The Bar Towel

Preamble: About a month ago (May 5th), I bottled a rye saison. The OG was 1.053 and the gravity at bottling was 1.010. The saison strain was WLP565 and it was fermented at around 26C (carboy with a heat belt) for two weeks in a primary and one week in a secondary on oak chips.

Problem: Now that I'm opening the bottles (after about a week of being in the fridge), they are very, very unsettled, highly carbonated and there is even a little krausen-like ring around the top of the beer in the neck of each bottle. While the beer tastes great with no detectable off-flavours, it's full of sediment, highly carbonated, and slowly begins to gush over when left open.

Question: I've seen some sources (Palmer) say that re-caping and letting them re-settle might help and others say that they ought just be refrigerated and drank before they become bottle bombs. Anyone have any advice? 1-10 estimate on how likely a bottle bomb is (they are all 650ml bombers)? Might the slight gushing be the sign of an infection from the oak, despite no off-flavours? Any advice at all would be appreciated!

Out of the roughly 52 batches I've done, 49 and 50 had major infections (a IIPA and oatmeal stout) the IIPA had a few bottle bombs due to thin bottles (founders and anchor bottles) your 650's may be able to hold more pressure. I tried venting the IIPA's with some success and they were still drinkable. With the stout, I had to dump the whole batch. I tried prying the cap off of one slightly and it explosively popped the cap and sprayed the wall, Dexter bloodstain-style. All of the rest gushed so much that they lost about 70% of the beer gushing out. Maybe drink them quick.

Did you boil the oak first? That could be it.

with that yeast strain, a good rule of thumb:

let it ride for 3 weeks.
with most fermentations, it usually doesn't hurt to let it sit for another week (or 2 or 3). but that saison strain is typically a 3 week strain. if you take it out early, i find that it has a strong sulphur nose (and you'll smell it when some local breweries, IMO, rush their beer) and it won't be as dry as you want.

not sure about what Palmer says, but i'd just chill all those bottles.

What concentration of priming sugar did you use? (ie. what's the baseline pressure you'd expect)?

You may have got something off the oak, but the raw energy may have just kicked the yeast back into action so they could finish their job.

If you've got the fridge space, the stuff in suspension should settle out and stick to the bottom with the yeast. Right now that particulate is acting as nucleation sites, causing additional foaming. Cooler temps will also keep more C02 dissolved in solution.

As noted, some glass is thinner than others... definitely get those in the fridge & drink them first!

Thanks for the replies folks. I hadn't responded because I was testing out some of the beer under different age/chilling situations.

First, the oak was soaked in chardonay overnight prior to use.

Second, not of the bottles (I've opened around 4-5 now) have been pure gushers. Most just threaten a little foam-over when first opened. Then the beer itself is highly carbonated. Drinks a little like Duvel for the first while.

I didn't use too much sugar, because I know these beers sit for a while and too much sugar usually makes the last few dangerous. Beer Smith has be at 2.7 vols.

None of the bottles seem to be under crazy pressure. When I pop the cap the 'pfft' noise is about the normal amount. I'd had crazier back before I figured out homebrew shops "priming sugar" pre-measured bags were way too much.

What I think the problem was: I bottled the saison at 1.010, when I think there may have still been enough yeast energy to get it down another couple of points.

It dones't seem to want to explode, but I am trying to fit as many in the fridge so I can get some of the suspended yeast to settle out.

Derek wrote:If you've got the fridge space, the stuff in suspension should settle out and stick to the bottom with the yeast. Right now that particulate is acting as nucleation sites, causing additional foaming. Cooler temps will also keep more C02 dissolved in solution.!

That is pretty much my plan at this point!

Thanks again folks.