Have had this beer in my fridge for a couple of months, got it as an extra. Opened it up tonight and it was like a geyser. Beer came shooting out of the bottle non-stop! Must have opened thousands of beers, never had this happen before. What happened here?
Experienced that with Belgians in general but never one from the fridge. That's generally how you prevent it.
I experience this with Tripel Karmeliet frequently and also had it happen with La Cumbre's Tres Padres tripel. I think it's related to the bottle-conditioning yeast. Best advice is to use an oversized glass like the Tripel Karmeliet tulip and pour that sucker immediately, wait awhile for the head to subside and pour more. Eventually you'll get a good pour.
One of my favorites, I've never had that happen with Spencer but have with various other bottle conditioned ale. Sounds like and anomaly to me.
I had a whole 4 pack that did the exact same thing... must be working to dial in the bottle-conditioning still. I second: The beer is good enough that I don't mind a little mess.
I had it happen with a good portion of a case of LaChouffe once and they were all chilled. For Belgian style ales it's not typical, but it isn't uncommon.
Sometimes beer gets really happy to see you once you've opened it. Best advice: if you see that a beer is unfiltered, or bottle conditioned and has some sediment on the bottom. Open over a sink and be ready to pour IMMEDIATELY.
Bottle-conditioned beers can have this happen if the amount of priming sugar is miscalculated or if the beer was bottled before primary fermentation was finished. Other options for a cause is an infection or a wild yeast in the beer, but if the beer tasted okay, then you can probably rule them out as a cause (although these bugs can sometimes cause a happy accident).
Just had this happen with a bottle of Westbrook Gozu (stored room temp for about 8 months, not WBs fault with a lacto brew). The friend I was drinking it with knew to put her hand over the mouth of the bottle and release pressure a little at a time (it literally took 5 minutes of this) to avoid the giant mess that I would have simply gawked at.
I had St. Stefanous do this to me last Christmas. 3 of 8 bottles were gushers and the ones that didn't explode were over carbonated to say the least.
I have never had Spencer but I have had hundreds of beers from 6 of the Trappist breweries in the past 10 or so years. I have never had a gusher to my recollection. Gushing is common with small breweries in Belgium. In most cases it is the result of infections, too much sugar is also a possibility. It is just bad brewing period, there are no excuses for it.
While I do happen to agree with the post of @77black_ships of: “It is just bad brewing period, there are no excuses for it.” Spenser brewing is a relatively new brewery with production starting last year. Ideally they would have ‘perfected’ their bottle conditioning process prior to releasing their beers for commercial sale but …. Cheers!
