Over carbonated beer

Is there a way to save my over carbonated beer, or is it trash?

I would get your beer as cold as possible (lower temperature = lower pressure) and degas them. I had to do this once with some hard cider that shot across the kitchen when I opened it. To degas, you just take a bottle opener, and ever so carefully pry the edge of the cap up to let co2 out without bending the cap. Go carefully here because if your beer is waaay over carbonated, you could get some raging foam shooting out and losing beer. If your beer is as over carbonated as my cider was, this could take a while and you will need to let only a little bit of co2 out at a time so that you don't get that raging foam. Remember to get your beer as cold as possible. Once you get all the caps off, you could try letting the caps sit on top of the bottles to prevent dust/bacteria from having easy access to the liquid, until the beer is flat. Then try carbonating again. Best of luck to you.

I've had a few batches that were way overcarbed. I eventually just poured them out. I know I'm a Debbie Downer. Best of luck to you though

I have a batch that's overcarbonated right now, and I put them in the fridge, let them get cold, then open them in a flat plastic container and let them foam over into the container (you may want to rinse the bottle first). I stick the bottle in the container back into the fridge for about an hour, then pour the bottled beer AND the overflow into a glass. It usually comes out pretty much at regular carb level this way.

You just have to plan ahead! Set an alarm for 4:30 pm, pop open a few, and by Beer:30 you're all set!

i have heard of people putting their bottled beers through the dish washer heated water / sanitize cycle twice to pasteurize the bottles and kill the yeast to stop the fermenting. that might be worth a go.

oh man, that sounds like a bottle bomb ready to go... heating a overcarb'd beer would really increase the pressure as almost all co2 would leave the beer.

I found this and it really helped.

Thanks for posting this. I had an overcarbonated stout and am using this trick to alleviate some of the pressure. It sat in the fermenter for about 6 weeks and I swirled it several times and tried other techniques, hoping to rekindle the fermentation. To no avail...it was determined to finish at 1.024. Oh well, I thought...it'll be a bit sweet and heavy. Nope....it wasn't a gusher, but clearly overcarbonated after 3 weeks. Nothing like a swim in the bottling bucket to wake up the yeast (WY1272 in case your curious). I let one degas completely overnight and measured 1.018. I'm not sure how much the gravity normally goes down as a result of bottle carbing, but that seemed a bit much. So I used the trick in the video (chilled a few days first), so we'll see how they turn out. I'm happy that I caught it fairly early and I think the beer will turn out just fine.

any updates on this? i overcarbed and am thinking of degassing my bottles too

brewista_may said:

any updates on this? i overcarbed and am thinking of degassing my bottles too

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Dude. I think piggy-backing on three prior threads is enough to elicit responses. ;-)

If they're gushing now you need to get them in a fridge. Did you open one warm? If so, stick one in the fridge for an entire day (24 hours) then open it. In the meantime put all in a covered bin and tuck them far away from foot traffic so no one is hurt if they do explode.

I'd also return to this thread where you were previously provided the best answer you could get.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/too-much-priming-sugar-soon-bottle-bombs-what-do-454524/

Dang it...didn't realize I was the last to post before the thread was revived. It irritates me when a thread is left with a cliffhanger and no closure.

So in my case, I believe the beer turned out ok...it's been over a year so I don't remember precisely. Like Hello indicated, I chilled it real good then slowly degassed the entire batch a little at a time. I've had to do this a couple of times, unfortunately. In one case I had to degas multiple times to keep it from foaming up when pouring, but all was well in the end.