Unusual Foaming?

[Grasshopper]

A recent batch of beer I made has puzzled me. The beer was primed with more dextrose in an attempt to up the carbonation a bit.

The earliest bottles I drank were very carbonated and poured a nice fuffy head in the glass. They were almost like champagne or soda pop... a steady stream of bottles from the bottom of the glass and a new head can easily be frothed up with little effort.

Last night I opened a warmer bottle (it's summer here and my downstairs cooler is about 18C right now) but I felt like having one. I popped open the cap and a foam started to come from the bottle. The foam kinda crested the top of the bottle all by intself. I didn't clink the bottle either.

I had a tall beer glass ready (unchilled) and the pour was especially frothy and persistent. The carbonation stream was very aggressive. You could see the head kind of dissipate by itself but be "remade" from the new carbonation.

A sniff of the beer didn't seem to indicate anything afoul but, to be honest, I do not have a very good sense of smell unless starvingly hungry.

I'm just wondering if the foaming might be a sign of a defect that I am blissfully trying to overlook.

Comments appreciated.

 

[Mr Bond]

its because its warm.Chill one down and it will be like the previous ones.

 

[Tony]

yep...... sounds like you over primed and now its over carbonated.

It will release its gas from solution MUCH easier at warner temps. the closser you get to freezing, the less the gas will try to escape from solution and create your foaming issue.

thats why that tooheys super cold needed a special tap to froth the beer at the end. bacause it is served at -1 or something and doesnt form a head......... its too cold for the gas to come out and play.

try chilling them down before you drink them. Or if you have twist top lids, crack them and re-tighten them to let out some pressure and leave for a few days to equalise.

cheers

 

[bconnery]

When you do get that effect though, the other thing to do is pour it very gently into a pilsner glass and just watch it. I find it pretty cool

But yes if it is overcarbonated, which it sounds like, then this will happen, especially warm...

Unfortunately my first AG lager appears to have the same thing going on. I think the priming levels required compared to extract and kit ones might have been a little less

 

[rwh]

When you're carbonating a lager, you have to take into account the lower fermentation temperature which leaves more CO2 in suspension before you prime, which means you need to prime correspondingly less.

http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Methods/...icalGuide.shtml