Last Christmas, because we have very little extra money and I had no job, I decided to make a Christmas beer for friends and family. My wife even made a great label for it. We called it Two Dog Night Espresso Stout. It actually was quite the tasty beer. But, there was a problem: many unsuspecting friends and family ended up with a beer with foaming problems. They would open the beer and watch as the foam flowed out of the bottle, over their hand, and onto their floor. Well, I just learned why that happened today.
Apparently this is a very common problem. In fact, in Germany a few years back, 61% of breweries reported that this had happened with some of their beers! Of course, the problem was caused by Fusarium (a mold) infested malt. Mine was caused by the inability to cold store the beer.
Between the malt, water, hops, and brewing salt additions, I made an environment ripe for the formation of Calcium Oxalate. If bottled, as it only happens to bottled beer, the Calcium Oxalate sinks to the bottom. When the bottle is opened and the CO2 is released, the beer foams uncontrollably. The Oxalate causes nucleation sites for the CO2 and releases very rapidly and exponentially causing a mess.
Now, if I had cold stored the beer like a good boy would, those crystals would sink to the bottom. The bottom portion of the container does not end up in the bottle. Thus, there would be no over foam.
So, what I want to say is that I am sorry to anyone who got one of the foamy beers. I wish I could have learned this 6 months ago. I also wish I had some way to cold age the beer...
Moral: Only bottle after a good lagering (aging cold). And buy a chest freezer so that I can store everything cold...or buy a canning line. Never a gushing problem with cans!
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