first brew, exploding beer, will more time help?

So I recently brewed and bottled my first batch. I thought I had made some mistakes during the brewing process (temperature too high, etc), but decided to follow through with it. It's been sitting in bottles for about 10 days now,after primary fermenting of 2 1/2 weeks. I decided to crack one open and as soon as I opened it, it jut foamed to the top and started spilling out. I was able to save about half of the bottle, and it tasted pretty good. My question is, will my other bottles "explode" in the same way, possibly due to too much priming sugar? Or, will letting it sit in the bottles for another few weeks take care of this problem?

Unfortunately, if they are exploding, that problem will get worse and not better. You may soon find yourself with bottle bombs on your hands. You said too much priming sugar, are you sure you used too much? Did you check your final gravity to make sure that the beer had fully attenuated before you bottled? Infections can also cause massive foaming. I would suggest you take the bottles and get them cold (this will help inhibit some of the foaming) and drink them quickly. You can try to vent the bottles and re-cap, but this poses infection problems as well as the complication of trying to get a new cap on the bottle before all the beer foams out.

I don't think there is any problem except that you openned it too soon.

let them sit for at least 2 more weeks then chill them for at least 48 hours...and then tell me if they are over carbed...you opened it at a point where although there was co2 present in the headspace, it hadn't fully integrated into solution. In other words it wasn't carbed yet.

How long did you chill the bottle before tasting it? The longer you chill it the more it will pull it into solution as well.

But generally we recommend a minimum of three weeks at 70 to carb and condition most average gravity beers. Some take longer, weeks or months even.

I bet that if you leave your bottles alone for another 2.5 weeks minimum, then chill a couple down for at least 48 hours...your beer will be carbed just fine.

More info about carbing and conditioning, can be found here, there is a video that shows EXACTLY what just happened when you opened your bottle prematurely.

Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

Since that was my first brew, I didn't have a hydrometer to check if the beer had been attenuated before bottling, and just followed the instructions that came with my kit. I put as much priming sugar as the recipe called for, so maybe it wasn't too much? I have since purchased a hydrometer (as per Revvy's strong suggestion in another post) and started on my second batch (this is currently in primary). I will let them sit for another 3 weeks and let them chill for a few days and will let you guys know what happened. Thanks for the advice

i'd say that if you followed the instructions on the kit reasonably closely, you shouldn't have a problem. they do their best to make those kits as idiot-proof as possible.

Revvy said:

.you opened it at a point where although there was co2 present in the headspace, it hadn't fully integrated into solution. In other words it wasn't carbed yet.)

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I'm not sure I believe this - every time I've opened an undercarbonated bottle, it's never foamed like crazy. It usually has the tiniest (or non-existent) "tsst" of gas escaping, and then when you pour it, there are these huge bubbles in solution but it's flabby on the tongue. OVERcarbonated bottles, however, have done some nice gushing, and I think this is much more likely in your case.

I've been super-meticulous about weighing priming sugar, accurately measuring the volume and temp of the beer I'm priming, and filling bottles to proper levels, and I've had so many stupid problems with over/under carbonation that I bit the bullet and went to kegging. Unlike most people, I didn't really hate the process of bottling, I just hated the inconsistency.

I'd say the most likely scenario you're experiencing is: Your beer probably retained a more CO2 than expected from fermentation, then you racked to a bottling bucket and lost some of your volume so you had less than 5gal, then you added an appropriate quantity of sugar for a full 5gal with nearly no dissolved CO2 in it, and bam the yeast ate it up and your beer is overcarbonated.

I've been able to degas extremely overcarbonated beer before but it takes like 10 degassings - barely lift the cap with a bottle opener to let as much CO2 escape before the beer foams out, then quickly recap the beer. Let it sit for awhile to stabilize, then do it again. You want to keep doing this until the sound of escaping gas is fairly light.

I made a batch of beer last September that was incredibly foamy. It tasted perfect, but it would foam like there was no tomorrow. I have a few left, and they still foam pretty bad. They never turned into bombs or "gushed", they would just foam really bad after about 15 seconds of contact with air.

I think kanzimonson's theory is correct -- ultimately that proved to be the case for my batch. There was a lot of trub on this batch in the primary, so when I racked off of it I had too much priming sugar for the amount of beer. There was still a lot of trub in the bottles, so there ended up being way too much carbonation.

