Bottle to fermentor?

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I'm clearly a beginner, but . . . I neglected to add water to my wort to get it up to the 5 gallon mark( I was doing an all extract Belgian IPA kit). It has been bottled, but the priming sugar that I used has over-fermented the bottles leading to over-carbonation. Is it a loss, or can I open the bottles and pour it back into the fermenter . . . Re-prime it(less sugar this time) . . . And re-bottle?
 
Don't add it back to a fermentor, as you'll oxidize the beer quite badly. You can gently uncap the bottles (just enough to hear the gas escape) and then re-cap the (don't full remove the caps) to let some gas out. Keep doing this until the carbonation is back where you want it.
 
That's what I've been doing. Three or four beers at a time. Still foams quite a bit. I will just have to be patient. - and better at following directions next time!
 
I have been "venting" 12 of these beers. I went down in the basement to grab another dozen. I picked one up and BAM! Instantly 30 other beers exploded simultaneously! Lots of blood . . . Lots of little cuts . . . No serious damage. Surreal moment, indeed! The basement smells awesome, but what a mess! It blew the lightbulb out of the ceiling lamp. Will NOT make THAT mistake again! I'm still picking glass out of my shrapnel wounds. - not to mention the loss of 30+ beers/bottles!
 
I'd suggest that it had nothing to do with not adding water to too up. You simply bottled too early.

Edit: now that i think about it, what volume did you end up with?
 
It's possible. I ended up bottling 40 beers(a few less than most batches). I put almost twice the hops that the recipe called for. Could that have been a factor?
 
While 40 beers is a few less than you normally get out of a 5 gallon batch, I really don't think it's so low that you should be blowing up bottles. And no hops don't contribute. I'd bet you bottled too early.
 
biestie said:
While 40 beers is a few less than you normally get out of a 5 gallon batch, I really don't think it's so low that you should be blowing up bottles. And no hops don't contribute. I'd bet you bottled too early.

First off, OP, hope your doing well:)

If he used all 5 oz to carbonate ~4 gallons of beer he most certainly over carbonated to the point of bottle bombs. I'm not saying he did or did not verify FG, just clarifying the real possibility.

Bottle bombs are no joke......
 
Could have been a little of both. The recipe called for a yeast that literally "blew out" for 24-36 hours and slowed to a near halt thereafter. I could have bottled early. But I KNOW I skipped the "add water back to the 5 gallon mark" directive. In any event, I'm spooked. Don't know if this is for me. Too many variables of too many types. You screw up a good stew and its still an eatable stew. Screw up a beer and, after a 3-4 month wait, you find it's undrinkable. And I promise you . . . Bottle shrapnel setting off two dozen simultaneous bottle bombs is a "relatively" profound experience.
 
Don't let one time scare you off,unless you don't think you will be able to learn from it and may do it again.Some mentioned bottling to early did you check gravity readings or how long was it in primary?
 
First off, OP, hope your doing well:)

If he used all 5 oz to carbonate ~4 gallons of beer he most certainly over carbonated to the point of bottle bombs. I'm not saying he did or did not verify FG, just clarifying the real possibility.

Bottle bombs are no joke......

4 gallons and 5 oz of priming sugar will yield about 3.3 vols of CO2. Your standard beer bottle could and will hold that unless there's something wrong with it. It's certainly above the level of carbonation for his style, but there are a few beers where that's right on the money. I've naturally carbed beers with CO2 levels in the mid 3s with no issues.

In any event, I'm spooked. Don't know if this is for me.

It probably seems hard after your first attempt didn't go well, but generally speaking, most beginner mistakes will still yield pretty good beer. Obviously this is the exception, but there are only a couple of things that really could have caused what happened to you, and you will learn from that.
 
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