Recapping Gushers

Does anyone have any experience doing this? I'm a little pissed here because this batch tasted great and i had one bottle gush slowly out of the bottle and another that just made it up to the lip of the bottle and stopped.

This is 5 days after bottling. I've never had anything carb so fast. Obviously, this concerns me. I'd hate to have to dump this batch.

Should I just take the caps off all of them and let them sit for a bit then recap?

How about throwing the whole batch in the fridge to cease yeast activity?

You open a beer after ONLY five days in the bottle???? Why?

Leave them alone for another 16 days and they will balance out....remember the mantra for bottle carbing AND conditioning? 3 weeks @ 70, 3 weeks @ 70, 3 weeks @ 70....and that's just a rule of thumb...Some beers take longer.

Trust me, I know. I like to open a test bottle after a week bottled. This particular test bottle was taken from the bottom of the bucket and had about a half inch of hops in the bottom. Perfect test bottle.

I always drink one after a week. Sometimes they totally gush out of the bottle. So what, it is just a sample. Wait another week and try another one. They are best after three weeks, but I always sample.

Revvy said:

You open a beer after ONLY five days in the bottle???? Why?

Leave them alone for another 16 days and they will balance out....remember the mantra for bottle carbing AND conditioning? 3 weeks @ 70, 3 weeks @ 70, 3 weeks @ 70....and that's just a rule of thumb...Some beers take longer.

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Yeah, but gushers after 5 days? I'd be concerned too. I'm not sure what to tell you. You may actually have to cap and re-cap a couple times over the next few weeks, just to avoid bottle-bombs.
What was your OG and FG on this brew? Recipe?

Benny Blanco said:

Trust me, I know. I like to open a test bottle after a week bottled. This particular test bottle was taken from the bottom of the bucket and had about a half inch of hops in the bottom. Perfect test bottle.

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But really there's no point in testing a bottle until a couple of weeks have gone by....taste and carb will both be off in the beginning, you could have just as easily opened it after 5 days and had no carbonation at all, or had it take like crap (Just look at all the is my beer ruined n00b threads on here on ay given day-"my beers flat" or "is my beer infected?")

Most of the time it's because they didn't wait a sufficient time to let it works itself out naturally....Beer is a living thing, it is really nothing more than yeasts eating, pooping and procreating after all, and all living things set their own agenda.

Things like the 1-2-3 rule or 3 weeks@70 are just rules of thumb based on our observations of the cycles of these organisms.

Open the beer in a couple of weeks and you'll see that everything will be evened out in time..The beer will reach it's own equilibrim

The earliest I ever pop a beer open is at 2 1/2 weeks, and even then I make no judgement on the beer....If it's good, it's good-though it will be better in a couple more weeks, and I chill a few, if it is flat, or taste funny, I just let them go in the closet longer, opening one every week or so until I'm satisfied, or I truly know it has conditioned, then if it's bad, I get concerned....But so far I have never had a batch that didn't fix itself in time....

I've had gushers after 3 weeks, that at 6 weeks were perfect....I've had porters and stouts that were flat at 3 weeks and were perfect at 8....that's just the way beer is. It's hard to really ruin or infect a batch of beer....It was brewed since ancient Sumer in really haphazard conditions where sanitization was non existant, and obviously since we still obsess over it, MOST of the time the beer must have came out....Otherwise noone would bother brewing...In modern times, using the most basic of sanitization practices, true beer infections are a rarity...

I wouldn't cap or recap or anything until after 3 weeks minimum have gone by.

I have two carton of longnecks from a brew I made five years ago (tin, white sugar!). Beer is stale so tonight I am going to strip down in the back garden and empty them. I attempted a couple at the weekend but got soaked when the cap came half off and the beer was redirected back at me! I smelt like a brewery, quite nice

Well, I think it's worth opening one after a week just to check on things. It's only 1 beer after all. Plus, in my situation, you can't just dismiss it because there is still at least a possibility of a gusher infection even if it's unlikely.

So, I'm going to put a couple in the fridge to chill for a couple days and test out. Then I'll see whats what and report back.

I'd put the bottles in an empty beer case and then put that in a thick Glad black plastic bag (the kind used for outdoor stuff like tree limbs/etc, much thicker than normal bags). And then let them sit. Worst thing that could happen would be a slight cleanup of the unbroken bottles, but you wouldn't have near the mess of a couple bottles blowing up and making a mess of the surroundings.

I plan on doing it this way for my first brew (just started primary on Saturday). I have no expectations of them being overpressurized, but an extra 2 seconds could save an hour of cleanup.

I'd say wait longer. Sometimes beers will gush early, because the CO2 won't have enough time to settle in. I had a pale ale that gushed like crazy after 18 days, but at 26 days it was tame, crisp, and fantastic. RDWHAHB.

