was present but he still showed up with a replacement case. i already was a loyal Stone customer, the suspect case hadn't changed that. i sometimes see members jump off the swings or slide & into the box throwing sand @ @StoneGreg or the company in general, it's tough being big, i know. i'm just going to close by saying the above experience did not help me curb my enthusiasm nor did it help me to reduce my Stone related expenses! hats off.
