Opening bottles warm

First of all, I tried to search, but didn't come up with much.

I know that I'm supposed to stick my brews in the fridge for a couple of days before opening them, but it doesn't always work out that way.

I had a bottle explode at some point in the last couple of days. I just walked into my garage now and found an exploded bottle. I also just had an infected batch, so I'm a bit paranoid now.

Anyway, I cracked one that was in the same case without chilling it to taste for an infection. It has been carbing for almost 3 weeks now, so I would expect it to be stable at this point. The beer gushed out of the bottle, but not super quick. It mostly just foamed out. It was pretty hot here recently (over 90F), and my garage is not air conditioned.

I can't really tell if this one is infected as it is pretty dark and complex. Tastes pretty green right now.

I've seen this happen before when I give a beer to a friend, and they just open it and try to drink it warm.

I guess my long-winded question is: do I need to chill my beer to get the CO2 into suspension, and will they always foam up when warm?

Three weeks at 90 & they are over carbonated. I hope two days in the fridge suspends the CO2, or you'll need to pour into pitchers & place in the fridge for a while.

Good Luck.

Even normally carbed beer can gush sometimes if opened warm. Trying to open and drink a warm bottle of beer to troubleshoot it really isn't a good idea. You really should chill it first for at least a couple days. Even longer if you can stand to wait. If your beer is getting as warm as 90F in your garage you might want to try to get the bottles in the house where it's cooler. As you mentioned, the co2 does indeed need some time to absorb into the beer, so refrigerate one and try it. If they taste good, but they're still gushing then you should get them all chilled. If not, you might get more bottle bombs. Once chilled just pour them into a pitcher or very large mug and allow the head to drop, and then drink it up!

Lemon said:

Three weeks at 90 & they are over carbonated. I hope two days in the fridge suspends the CO2, or you'll need to pour into pitchers & place in the fridge for a while.

Good Luck.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the priming sugar would be eaten up completely to carbonate. Leaving them longer shouldn't create more CO2.

Cold liquid is capable of holding more gas in solution that warm liquid. It really does make a difference whether you chill it.

An no, not all beer will foam over. Anything young and on the edge over overcarbed will tend to though.

Stauffbier said:

Even normally carbed beer can gush sometimes if opened warm. Trying to open and drink a warm bottle of beer to troubleshoot it really isn't a good idea. You really should chill it first for at least a couple days. Even longer if you can stand to wait. If your beer is getting as warm as 90F in your garage you might want to try to get the bottles in the house where it's cooler. As you mentioned, the co2 does indeed need some time to absorb into the beer, so refrigerate one and try it. If they taste good, but they're still gushing then you should get them all chilled. If not, you might get more bottle bombs. Once chilled just pour them into a pitcher or very large mug and allow the head to drop, and then drink it up!

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Is this limited to homebrew or bottle conditioning? I used to drink my beer warm all the time when I bought it and never had a gusher. Or is it that it needs to get cold to suspend the CO2, but after that you can open warm?

AgentHubcap said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the priming sugar would be eaten up completely to carbonate. Leaving them longer shouldn't create more CO2.

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Right. The limiter is available sugar. Storing higher won't increase the carbonation.

AgentHubcap said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that the priming sugar would be eaten up completely to carbonate. Leaving them longer shouldn't create more CO2.

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You're right. The prime culprit here is overcarbonation, either from too much priming sugar or perhaps an infection that is eating up residual sugars (and releasing extra CO2). Properly carbonated bottles will not explode spontaneously at 90F

while it is true that very warm beers will sometimes gush, this doesn't appear to be the only cause of the problem here. One thing you can check is whether the current FG is the same as it was when you bottled. If something is eating your residual sugars beyond the limit that the yeast could tolerate, then you might be able to see the difference in gravity.

Another question is whether or not all the bottles are behaving similarly. It could be dirty bottles and not an entire batch that's infected or overcarbed.

AgentHubcap said:

Is this limited to homebrew or bottle conditioning? I used to drink my beer warm all the time when I bought it and never had a gusher. Or is it that it needs to get cold to suspend the CO2, but after that you can open warm?

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Beer that has had more time to condition is probably less likely to gush. As mentioned in your case, it's more likely that you have an issue of "over carbonation", but since the bottles have only been conditioning for 3 weeks it could just need more time to absorb the co2. There is also a good chance that your beer might gush slightly if you're opening a bottle that is 90+ degrees. The higher the temp = the higher the pressure! This could add to the gushing effect if the beer still has a lot of co2 in the head space that hasn't absorbed in to the liquid...

Only one of 100 or so exploded (10 gallon batch). Two are in the fridge now chilling. I'll crack one in a day or two to see if it gushes.

A beer in a bottle that has never been chilled may well gush. Last month I dumped two cases of silver medal winning beer. Here's the story in brief. Identified a wild yeast infection in a beer. Confirmed. Next batch, an APA, was entered into the CASK First Coast Cup. Prior to judging, I opened a warm bottle of the beer and it gushed. Another. Gushed. Prematurely convinced that this beer, too, was wild yeast infected like the previous batch, I opened and dumped them all. Nearly all of them gushed. I pitied the poor judges that were going to have to taste and judge that beer. You know the end result: it took silver. I DUMPED my first medal winning beer. DON'T assume that if a beer in a bottle that has never been chilled gushes that it is infected.

I've been fighting with this all summer. The last few batches I've made have carbed in the laundry room (up to 80F) or more commonly in the garage (90+ degrees). They all foam over or pour with 3/4 head. I finally put my physics brain into gear and realized chilling for a few days will increase the CO2 solubility, but I've been curious about whether it's okay to carb at such high temps to begin with. I think it's alright, everything still tastes great... just gotta get it chilled by the time I want to drink it. Chilling the glass also seems to help if the bottle is still foamy.

Thanks for the replies. This confirms what I've been thinking. What about chilling to suspend the CO2 then warming it back up to room temperature?

My father-in-law visited a brewery several years ago and they told him that "you taste the real beer when it is warm". Ever since then he lets his beer warm up before drinking it.

AgentHubcap said:

My father-in-law visited a brewery several years ago and they told him that "you taste the real beer when it is warm". Ever since then he lets his beer warm up before drinking it.

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I say that's personal preference giving way to personal bias.

Cracked one open tonight. No gushing, however, I managed to pour ONLY head. After the initial pour, the foam tried to escape the bottle very slowly, too.

Just overcarbed, or is something else going on?

Leave one in the fridge for a few more days before you open it. See if it gives you the same results. If it does then you either over primed or the beer wasn't finished fermenting before it was bottled. It is possible that you have an infection, but less likely IMHO...

Cracked another last night and it was still very heady. A careful pour resulted in 1/3 being head. Doesn't taste infected.

It sounds like they're just over carbed. If it was me I'd get them into the fridge and start drinking them.