I agree with waiting. About the only thing you can test after five days in the bottle is your patience.


TL

I have ALWAYS tested one after a week or so.

The only batch that did anything like what he is describing had the Gusher infection.

I have NEVER had a bottle gush because it wasn't properly carbed yet.

His best bet might be to drink them all as as soon as possible.

It doesn't sound good to me. Gusher doesn't effect flavor at all, from what I could tell.

The batch I had tasted awesome, but as time went on they just gushed more and more until you couldn't even decant them.

I HOPE THIS ISN"T WHAT YOU HAVE! Don't get me wrong, but out of 35 batches the only one that did anything eveen remotely like this gushed.

Even bottle bombs don't carb in 5 days. If it is carbed fully and gushes, it is fuggered.

Well, looks like I have to wait a couple days and see.

I was told that putting them in the fridge for a couple days and then testing one is a good way to get the Co2 to dissolve back into the beer if it is just not ready yet. I'm gonna try that. Hope I am jumping the gun here, but I've never had this happen in 13 batches so I had to ask.

I will give another vote for "you are fine just wait a week or two"

A few of my higher carbed beers have been gushers early on but then subside after conditioning in the fridge. Just give them time and I am sure you will be fine.

Benny Blanco said:

...This particular test bottle was taken from the bottom of the bucket and had about a half inch of hops in the bottom. Perfect test bottle.

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That could be your problem right there. I've noticed that bottles with a lot of sediment are more prone to gushing, even in properly carbonated batches.

Also, put the beer in the fridge for at least 24 hours, preferably longer than that, before opening. Opening a warm bottle of beer is just asking for a geyser.

For those of us that are concerned...HOW LONG before we can consider these beers safe? (I have one that is 2 weeks and UBER carbed) When can we take these out of the coolers and let them sit with the other beer in the closet?

Bigkahuna- your issue might be different than Benny's. If your issue is overcarbonation due to bottling too early, or too much priming sugar, you really can't take them out of the fridge and keep them at room temperature. It'll continue to ferment all the fermentable sugars in there.

If the issue is the same (opened too warm, too early), then they are safe. When you say they are overcarbed, is this a problem that is getting worse?

Well, Yoop...I opened my first test bottle tonight thats been in there a little over 24 hours and it was carbed perfectly. Now, is this an indication that everything will be ok if I leave the rest at room temp for a few weeks, or did I just happen to put this one in the fridge a the right moment so it came out well carbed?

I'm only a bit worried that the others will keep carbing if I don't cool them because 5 days is a little sketchy. Guess I'll just wait and see.

No, you can keep the others at room temperature to condition. Before you sample the next in a week or so (or knowing you, sooner!), put it in the fridge for 48 hours to let it chill the same way you did this one. After three weeks, if they are carbonated to your liking (and don't open them warm), you can either store them at room temperature, cellar temperature, or even in the fridge.

Now, Benny........I hate to tell you I told you so, but..................................

YooperBrew said:

N

Now, Benny........I hate to tell you I told you so, but..................................

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We all did!!!!!

(N00biteus has onece again been cured!!!)

Hey now, I've been brewing long enough to be on the road exiting noobville so you aren't allowed to call me one. There is a first time for everything and I'd always rather be safe than sorry. We were all noobs once, after all.

Yoop, I kept 3 in the fridge as test bottles. I'll open 1 tomorrow and 1 next week. I appreciate the help.
Here's hoping all is well.

Aww, come on, Benny- you know I"m just giving you ****. We've all been there.

Revvy said:

It's hard to really ruin or infect a batch of beer....It was brewed since ancient Sumer in really haphazard conditions where sanitization was non existant, and obviously since we still obsess over it, MOST of the time the beer must have came out....Otherwise noone would bother brewing...In modern times, using the most basic of sanitization practices, true beer infections are a rarity...

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I had a number of consecutive batches become infected although I had very good sanitization. Of course, this was because I was only sanitizing and not cleaning. I now own stock in Oxyclean. My batches all tasted quite good and only developed into gushers after a month to three months in the bottle. My infections took some time to take hold, and since I was always drinking them rather cold, I wasn't tasting the extent of the phenolic flavors or seeing a true eruption from the bottle. Once I brought a few samples to my LHBS to troubleshoot, everyone in the store could point out the infection immediately.

That being said, I'm sure there are some people on the board, and even more people in ancient Sumer, drinking infected beer. Not that there's anything wrong with it, I drank down my infected batches too. It was a number of learning experiences in a row (since I had brewed a number of batches before that first infection showed and the dominoes started to fall) Looking at the patience of some homebrewers, you'd have to agree that they're drinking their 5 gallons before any infections really present themselves.