First brew, worried about exploding bottles

I started making my first brew ever, using the Brewer's Best Robust Porter recipe. I'm foregoing the secondary stage fermentation, as an acquaintance (knowing I'm not the most patient person when trying new things) told me it isn't entirely necessary for my first brew.

I'm afraid I may have bottled too early, and don't want exploding bottles. The recipe said after 4-6 days the fermenter bubbles should slow or stop. They seemed to have stopped at 5, on the 8th day I took gravity readings and bottled sort of impatiently without plugging in the reading into the formula to double check. I do have all the bottles stored in a safe semi-sealed bin tucked away in the corner for any potential cleanup convenience and safety.

My OG was 1.052, and FG was 1.017-1.019 when I bottled (was hard to read in the tube but I'm confident its in between there). This was about 3 days ago.

Should I be worried of bottles exploding? If so, what can I do to fix this? Should I open one up early at some point to check how carbonated it is? I really don't want to lose my first batch or have a bottle blow up in my hands

You should not have any issues.

Hi zee,
From your numbers, looks like you had a 65% attenuation which tells me there was a lot of residual sugar in the beer when you bottled it. If you used the recommended amount of bottling sugar then you may well have over carbonated beer. Whether the bottles will explode or not is hard to say but yes, I would check one early on, maybe after a few days. Put one in the fridge to chill it first, then open to see how carbonated. If it is carbonated or over carbonated, I would recommend placing the entire batch in the fridge to try and stop the yeast.
In the future, if the beer is under attenuated as in this case, the first step is to give it more time to fully ferment. If you determine that the fermentation has stopped you could adjust the amount of bottling sugar in relationship to the % of attenuation. In this case reducing the bottling sugar by 10-15% would probably achieve proper carbonation. Good luck and keep us posted.
mark
www.backyardbrewer.blogspot.com

Zee,
as I pointed out, allowing the beer to finish fermenting is paramount. But, if the beer is finished fermenting and your attenuation is only 65%, there is a large % of sugar that is most likely long chains that the yeast is unable to deal with (metabolize). Once you bottle, the yeast will quickly attenuate the additional, very fermentable sugar and in the process may achieve some minor strides to break down futher the sugars previously unavailable during this secondary activity. It will but by no means ferment the beer down to the levels that your looking for in the fermenter, but adjusting the amount of bottling sugar down will be helpful in reducing over carbonation.
mark
www.backyardbrewer.blogspot.com

I think this may be a major mess for you if they explode. I recommend that you send the whole lot to me and I will properly dispose of them.

At this point, test one out every few days. If you notice the carbonation level increasing significantly, throw as many as you can in the fridge and drink them as quickly as you can. You are most likely going to be OK as far as breaking but you may have some super carbed beer.

Good luck

I think eljefe is right on. With a extract batch you are most likely in the clear but checking them frequently will let you know if you need to get them cold fast.

Next batch just do exactly what you did but leave the beer in the fermenter for another 2-3 days and take another gravity reading to make sure it has hit the bottom.

The more patient brewers here will tell you to have a couple more weeks patience and wait even longer for a better beer. They are right.

The thirstier brewers here will tell you to have a couple more days patience so you don't have bottle bombs. They(we) are right too.

Patience is a virtue. Good beer to drink right now is a virtue. Reach the point where you have both and you are golden.

Zalf said:

Patience is a virtue. Good beer to drink right now is a virtue. Reach the point where you have both and you are golden.

Click to expand...

You are a wise man! Very well put.

If I were to test one out soon after bottling, and I saw it to be far more carbonated than it normally should be, would it be a good idea to maybe slightly open the caps on them to let the CO2 out for a few minutes and then recap?

I did some reading on another site and this was one of the suggestions. I realize it exposes the beer to contamination, but I figure if the caps arent fully removed its not as exposed as it can be. Thoughts?

Well just to update you guys, after 4 days into bottling, I cracked one open and it was indeed really carbonated already. I went ahead and just half-opened all the bottles just enough the let co2 out but still so the bottles were covered and let them sit for about 30 mins then recapped.

Just opened one up today about 2-2.5 weeks later, seems like the perfect carbonation level, and the brew is quite delicious

Wow, when I brewed BB Robust Porter, it took about a month or month and a half for it to carb up.

Yeah, but my FG was higher than it should have been, it being my first batch and I got impatient (and stupid).

I'm actually really surprised it came out as well as it did, I've tasted other homebrews, one of which was rushed and it had a real nasty sourness to it. I'm pretty sure I got lucky so far.