Help! Gusher

I just bottled my homebrew sunday and i was dying to open one. So today (4days) I opened one right out of my closet and had a gusher. I Left it the the primary for 3weeks and only put 4oz of priming sugar. Will the carbonation keep increasing with time? Want to know if i have bottle bombs coming my way since its only been 4days. Now i didnt bother putting it in the fridge just popped it open to taste. Could that be the reason? How can I save my beer? Or am I overreacting?

Dude, you gotta chill that brew before you sample. Also, this can happen if you bottled before fermentation has come to fruition. Do you have gravity readings to help troubleshoot?

Yep your homebrew has not had the chance to absorb the pressure that is built up in the bottle. Give it longer, and if you must open one chill it first to avoid gushing.

Thanks, Youve talked me off the ledge. Why did I open so early? There was no one to stop me haha.

CHILL! Literally and figuratively. Time and temp will solve your problem.

There's nothing wrong with your beer, it's not overprimed nor is it infected...the problem is YOU'RE OPENNING THE BEER AFTER BEING IN THE BOTTLE ONLY 4 DAYS!!!!


Watch poindexter's video from my bottling blog.



Like he shows several times, even @ 1 week, all the hissing, all the foaming can and does happen, but until it's dissolved back into the beer, your don't really have carbonation, with tiny bubbles coming out of solution happening actually inside the glass, not JUST what's happening on the surface.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

But until then the beer can even appear to be overcarbed, when really nothing is wrong.

A lot of new brewers who tend to kill their two cases off in a few days, don't experience true carbonation and the pleasures thereof, until they actually get a pipeline going, and have their first 5 or 6 week old full carbed and conditioned wonderfully little puppy! Then the come back with an "aha" moment.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience."

Makes sure the beers are minimum of 3 weeks at 70 degrees before you even think of opening them, then make sure a couple of them are THOROUGHLY chilled for at least 48 hours to draw the co2 into solution. Then more than likely everything will be hunky dory....

Had you opened them after 3 weeks you never would have noticed anything wrong.....

Yeah I had the same prob when I made an amber a while back. Massive gusher and 2 fizz overs after one week in the bottle. 3 weeks later every one I opened from then on out was perfectly carbed. Give it time.

A gusher after 4 days is highly unusual.

passedpawn said:

A gusher after 4 days is highly unusual. Chill another one and try again.

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I get at least one thread a week I answer of someone opening their beer at 4 or 5 days, in fact the thread I cut and pasted my previous answer was for 4 days, (hence it saying 4 days) and yesterday I posted the same answer and changed it to 5 days....In my experience a gusher at 4 or 5 days is a quite common new brewer post. That's why I constantly post the same answer......My belief is that 1 occurrence is a anomaly, two is a coincidence but three or more is an epidemic. And we have an epidemic of folks opening their beers early like 4 or 5 days and having them gush.

It ends up i do have bottle bombs. 2 exploded in my storage closet. Are the rest going to explode? what can be done?

billted said:

It ends up i do have bottle bombs. 2 exploded in my storage closet. Are the rest going to explode? what can be done?

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Maybe. There are two things that I can think of that happened. One, the priming sugar could have been inevenly mixed, meaning that some bottles got too much and others got not enough. That would mean that some beers are overcarbed while some are flat. Do you have any "normal" bottles?

The other possibility is that you bottled too early, and that is why you have gushers and exploding bottles. If that's the case, they are all in danger of exploding, so I'd get them somewhere safe right away.

Revvy said:

I get at least one thread a week I answer of someone opening their beer at 4 or 5 days, in fact the thread I cut and pasted my previous answer was for 4 days, (hence it saying 4 days) and yesterday I posted the same answer and changed it to 5 days....In my experience a gusher at 4 or 5 days is a quite common new brewer post. That's why I constantly post the same answer......My belief is that 1 occurrence is a anomaly, two is a coincidence but three or more is an epidemic. And we have an epidemic of folks opening their beers early like 4 or 5 days and having them gush.

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well, a cut-and-paste answer doesn't fit everybody in all situations. Constantly posting the same answer isn't always the answer. I would caution people to read the OP and not use a "one size fits all" answer.

would putting them in the fridge help? Will they just explode in there? I tested another one today (13days bottling) after leaving in fridge for 24hrs and tasted great just gasy like a La Fin du Monde beer.

billted said:

would putting them in the fridge help? Will they just explode in there? I tested another one today (13days bottling) after leaving in fridge for 24hrs and tasted great just gasy like a La Fin du Monde beer.

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I'd put them in the fridge and cover with a towel. It sounds like your fermentation may not have been complete. Did you check the FG? What was the OG?

It's difficult to say wether or not the rest are going to explode. How did you prime? I made a batch of Coopers Heritage lager that were gushers (I bottled them 3/11/11. Had one last night and still foamy...). I still don't know if was from infection or unfinished fermentation (damn gravity readings!). I used 740 ml. PET bottles. To reduce the gushing effect I vented a little at a time and refrigerated for a couple of days. It didn't eliminate the foamy lava effect, but it reduced it quite a bit. Since I don't use bottle caps, I can't say if it's possible for you to do something similar. Wish I had better info for you. Best of luck. pete

I had bombers once....primed with honey and doubled the amount. Too many homebrews during bottling.

Take them to a sink. Open carefully and dispense.
You might be able to chill them down in the fridge, but if they blow up there, that's a much bigger, but contained mess.

This is just my opinion.....

If you don't have room in the fridge and/or don't want to risk a foamy fridge, you could put them in a cooler/s on ice.

