Bottled too early... how can I avoid bottle bombs?

So I decided to make the Ginger Saison recipe out of the Extreme Brewing book, and everything was going rather smoothly. I brewed it, it looked like it was fermenting pretty well for about 3 weeks, and then come bottling day, I bottled the whole batch and didn't realize til I was done that I hadn't checked the gravity.

The Gravity is 1.030, which is waaaay high, yes? I've capped 47 bottles of this stuff and I do not want them to explode and go to waste. Do I have to pour them all back into a fermenting bucket and let them sit for a while yet until its at a better range of gravity? Or am I just being paranoid?

I mean seriously, I drank that sample I drew for the gravity reading, and it's freaking delicious! Gotta save this batch!

Heres the recipe, btw:

Ingredients:
1lb CaraMunich Malt
1.5 tsp Gypsum
6.6 lbs Light liquid extract syrup
1lb light dry malt extract
2 oz Hallertau Hop Pellets
8oz homemade amber candi sugar
80z light belgian candi sugar (white/clear in color)
1tsp irish moss
1/2 oz styrian golding hop pellets
2.5 ozs homemade crystallized ginger
Wyeast Saison 3724

I had a similar situation recently and ended up with a batch full of gushers!

Instead of keeping a bunch of potential bottle bombs around, I chilled the bottles in an ice water bath, carefully uncapped them (use a quarter between the bottle opener and cap), and allowed them to gush for a good 20 minutes in the sink. Then I recapped them and viola- no exploding bottles! I did lose a good inch of beer out of the neck in each bottle, but hey, its better than dumping them. The beer was good too, so I'm glad I saved them! If you're batch hasn't carbed up yet, it might be better to carefully pour the beer back into the fermenter and allow it to finish, then try again.

Lesson learned: always check the gravity before bottling, and when in doubt, wait!

Yeah I just finished bottling about 2 hours ago, so hopefully I will have enough time to dump them back into the fermenter. *sigh* learning the hard way sucks! Thanks a lot for your advice, though!

if you dump that beer back in there is a good chance of oxidation. I don't think you can be careful enough. purge the fermenter with CO2? I'd let them sit and try and pop and recap.

Don't worry about oxidation. Put the beer back in the fermenter. Do your best to minimize splashing and such, and make sure to sanitize everything well.

The reason that you can do this and not worry about oxidation is that yeast gobble up oxygen when they reproduce, and you're going to pitch more yeast. Go to your LHBS and get a pack of Wyeast 3711. If they don't have that, a pack of dry neutral ale yeast like SA05 will do. Pitch that in, cover it up, and wait until your gravity is stable (if you use 3711, it should hit 1.005 or so, while SA05 will give your around 1.010).

If you repitched yeast that would help with the oxidation factor, they would eat it ip as the budded and reproduced. it sounded though as if it was just going to be poured back in and relied on the preset yeast. I just wouldn't trust pouring and letting it sit.

Is the 1.030 after adding priming sugar? If so, how much sugar did you use?

Kingfish said:

Is the 1.030 after adding priming sugar?

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Yeah, after three weeks it should have been done. From what you described, I'd say you took a sample from the last of the bottling bucket and if not mixed well, your priming sugar may have been a more concentrated there.

Here's what I'd do. Put all your bottles in something like a cooler or plastic storage bin with a lid. After a few days start checking them daily.

If you get a bomb, carefully open and quickly recap the rest the way acidrain discribed. Then refrigerate them. Chilling will stop them from carbonating more.

If you don't get a bomb after a week, refrigerate a bottle for a day and try it. If the carbonation level is good on that one, chill the rest. If not wait a couple of days and repeat.

AnOldUR said:

Yeah, after three weeks it should have been done. From what you described, I'd say you took a sample from the last of the bottling bucket and if not mixed well, your priming sugar may have been a more concentrated there.

