Slightly over-carbed my cider - suggestions on what to do?

Hey All - With Spring semester starting I procrastinated on pasteurizing my first "real" (did a couple quickie batches in between) batch of cider...I finally got around to it today, but when I decided to crack one open while I worked I saw that I over-carbed a bit...I'm not at bottle-bomb stage yet but it was too much to drink out of the bottle without being obnoxious (tasted amazing poured into a glass on the rocks tho!) I decided pasteurizing was probably a bad idea and crammed all the bottles in the freezer to crash them asap.

So now I'm wondering what my best course of action is from here? Do I bite the bullet and put them in the garage (no room in the fridge but its pretty cold out of course), hoping the cold is enough to keep them from becoming bombs until I finish them? Or would it be feasible (or necessary?) to open them, let off a bit of pressure, and then put new caps on and pasteurize? Or something else I haven't thought of? Any suggestions would be appreciated; thanx.

Open them then recap Hecate full to check them out in an HR or so....once they hit room temp. Then pasteurized

Did you open it warm? It may have gushed for that reason.

Put a few in the fridge and open them in about 3-5 days, and see if they still are too carbed up.

Thanks for the thoughts guys. The first one was cold, but the other couple I opened after that to see if it was a fluke were warm...I ended up taking them out of the freezer just before they would have started freezing, and then put them at the end of the garage where it's about the same temp as outside. That's 20's/30's atm, so I don't think the yeast will be doing much. I'll try another one here in a day or two and if it's under control, great; if not I guess I'll have to follow jack's advice and re-cap them after letting a little pressure off.

They were good drinking from a glass, but not from a bottle? That is why you should drink from a glass and not a bottle.

cluckk said:

They were good drinking from a glass, but not from a bottle? That is why you should drink from a glass and not a bottle.

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Lol yah, I just mean that once you pour it and some of the carb bubbles off, it's great. Drinking it straight from the bottle, it's so carbed that you can't really enjoy it. So yeah I'll be drinking it from a glass for sure!

Hieron said:

Lol yah, I just mean that once you pour it and some of the carb bubbles off, it's great. Drinking it straight from the bottle, it's so carbed that you can't really enjoy it. So yeah I'll be drinking it from a glass for sure!

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Sounds like you already have the answer to your question on how to fix the overcarbed cider--pour it in a glass and drink it. If you want to fix it quicker, I have a glass too.

cluckk said:

Sounds like you already have the answer to your question on how to fix the overcarbed cider--pour it in a glass and drink it. If you want to fix it quicker, I have a glass too.

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I socond that motion

Just like champagne. You wouldn't drink it from bottle, unless you are a rapper or just won the World Series. Open breath and pour.

Lol thanks for the interest guys. Yah I've had a couple in the past few days and did essentially what Mark said and it works out fine. It has just a slightly acidid/vinegar finish that I wish wasn't there, but overall its pretty great for my first batch. If I'm more careful not to let the yeast work so much in the bottle next time I'll probably solve that problem.