Too much carbonation.... What do?

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wuilliez

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Brewed an ipa back in April. Primary fermentation for a week, dry hopped, then secondary for 1 week, then bottled at 4.5 gallons with 3/4 cup of priming sugar. Just cracked or open after 2.5 weeks and it's WAY too carbonated. It foamed and has the carbonation of a soda. Any ideas what I should do?
 
How long did you chill the bottle before opening it??
Did you take gravity readings before moving it to the other vessel?
How about before bottling?
Did you confirm it was at a final gravity before bottling (two matching readings 2-3 days apart)??

Chill bottles for at least a couple of weeks and try again. If it's still over carbonated, try a month. If still over carbonated, then you're pretty much stuck with it.

Next time, make SURE the brew is finished before you start messing around with it, or bottling it up. Also, instead of using volume measure for priming sugar, use weight. Use this site to figure out how much sugar to use to get the CO2 volume level you desire.
 
lol that's pretty stinkin quick for an IPA from boil to bottle! I've seen posts where people have said, suit up.. eye protection and gloves, pop the top on each bottle and re-cap them.
Good luck!
 
This is my dirty trick, and it ain't too scientific, perfect, or probably even right. But if all else fails, to include waiting to see if your gushers calm down after a lengthy chilling in the fridge, I've been known (when I bottled) to do the following:

Get a flat bottle opener, one that will allow you to pry ever so slightly on the already affixed cap.

Pry ever so slightly on the already affixed cap-> as in barely, and I mean slowly and barely lift one edge of the cap so that you can faintly hear co2 escaping. You should need to do this in a quiet room because the amount of co2 escaping will be so minimal.

That said, how long you keep the edge of the cap slightly lifted is up to you. I found good results by lifting for an initial burst of co2, then let the cap back down, and if you haven't lifted or bent the cap to much, it will reseal itself.

Experiment with when you try this - after chilling or before, and experiment with how many you do at a time. I had good luck releasing co2 prior to chilling (a 6'er at a time) and then chilling them down to serving temp. Ymmv
 
Yeah I don't know why we spaced the gravity part. We were following the timeline on the recipe, but I think we were operating at a higher percentage than what was estimated. We tried the co2 trick, so now only time will tell. Thanks!
 
Yeah I don't know why we spaced the gravity part. We were following the timeline on the recipe, but I think we were operating at a higher percentage than what was estimated. We tried the co2 trick, so now only time will tell. Thanks!

Here's my tip: there's no such thing as a recipe timeline, because my recipe can't dictate how fast your pitched yeast are going to finish fermenting.

In an ideal environment (i.e. a controlled lab like you see a Coors, Budweiser, etc), they really don't have any variables like we do. They know exactly how many billions of yeast cells they pitch, the O2 saturation of the wort, and the temperature to the hundredth of a degree.

Always trust your hydrometer, and there's nothing wrong letting it sit an extra day or even a week or two.
 
Save then for when your team wins the superbowl. Then hand them out to your buddies and spray away.
 
Ironically enough I did that with my stout that I brewed a week later. Waited til gravity was consistent and bottled away. Rookie mistake on our parts. If I'm waiting for Pittsburgh to win the Superbowl, the beers might actually be drinkable then : D.
 
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