Excessively carbonated beer

Feb 04, 2008 1 Replies

I've been brewing for about a decade, and every once in a while I get a brew which ages out and becomes excessively carbonated, as in the entire contents slowly bubble out of the bottle when opened.



I am always careful about having things clean, C-brite or B-brite, long boils, prestart the yeast to give it a head start on anything eveil, etc, etc. And another batch of the same recipe usually gives the same result, although I hate to do a test which takes a long time to give a result.



This isn't a huge pop and spurt, just a slow 1-2 minute conversion of all liquid to head.



I don't find any hints on this other than general "keep it clean" comments which don't seem likely to be the problem. After bottling brews are storage in a dark 52-55F cellar until used. I'd love to predict which brews will age well and which will turn to garbage, without waiting for several years to find out.


I had the same findings in a batch of Bitburger clone I did. I was using the White Labs WLP800 yeast. After fermenting I lagered the whole batch for 4 weeks. I then kegged half the batch and bottled the rest. The kegged beer was fine. The bottled beer was over carbonated and very dry compared to the kegged. I suspect it wasnt finished fermenting and finished in the bottle. It didnt taste funky or contaminated in any way, just dry.

I like to see how beer ages as well. Thats why I keg half and bottle half.

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