Will my bottles explode?

I brewed a Trippel:

SG 1.090
FG 1.020

My SG was about 1.095, but my finishing gravity was about 1.040. Being an idiot, I bottled at ten days like the recipe said instead of seeing if the gravity was stable. I used 5 oz of priming sugar. After two days, I opened a warm bottle. It had a little hiss, but then started to gush. The beer was mostly flat though as the CO2 hadn't equalized. I did take a measurement and it was about 1.046.

What to do? Wait it out? Uncap and recap? Pour it all back into a fermenter? Yes I'm stupid.

I guess I'm a little confused. You state at the beginning of your post
SG - 1.090
FG - 1.020

You say you bottled at 1.040 and you now have a gravity of 1.046?

I would say that if bottled at 1.040 with 5 oz. of sugar, you're going to have gushers and/or exploding bottles. depending on what yeast you used, I would expect that beer to ferment down at least another 20 points.

My latest tripel started at 1.080 and finished at 1.008

You aren't going to get a good reading now, since there IS some CO2 in solution (which will screw up the reading).

But, you bottled WAY too soon for a beer this size (there are few beers that should be bottled after ten days - and 1.090 Tripples ain't one of them!). I'm really worried those bottles will be grenades, and even if you get them cool (to slow down fermentation), the beer is going to be way too sweet.

Not sure the best course of action; that's a LOT of unfermentables in there. You need to vent and re-cap, you'll probably have to do that a couple of times. Frankly, if it were me I'd almost be tempted to dump it (and I don't say that lightly); it's going to be REAL tough to know when it's femented down enough to where the bottles aren't going to explode, but still have it carbonate up. I'm just really worried about one of the bottles blowing up in your hand.

You should have come to us a few days ago!

I say before you dump it, gently pourback ino your sanitized fermenter, attach an airlock and give it a few more weeks.

Brewtopia said:

I say before you dump it, gently pourback ino your sanitized fermenter, attach an airlock and give it a few more weeks.

Click to expand...

You might try this but take caution as you do this. Use safety glasses, leather gloves and wear long sleaves too.

The beer might be oxidized. If you can do this, don't have high expectations. You should let it sit for at least 4 months before you start drinking. By then it will have mellowed a bit. If you drink it too early and choose to toss it out it will be because you didn't give it a chance to age.

Home Brewing Teaches Patience

Good Luck!!

I wouldn't dump it. Whats the point? One way or the other he will have to open the bottles so might as well do as Schlen said above.

Personally though I would bottle it when the SG has been steady for a few days then age in the bottle for several months instead of the aging in the carboy.

With all that yeast activity and co2 that will release when he pours though I doubt that oxidation will be that big an issue if he pours it back slowly.

Throw in bit of ascorbic acid, about a table spoon, and that will help with that any way as it is an anti-oxident.

Brewtopia said:

I say before you dump it, gently pourback ino your sanitized fermenter, attach an airlock and give it a few more weeks.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought about that - but it's likely going to be oxidized as hell. I suppose that's better than dumping, but I wouldn't have terribly high hopes. Pour the beer back into the fermenter as GENTLY as possible.

You can't leave it in the bottles, though, IMHO. WAY too high a gravity reading for having bottled. I'm thinking - welding gloves and safety goggles.

the_bird said:

Yeah, I thought about that - but it's likely going to be oxidized as hell. I suppose that's better than dumping, but I wouldn't have terribly high hopes. Pour the beer back into the fermenter as GENTLY as possible.

You can't leave it in the bottles, though, IMHO. WAY too high a gravity reading for having bottled. I'm thinking - welding gloves and safety goggles.

Click to expand...

AS I said adding some ascorbic acid will help with oxidation and since it is full of co2 it shouldn't get all that oxidized anyway as co2 will scrub o2 out of beer.

It seems that the bottles are not very carbonated (it has only been two days). I vented another one and even though it gushes, there's not much of a hiss. I chalked the increased hydrometer reading up to the addition of priming sugar, but it makes sense that the carbonation bubbles would also throw off the reading. I'm going to continue testing the bottles daily to see what kind of pressure buildup they have. If it gets excessive, then I'll either transfer to a fermenter or keg. Still, right now it seems that the carbonation is not excessive to the point that the bottles are in danger of exploding. I don't mean to question the hydrometer, but it seems to me that my beers often finish pretty high (though not 20 points high!). If the carbonation gets very high, I might try the cap vent technique. I can release the pressure and recap quickly before they gush and that should stop any chance of oxidation reaching the beer as oxygen will be forced out the top of the bottle when they are vented.

