The Dreaded Gusher Infection

I switched to starsan from one step to sanitize bottles when I started getting spotty infected bottles in a batch of Foreign stout I made last summer. Haven't had an infected bottle since then. Vinator overflows with foam, but that's alright with me. Starsan is the best thing ever made for sanitation of equipment.

Also, did you make sure that the beer was terminally done before bottling? Could also be a case if it didn't smell infected. Saison yeast can be sluggish, especially 565; but I haven't had a problem with it since I ferment so warm.

 

obvious infection question: how's it taste?

 

Ive had two gusher infections batches in the past, and none since I started using star San. For the gusher batches... Just drink them soon. My understanding is that the bacteria will slowly consume the left over sugars, stripping out the flavor over time. Was my experience anyways.

 

Gushers don't necessarily equal infections. Most of the time it's from overcarbonation or even just highly carbonated styles opened at room temp.

For example, you can't really open and pour an Orval at room temp without having a beer that looks like yours there.

 

You almost certainly just overcarbonated your beer. It is possible, especially with saison yeast, that it hadn't fully attenuated when you bottled and therefore excessive carbonation was produced in the bottle. Over carbonation due to wild yeast infection usually takes quite a while to develop.

 

If it was infected from the water prior to fermenting, you'd likely know if it was infected after fermentation and conditioning because of the pellicle that would have formed. The other cause if you carbed it right, would be that the beer wasn't finished and when you racked it it got the yeast going again and it hit terminal in the bottle. I carb all of my saisions super high but they are never as carbed as your picture there. If you used 565 and didnt ferment super high it probably stalled out. 565 is known to do that.

 

Actually it depends on storage, sugar used and if it was correct measurements or not. I have a few batches that now after 6 months or so do just what your's did and they're anything but infected, overcarbonated yes. I actually started looking closer at my sugar calculation and my last 2 batches now 3-4 months in still perfect and one of these batches started to mold on top of it in the secondary and no infection (tastes perfectly...although not sure how it molded that equipment has been cleaned and sanitized now very thoroughly).

 

I actually had this happen once, I've now learned to give it an extra few days in primary just to confirm even my newest winter warmer which showed action for almost 2.5 weeks (boy was that one excited and is awesome).

 

Also, another thing to note: Not sure if you use the 3/4 cup rule or whatever; but I use beersmith and throw my final beer volume, Vol of CO2, and conditioning temp in there and batch prime everything by weight.

 

Yea same thing happened to me with WLP400 Wit and a White IPA. I already read countless stories about the sluggishness of the strain though, so I was swirling my primary once it slowed down, and it started right back up again.

 

If it tastes good you can still keep it, but I would be weary about bottle bombs. I bottled my Saison in January and it took well over a month to reach the 2.9 Vol level I wanted. So, it's going to keep going; likely not done yet. If you've got a spare fridge handy, I'd put the whole batch in there now.

 

It's a good thing you asked that question, because my last batch was doing the same thing. I wondered if it was infection, though after tasting it, the flavor didn't seem that odd. For my most recent batch, I used Cooper's carbination tabs and cut those down to use like a fifth or so per bottle. However, when I opened up a bottle recently, it came out barely carbinated, so it looks like I played it too safe. Live and learn I suppose.

 

What was your og and fg? Or did you forsake those measurements?