preventing foam overflow when un-bottling?

Hi there,
I'm a newcomer to the art of brewing having just completed my 1st brew! But the main big problem I've discovered which I can't explain is when un-bottling the first couple of bottles the beer goes crazy and foams over and I loose half of it. Is there any way to prevent or at least slightly calm this down? They have been kept in a cool place and they havn't been shaken around so what have I done wrong?

Any suggestions or ideas would be great as I'm at risk of loosing half of my first brew!

Sounds like you either added too much priming sugar or bottled a batch that still had fermentable sugars in it. More sugar for the yeast to eat and produce too much Co2 in the process.

Cheers, thats good to know for the next batch, but is there any way I can prevent it overflowing or at least calming it down when I open the next bottle?

How did you prime? Did you add the sugar to the bottling bucket or to each individual bottle?

Generally speaking, the colder the beer the more absorbed the CO2 will be. I'd make sure the beer was in the fridge for a few days before opening another and see if that helps.

shrewdshrew said:

Cheers, thats good to know for the next batch, but is there any way I can prevent it overflowing or at least calming it down when I open the next bottle?

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What he said. Try getting it as cold as you can and leave it for a week.

I had this happen with a couple batches early on. I opened a few beers at a time and poured them into a big stainless mixing bowl. Let them get the foaming out of the way (10 mins or so) and then started pouring into my pint glass. They were overcarbed so by the time they got into the glass they were perfect.