Bottle bombs are frightening. I had one go off on the counter right next too me.

Best way to handle is to get all of them cold right away. If you can chill them, they won't explode.

If you can't chill all/some, dump. Wear protective eyewear when moving the bottles. If you think this is funny, you've never had one go off point blank. The one that sploded on me was a year old, but exploded after I moved (agitated) it to the kitchen from a closet.

BTW, I have a capper that puts an indent in every bottle. When a bottle is over-pressured, the indent starts to push out. Every time. See the following pics. 1st one is normal, second one is a pilsner that I overcarbed (no bombs). Sorry for the terrible cell phone pics.

passedpawn said:

Bottle bombs are frightening. I had one go off on the counter right next too me.

Best way to handle is to get all of them cold right away. If you can chill them, they won't explode.

If you can't chill all/some, dump. Wear protective eyewear when moving the bottles. If you think this is funny, you've never had one go off point blank. The one that sploded on me was a year old, but exploded after I moved (agitated) it to the kitchen from a closet.

BTW, I have a capper that puts an indent in every bottle. When a bottle is over-pressured, the indent starts to push out. Every time. See the following pics. 1st one is normal, second one is a pilsner that I overcarbed (no bombs). Sorry for the terrible cell phone pics.

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Those pics are very illustrative. What kind of capper is that?

It's an old one. Says Brevet Italy on it (look on ebay). I haven't seen these at the homebrew stores (usually they have the all plastic black or red wing cappers).

I also have one of those red plastic wing cappers... it's my backup. I love this one though. It's a bit heavy.

A post Revvy answered wrong? Well, I'll call this one an anomaly, but a couple more and I'm calling it an epidemic!!

passedpawn said:

It's an old one. Says Brevet Italy on it (look on ebay). I haven't seen these at the homebrew stores (usually they have the all plastic black or red wing cappers).

I also have one of those red plastic wing cappers... it's my backup. I love this one though. It's a bit heavy.

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I have one of those that I bought back in the 90's when I first started homebrewing. It is one of the few pieces of equipment that I kept when I took a hiatus. Takes a little more muscle, but it does a great job. Used it a lot when capping champagne bottles.

passedpawn said:

It's an old one. Says Brevet Italy on it (look on ebay). I haven't seen these at the homebrew stores (usually they have the all plastic black or red wing cappers).

I also have one of those red plastic wing cappers... it's my backup. I love this one though. It's a bit heavy.

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Yeah, I think I remember those from years ago. The indentation that swells with too much carbonation is handy.

I break Revy's don't touch it rule. I open one at 1 week, 2 weeks, and at 3 weeks. Really just because I am impatient. But, I suppose if I had gushers coming I would have a heads up from my impatience.

One more thing, my beer tastes inconsistent with each bottle. Some have a great malty backbone others kinda flavorless with a good aroma. I used 4oz corn sugar 1cup water boiled. Put it in racking bucket first then filled with beer mixed with sanitized spoon. what could have gone wrong? This is my 4th homebrew and it hasnt happened before. Ive only noticed a difference in taste when i bottle the very bottom of racking bucket.

It's only been 2 weeks in the bottle,
correct?

correct!

Give it another week or 2 at least and then pass judgement. Sometimes waiting is the hardest part

Those suckers are going to blow. It's clearly overcarbonated and waiting will only result in future clean up of broken glass and sticky beer.

I would chill them ASAP., If you don't want the fridge dirty, just ice them all down in a cooler in case they pop. What I usually do is very slowly open them and release the pressure, then poor them in a a pitcher and drink. If you have a keg you can dump them in that and force carbonate them once the gas all escapes.

Live and learn.

I have the case in the fridge covered in towels. Will they still explode in the fridge? They no longer gush after leaving in fridge for 4days but are still gasy.

patience, patience. Fingers crossed, they won't explode in the fridge. Leave them another week, at least.

Did you ever take any hydrometer readings? I noticed two or three asked, but have yet to see an answer -

no i didnt take a reading. I did leave it 3 full weeks in primary. I thought that would be enough.

that amount of time is often just fine - but the low number would tell us if you ended up with too much fermentable sugar left, lending to the possibilities of bottle bombs.

If you don't have a hydrometer, get one. If you have one, use it. Record the numbers with a sample of pre-fermented wort (starting gravity) and finished beer, prior to bottling (final gravity). The numbers will be something like 1.045 (sg) and 1.010 (fg). If your fg were 1.025, we would caution you about bottle bombs.

Once in a while, the yeast just poop out and you have a stuck fermentation. If they rouse up again in the bottle - you could have problems. Better to diagnose before you bottle. So if your fg was 1.025, we might have advised you to pitch another packet of yeast and warm up the beer a touch (70F, maybe), or even pitch a packet of champagne yeast to drive that number lower.

good luck with this one - ! Hope it all works out.

billted said:

I have the case in the fridge covered in towels. Will they still explode in the fridge? They no longer gush after leaving in fridge for 4days but are still gasy.

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They can! I've had that happen. Chilling them down though dramatically reduces the chance of them going boom. If you have towels in there and the fridge is nice and cold, it probably won't hurt to wait a week if you want.

People tend to have strong feelings one direction or the other on this, but I have been brewing for over 15 years and once a bottle has exploded in my cases, I've never had the carbonation subside back into the others and end up just fine. That has always been a clear sign to me that they are grossly overcarbonated and I would just look to drink what you can....just my take

All that being said, definately take gravity readings from now on and don't bottle until you are confident your gravity is low enough. Its the only way to be sure.