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He used Wyeast 3724. A stuck ferment at 1.030 after 2-4 weeks is virtually a guarantee with that yeast unless you keep it 85+ degrees. Great flavor, but it can be a pain in the a$$ to finish out.

+1 on 3724 needing 85 deg +

WileECoyote said:

+1 on 3724 needing 85 deg +

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Yeah, that'll teach me to comment while working. These guys are right. Totally missed the 3724. The last time I used that yeast it took something like two months to finish, but went down to 1.006. And that was wrap in a heating pad with the temperature control set at 85 degrees. It was well worth the wait!

Hey thanks for the great help guys, I appreciate it! Unfortunately I don't have the opportunity to check the internet very often, so I couldn't read the rest of the suggestions til now.

Kingfish said:

Is the 1.030 after adding priming sugar? If so, how much sugar did you use?

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I used 1 cup dissolved in about 1 1/2 cups of water. I didn't think about that factor either. However, I've forgotten to take the measurement pre-bottling before, and I've still never had a gravity that was so high.

I ended up pouring them all back into the fermenter, and the airlock has been bubbling pretty steadily for 3 days now. I didn't realize this yeast was such a problem, I guess I'll have to do more research on the strain I'm using in the future. I have a space heater I can probably use to wrap in a blanket and up the temperature to 85 or at least around there.

Thanks a lot for the help guys, I appreciate it! Letcha know how it all turns out in a couple weeks

Hello, What I have learned and seem to work great for me, from doing several batches with this yeast and was suggested on this forum is, I start this yeast off at 75 deg (low end for this yeast) every day increase temp about 3 to 4 deg till it gets up to 85 deg (95 deg is high end) and it seems to skip the dreaded stuck 1.030, and finishes fermenting out in about 3 weeks time.

Sounds like you have started fermentation all over again, remember to give it time to finish out (its almost like its just starting out again) and take hydrometer readings 3 days in a row to make sure its done before bottling.

I am almost forced to only use this yeast, its been 105+ deg for 3 months here, 85 to 87 in the house every day, Im going to be glad when it cools down so I can brew other beers but at the same time Ill be bummed cuz I wont be brewing any saison's till next summer.

Please be careful using a space heater with a blanket together, sounds like a fire starter to me, You can also use a swamp cooler to heat up a fermenter by adding some hot water to it to bring the temps up, then wrap it in a blanket to keep the heat in, just dont let the blanket get wet or it will start cooling instead of insulating.

Good Luck !
Cheers

I have a pretty good space heater with a temperature sensor in it, so it turns off once it is at 80 degrees, and I made sure to give it some distance from the fermenter. no fire!

Despite the cold front that immediately followed my re-fermentation, I got the gravity down to about .016 and called it a day. Can't wait to try it, because the sample I tasted was exploding with gingery sweetness! Again, thanks to everyone for the help, I can only imagine how much of a mess I'd have had on my hands if not for these forums

Dont worry about oxidation that much...it may affect how long the beer stays good. It may well start going bad in 1 month instead of 12...just drink it faster.

FuzzeWuzze said:

Dont worry about oxidation that much...it may affect how long the beer stays good. It may well start going bad in 1 month instead of 12...just drink it faster.

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I am up to this task, sir.

Hello BrewclearAssault, how is your beer??? have you chilled one yet? tried one? Please let us know.

I love my saison brews, when its really hot out, try mixing 1/2 saison beer and 1/2 tonic water together on the rocks (ice), its a very refreshing drink, way better than a soda.

Cheers

Me and some friends just cracked a few bottles open a few days ago- It is amazing! Not the greatest head retention yet, but one of the best brews I've ever made despite all the difficulties I've had. Its got those pretty prominent esters of a real Belgian brew which means It'll be hard to keep around long! Ginger doesn't come through as strong as I would like so I'll have to experiment with that a little more next time, but I'm extremely happy with it. Again, thanks to everyone for chiming in and helpin' out! Skal!