If you will pour them in large glasses, you should be fine.

kanzimonson said:

I'm not sure I believe this - every time I've opened an undercarbonated bottle, it's never foamed like crazy. It usually has the tiniest (or non-existent) "tsst" of gas escaping, and then when you pour it, there are these huge bubbles in solution but it's flabby on the tongue. OVERcarbonated bottles, however, have done some nice gushing, and I think this is much more likely in your case.

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This video (taken from Revvy's blog) show very much what he's talking about. The first beer, at about 5 days from bottling, showed some beer gushing out. It may be what is experiencing the OP.

Erythro73 said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlBlnTfZ2iw&feature=player_embedded

This video (taken from Revvy's blog) show very much what he's talking about. The first beer, at about 5 days from bottling, showed some beer gushing out. It may be what is experiencing the OP.

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I've had a lot of folks come back two weeks later who experienced the same thing, saying that it did indeed level out just like in the video, and everything was fine.

I've kinda been troubleshooting folks carbonation issues for years, and have rarely been wrong. Hence the fact that I've written those blogs.....

I find it funny that no one ever mentions what I would assume to be the one of the most likely reasons to have gusher bottles (especially among newbs like myself because it was the first obvious mistake that I made), improper mixing of the priming sugar. Sorry, but it just makes me cringe to see people say that they had gusher bottles and have five people ask what kind of infection they had.

My first two batches had about 6 beers that I said "where's the head??", 6 beers that blew foam in my friends faces when they opened them, and then another case and a half somewhere in between. Oddly enough, it just so happened that these beers would congregate together in my cases. (just in case someone presupposes that I was just drinking beer that hadn't carbed properly, the top blowers were not ever the last 6 I drank). After those two problem batches I read on here that you should rack onto the priming solution and then stir some more and I haven't had an issue since.

Anyhoo, I think there are three things that could be wrong here:

1. Infection - God I love infection pictures, make me glad I've never had one, but I think I read that most newbs don't get infection because they are terrified of infection pictures. So I'm thinking this is least probable.

2. Improper Mix - I would first ask the OP, "How did you mix the priming solution, and for how long?" I would say the OP should look at the order that he bottled his beers and grab one from the other side of the batch. Open it up and see what happens. Since improper mix problems seem to be localized issues, if you grab one from the other side of the batch, it likely won't gush on you. If it doesn't, cool down that case with the gusher, and let em chill. If it blows, then:

3. Bottled To Early: If all your beers blow their tops, chill em all down and do yourself a favor and by that hydrometer. They are super cheap, and they are the worlds best excuse to taste your product through all stages of production.

Either way, treating your batch like both 2 and 3 are a problem can't hurt the quality of your product.

smitty2324 said:

I find it funny that no one ever mentions what I would assume to be the one of the most likely reasons to have gusher bottles (especially among newbs like myself because it was the first obvious mistake that I made), improper mixing of the priming sugar. Sorry, but it just makes me cringe to see people say that they had gusher bottles and have five people ask what kind of infection they had.

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I don't believe anyone has said infection, at least I haven't.

But I'm also one of those folks who believes that priming solution and beer mixes fine on it's own, and the idea of improper mixing is pretty much a myth.

If you put the priming solution in the bottom of your bucket, stick the racking hose in the bottom of your bucket, then as the beer rises in the bucket from the bottom to the top it is going to integrate the sugar solution and beer quite fine on it's own.

It's two liquids mingling after all....

I always suggest that if people don't believe me, they add a few drop of food coloring to the priming solution and see for themselves.

The only way I would bet the sugar and beer didn't integrate itself fine, is if they dropped dry sugar into the bottom of the bottling bucket.

Revvy said:

I always suggest that if people don't believe me, they add a few drop of food coloring to the priming solution and see for themselves.

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Logically I would agree with you, which is why for my first two batches I didn't really think that boiling/cooling then mixing straight into the bottling bucket would be an issue. My first two batches through had extreme inconsistencies in carbonation that could not be explained by:

1. Time - 3 weeks to taste first bottle, chill 48 hours min is the mantra. First bottle was always great. Over/under carbed always showed up later and would show up in groups.

2. Amount of sugar (both were batches and amounts were consistent with the style)

3. Yeast attenuation - always use a hydrometer

I eliminated all of the variables that people talk about and went with the mixing. Maybe I'll just have to do a beer for St. Paddy's day and dye the priming sugar to see how it mixes.