Just One Super Frothy ??

[Eddy Monsoon]

I was 2/3 of the way through a normal batch of Tallies.

Then I get one bottle that just froths away as soon as I opened it.

So I fill my Glass with Froth, and quickly have to grab a 2nd and then a 3rd

I'm left with about 1/4 a bottle when the Froth stopped

Can anyone give me an explanation as to why one bottle might do this ?

1. It had been fridged like others
2. It hadn't been shaken
3. It didn't give off a mass of gas when the top was popped

 

[kaiserben]

Most likely an infected bottle IMO.
Does it taste a bit funny compared to the others?

Otherwise, how do you carbonate? Bulk prime or just put sugar into each bottle? I know it's obvious, but is there a chance you mistakenly put more sugar into that single bottle?

 

[MHB]

Given that it had the right amount pf priming sugar added (everyone has doubled up a bottle at least once), other little tricks like some sugar staying in a funnel so the next bottle gets a dose plus... lots of ways to get a bit of extra sugar into the bottle.

Have a good look at the bottle, the inside is it really clean, any scratches or abrasions. Rough spots can cause nucleation or lots of bubbles forming = foaming.

An infection is a possibility but the Gusher Bug is more talked about than seen, its actually pretty rare, human error is much more common.

Check the inside of the bottle first.
Mark

 

[Eddy Monsoon]

Most likely an infected bottle IMO.
Does it taste a bit funny compared to the others?

Otherwise, how do you carbonate? Bulk prime or just put sugar into each bottle? I know it's obvious, but is there a chance you mistakenly put more sugar into that single bottle?

Thanks for that

Re Taste
I didn't notice any marked difference, although everything I poured was cloudier than normal due to the Frothing I thought

Re Sugar
I do the Sugar in each bottle, so yes maybe I doubled up, but there wasn't a bigger than normal gas release to go with it.

 

[Eddy Monsoon]

Given that it had the right amount pf priming sugar added (everyone has doubled up a bottle at least once), other little tricks like some sugar staying in a funnel so the next bottle gets a dose plus... lots of ways to get a bit of extra sugar into the bottle.

Have a good look at the bottle, the inside is it really clean, any scratches or abrasions. Rough spots can cause nucleation or lots of bubbles forming = foaming.

An infection is a possibility but the Gusher Bug is more talked about than seen, its actually pretty rare, human error is much more common.

Check the inside of the bottle first.
Mark

Bugger, gonna have to search which one it was out. In-laws were around the following night so rather a lot of recent empties crated up.

I discounted the sugar possibilty because of the normal gas release, but could be.

Not heard of the Gusher Bug before, but happy to join the "Victims of the Legend" Club

 

[Eddy Monsoon]

Now I seem to have a Kosher

Dropped the hydrometer in and got a Star of David

It was wet with stellarsan so I guess thats what did it.

Anyone know whats happened?

 

[MHB]

Same reason snowflakes are hexagons
If you are the sort of brewer who opens up their fermenter and throws the hydrometer in, then the odds of you over gassed bottle being from infection just went way up.
Mark

 

[Hangover68]

Sani has broken the surface tension.

 

[Eddy Monsoon]

Sani has broken the surface tension.

That kind of thing usually goes out in a circle (eg detergent and oil)

Weird how it went first to the full Star of David (Two overlap triangles), then by the time I got my camera it went back to a pointy 6

Any idea why 6 ?

 

[MHB]

Yes I had a look at the maths behind why 6 keeps turning up in nature (Honey comb, basalt coulombs, snowflakes, Quartss crystals...)
It went whoosh over my head and I ran away gibbering, if you really want to understand it, I would recommend a degree in applied maths and a fairly weird turn of mind.
Mark

 

[Eddy Monsoon]

My favourite, Saturns Pole

Spooky thing is I'm listening to Inspiral Carpets track "Saturn 5" when I saw the post

 

[duncbrewer]

I don't lay out all of the bottles in a grid and prime them one after the other, I pick up prime place in area to be bottled. This reduces my user error of looking at a large grid of bottles and double dosing.
If you start to get lots of bottles doing that gushing I'd suspect they were bottled with residual sugar left from the ferment ( ie not finished ) or if you dry hopped you are getting some bottles with a bit more hop residue and some hop creep is occurring.

 

[Eddy Monsoon]

I don't lay out all of the bottles in a grid and prime them one after the other, I pick up prime place in area to be bottled.
This reduces my user error of looking at a large grid of bottles and double dosing.

Good idea

If you start to get lots of bottles doing that gushing I'd suspect they were bottled with residual sugar left from the ferment ( ie not finished )

Or if you dry hopped you are getting some bottles with a bit more hop residue and some hop creep is occurring.

I think there were about 5 or 6 out of 30 that gushed when they were all treated the same as far as I know. (and no dry hopping)

It just seemed weird that some did and most didn't.

 

[duncbrewer]

The other failsafe is to dissolve the sugar in boiled water. So that the dose is in say ten millilitres, 400ml for 40 bottles eg.
Dose the bottles with a syringe, if you have run out of sugar solution and still have bottles to go suspect that there could be a double dose somewhere.

 

[yankinoz]

If it's supernatural intervention, the Mogen David (Star of David) was a message to stop eating bacon cheeseburgers. The six-pointed star seems harmless despite its ominous appearance in your fermenter. If it had gone to five points you would have needed to call an exorcist.

 

[Grmblz]

With all the comments about bottle priming, and suspected infections I'm surprised no-one has mentioned bulk priming, it really is fool-proof, and actually a little quicker, plus you have the added bonus of no gribblies hitching a ride on the sugar and getting into the bottles. boil the sugar syrup for 5 min's, add to bottling bucket, transfer beer from fermenter, and away you go.

 

[duncbrewer]

@Grmblz
Good idea but we haven't had a fool on the thread, but you arrived with a good option. I've never bulk primed so didn't offer your gem and I try and bottle nearly clear beer from my fermenter so wouldn't want to stir up all that yeast. Some transfer to a bulk priming bucket though and then bottle from there is that right?

 

[Eddy Monsoon]

If it's supernatural intervention, the Mogen David (Star of David) was a message to stop eating bacon cheeseburgers. The six-pointed star seems harmless despite its ominous appearance in your fermenter. If it had gone to five points you would have needed to call an exorcist.

but I don't eat bacon cheeseburgers

 

[Grmblz]

@Grmblz
Good idea but we haven't had a fool on the thread, but you arrived with a good option. I've never bulk primed so didn't offer your gem and I try and bottle nearly clear beer from my fermenter so wouldn't want to stir up all that yeast. Some transfer to a bulk priming bucket though and then bottle from there is that right?

Yep, that's pretty much it, in its simplest form with two bucket fermenters just add syrup to sanitised bucket and transfer clear beer from fermenter to bucket giving it a good stir to ensure syrup is evenly distributed, in practice just transfer 3 or 4L of beer first and stir that well, then transfer the rest with a quick stir, alternatively make a very thin syrup, you'll need to take into account the extra water of course.
The downside to this is exposure to oxygen, so the other end of the scale is to use two pressure fermenters, put the syrup into the bottling fermenter and purge it, closed transfer the beer giving it a swirl to mix in the syrup, and away you go, using a bottling gun makes life very easy, but not everyone has access to co2 so a little tip when using bucket fermenters and a bottling wand is to use a thin syrup in the bottling bucket, and put the lid on, then put the fermenter on a table and the bottling bucket on the floor, connect the two taps using 13mm silicon hose, open both taps and let gravity do the work, giving the bottling bucket a quick swirl once a few litres are in it, it's not perfect but helps minimize exposure to the elements.