FC3SPORT said:

It seems that the bottles are not very carbonated (it has only been two days). I vented another one and even though it gushes, there's not much of a hiss. I chalked the increased hydrometer reading up to the addition of priming sugar, but it makes sense that the carbonation bubbles would also throw off the reading. I'm going to continue testing the bottles daily to see what kind of pressure buildup they have. If it gets excessive, then I'll either transfer to a fermenter or keg. Still, right now it seems that the carbonation is not excessive to the point that the bottles are in danger of exploding. I don't mean to question the hydrometer, but it seems to me that my beers often finish pretty high (though not 20 points high!). If the carbonation gets very high, I might try the cap vent technique. I can release the pressure and recap quickly before they gush and that should stop any chance of oxidation reaching the beer as oxygen will be forced out the top of the bottle when they are vented.

Click to expand...

I think you are just asking for trouble. If that fermentation takes off for any reason in any bottle (e.g. temperature change), you could have a bomb within a few hours. Why risk an emergency room visit and/or a potentially extremely lengthy, annoying clean-up for $40 worth of beer?
I'd go with what others have suggested: pour it back gently, let it ferment to completion and hope for the best. If you are worried about oxidation, you can use ascorbic acid as an anti-oxidant and/or CO2 to purge the air space in the fermenter every few minutes while you pour.

Hmmmm - Another good reason to use PET bottles when you first start out!!

Personally, I like the MRB bottles. Quart size, not alot of work. You need two per 5gal batch.

You're rolling the dice by not opening them all and dumping! How will you know when its time to stop opening bottles? The pffttt... thing wouldn't work for me. I generously carb too. Sometimes it doesn't seem like much until you pour.

The headache of recapping each one is enough to have me dumping them back into the fermentor.

Be carefull!!!

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I know that the danger of bottle bombs is serious and I have moved the bottles to a location where they will not cause a mess or be dangerous if they do explode. It seems there are two options:

1. Safest- Pour all the beer back into a fermenter or a keg to ferment out.

Risk- Oxidation

2. Best for beer- Cap and uncap (since the CO2 sits ontop of the fermenting beer, little risk of oxidation).

Risk- Flat beer (can be carbed with more sugar), Explosive bottles (can be kept in check by regular checks and recaps)

The carbonation level is still low in the bottles. Although the bottles are gushing, gushing is to be expected at the early stage of a natural carbonation when the pressure of the headspace is not in equilibrium with the dissolved gas in the liquid. I will open another bottle today, pour a sample and wait for it to go flat. Then I should have a reliable reading on what the gravity is and whether the bottles will have to be uncapped and depressurized many times.

An interesting approach might be to superchill the beer so it won't gush and then uncap, bring back to fermenation temps, and run 50 mini open fermentations. With the high alcohol level of the beer, the likelihood of infection seems small, but the risk of oxidation while the bottles are moved is still very present.

I plan on working with caps for now and uncapping warm so as to vent more headspace gas. If I don't make it, you can nominate me for a Darwin Award.

I just wanted to update the thread. The bottles carbed up fine and there's no bottle bombs. The trippel is too sweet. I'm letting it age a little while I decide what to do with it. I might just give it a few months to age out and see how things work. Worst case scenario it's just a strong sweet beer. There's no gushing from the beer so I'm not really concerned about bottle bombs in the future. I think the yeast just pooped out. I blame myself for not pitching a bigger starter. Oh well, you brew and you learn. You never know, it could be fantastic in two months. I made a blackberry wheat that was so terrible I poured out the first couple bottles. Two years later, yes two!, it was fantastic and everyone wanted me to make them some. It's hard to explain to someone that I could make them some in two years =). If you're not brewing, you're waiting (so I try to do a lot of brewing.)

Any updates on this? I'm having the exact same problem.

You'd be better off starting a new thread rather than literally resurrecting a 2 year old post.

Yeah I did that- I wanted an update from the original guy though.

I don't think you're going to get one. The guy has 6 posts over a two year span, and 4 of them are in this thread.