Boom goes the dynamite.... and beer bottle, advice needed.

Ok so… after being away for three days I return to find my beer storage room smells of… beer. The culprit appears to be an overcarbed batch of winter warmer yielding a bottle bomb, but just one so far!

I bottled in grolsh swing top bottles and I popped a few of them and some of them pop ok, but they fizz dramatically when poured so I tested popping the top on some of them letting them sit open for 30 seconds then recapping them… wait 24 hours and test… the result seems to be a drinkable beer that is still somewhat over carbed but not wasted! So I’m thinking that I can maybe leave them open to the air for a bit longer to bleed off more co2 then recap.

Some of them however, pop violently… think game 7 of the Stanley cup champagne bottles…

I’m looking for advice, I’d like not to lose the batch but I’d also like not to shoot beer all over my house or get a swing top in the eye (yes some of them eject the swing top across the room) I was going to open them in a water bath since that would make the pressure differential between the environment inside the bottle / outside less. But that would mean losing the whole batch.

Since the solubility of co2 is inversely related to temperature if I were hoping to save some of the batch I’m assuming chilling the batch to a very cold temp would help reduce the reaction and I could open them, bleed some air and recap.

Any thoughts??


Thanks!

I think you're on the right track with keeping them as cold as possible. I've read a number of threads where people advise venting some of the pressure and recapping as a way not to lose the batch as well.

I'm a relatively new brewer, and each of us is different, and I'm sure there will be people who, like you, would do their best to save the batch.

I for one wouldn't.

Bottle bombs are the one thing about this hobby that I have a very healthy respect for. Yes, it'd be unfortunate to lose a batch, the ingredients, the work, and have an unplanned for hole in my pipeline.

But if anyone actually got hurt? Enough said.

Again, there are plenty of people who would try to save the batch, just as you're doing -- and I'm sure many have, successfully.

Just saying that if I, personally, had some bottles in a batch going off like game 7 Stanley Cup champagne, I wouldn't risk it and would just (gasp!) dump the batch.

If you are concerned about over priming/carbonating definitely get them cold to put the yeast to sleep and halt any further fermentation.

To go any further we would need finished volume of beer bottled, sanitizing method, amount of priming sugar used, temperature of the beer fermented, FG being verified, etc......

Chill them down to near freezing, cross your fingers and pop the tops, leave them open while you let the bottles warm to serving temperature, testing occasionally until the carb level settles to "just right" before resealing the lids...

Cheers!

Thanks that is exactly what I will do, I never thought about letting them warm up which would force more co2 out of solution. I'll have to empty my keezer out and do a case at a time and be sure to wear protective gear lol