Doubled The Priming Sugar!! Help!

I'm on my third batch, first not from a kit, a brown ale, that came out at a little over 4 gallons. I got mixed up on what measurement for what primer, and added one and a half cups of sugar. That was last night, and thank G-d, two of the bottles I used are plastic, so I was able to tell that by tonight already they were totally carbonated.

I opened one of the plastics, and it started gushing. I quickly put the rest in the fridge, and I guess I'm gonna pop the caps tonight and re-cap them, hopefully let off some steam.

Any advice out there would be greatly appreciated.

Oh,....



you're totally screwed!

Yeah good luck with that. I don't think popping the caps is going to solve it. You might consider putting it back in a carboy and letting it ferment a bit for a week but then you risk oxidation.

why won't popping the caps help? and why did it carbonate so quickly?

MBBrewer said:

why won't popping the caps help? and why did it carbonate so quickly?

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I am guessing and it never helped me with a couple of my overcarbed bottles. I don't think the one release from the cap will do the trick since you did double the priming sugar.

What about a few times? Its easier than putting it all back in the fermenter. Also I should mention that for some reason most of the original fermentation seemed to have taken place on the first day

MBBrewer said:

What about a few times? Its easier than putting it all back in the fermenter. Also I should mention that for some reason most of the original fermentation seemed to have taken place on the first day

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I guess a few times is better and hope for the best. What temperature are these bottles being stored at?

You may have seen less activity in the airlock but really your beer will be much better if you let it ferment for at least 7 but more like 10 to 14 days. You gots to be patient.

I was planning on storing them at room temperature, about 78 degrees, but I put them in the fridge for a couple of hours before popping the caps, which I'm doing now. some are gushing, some aren't, but it tastes sugary still.
Yeah, I read that beer will ferment alot even after visible fermentation has subsided, but I was thinking if it mostly fermented quickly, maybe most of the carbonation will happen quickly, and one or two de-steamings will do the trick.
How often should I pop the beers?

If they are gushing after just 2 days then I would keep them cooler than 78. I really have no experience with what you are going through but I would check them every 2 days.

Please be careful as bottle bombs can be dangerous.

gushing after 2 days? Won't most young beer gush after 2-3 days due to the fact that the carbon dioxide haven't had the chance to disolve into the beer? I guess I would give it some more time plus I'm not sure what you can do anyways. I'm not sure if you want to keep opening and releasing the gas because then you might as well just return it to the fementation bucket.

If you doubled the sugar, I would just open them and let them vent into a fermenter and let it sit for a week, then try again once the SG has stopped dropping again.

I opened the bottles again tonight (second night in a row) and they were gushing like crazy. The beer tasted very carbonated, but most of the sweetness was gone. I let them sit open for a while before recapping, to let off some more co2. also, alot of beer was lost by the gushing, so I combined bottles to keep them full.

pop the caps so u dont have glass flyign everywhere and say "****...i ****ed this one up..." and move on to another batch...u can try to put it in a carboy and leyt it ferment for a little while but the taste just wont be right.

how about this:

pop all the caps but leave them all loosely on top to cover the opening so nothing gets in them. Let them ferment out all the priming sugar, then go back after a week and add carb tabs to the bottles and recap.

good luck with whatever you do!

I vented them three times, and the co2 seems to have stabilized, although the taste seemed a little off. Tomorrow I'm gonna chill and taste, hopefully it improved since a few days ago.

What are carb tabs?

MBBrewer said:

What are carb tabs?

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http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=10600

Cool, thanks.

And the beer came out pretty good, after all that. Its not amazing, but I think the recipe wasn't very good to begin with. (The only specialty grains I added to the malt was a pound of caramel malt. The beer tastes very caramelly.)