carbonation issues - priming sugar problem + second try

[andreuso]

Hello all,

First time posting here though I have been reading extensively to avoid repeating dialogues, I have a weird situation for which I have not found quite the answer I am looking for:

I made an American Pale Ale and bottled when the gravity was 1.010 for 5 days. I accidentally used too much priming sugar, enough to carbonate to about 4-4.5 volumes according to numerous calculators that I found after the fact. The gravity was 1.020 at that point. Since I don't have a garage and any exploding bottles risked destroying my rental apartment's kitchen, I poured the beer back into the fermenter (as carefully as possible) until it was back down to 1.010, then re bottled with the correct amount of sugar for 2.4 volumes of co2 (75 grams for 3.75 gallons).

Now I have three questions:

1. I am also moving house tomorrow, which is ridiculous timing, but I need to transport these bottles which were bottled 2 days ago. Is this OK? Will it cause problems?

2. I had two extra bottles that I couldn't fit in the moving box so I opened them and found, much to my surprise, that the beer was significantly carbonated after 2 days in the bottle, actually pretty nice level of carbonation at room temp. I didn't chill it before opening. It has been at about 75 degrees F or a little warmer. Should I be concerned that this whole thing has somehow ended up disastrously and I am going to have some overcarbonated beer or exploding bottles? Clearly I am terrified of exploding bottles especially in small rental apartments.

Thanks everyone, any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[MegaMania]

Im quite a novice so take my advice with a bag of salt. Sounds like your only option involves oven mitts to protect from shards of glass. But, throwing them in a fridge should slow the carbing, and I've heard of people pasteurizing ciders to kill the yeast while bottled once its carbonated, not sure if you can do that with beer. Moving? Just drinkem if theyre good! You get beer while moving, and don't risk losing the beer.

 

[KepowOb]

I don't think moving the bottles will cause any issues at all, save for them bouncing around a bit. Transport them like you would any case of beer.

As for how you took care of the over-carbing issue... it sounds like it worked, which is great, but I'd be a little concerned with potential oxidization, which just means that you shouldn't let them age too much before drinking them, as they might start to go downhill.

 

[andreuso]

Cool, what do you suppose about the carbonation level after two days, is that a sign of somehow screwing up the priming sugar level again?

 

[peterj]

At 75F they could have just carbed up quickly. How much priming sugar did you use this time and how much beer did you have? As long as you're confident you added the correct amount of priming sugar you shouldn't have to worry about bottle bombs.

 

[Calypso]

Sounds like everything is fine fine fine. You used the right amount of sugar, and the yeast were already in "go go go" mode from fermenting out the previous priming sugar after you poured back into the fermenter. Combine that with warm temperatures, and I'm not surprised they carbed up quick! As KepowOb says, your main concern is oxidation at this point.

If you're nervous about bombs, do what I did and buy a big tupperware style storage bin, and let them carbonate in that.

 

[andreuso]

Thanks everyone! It was 75g of corn sugar for 3.75 gallons of beer, which should be no problem according to various calculators. Cool, thanks for assuaging my fears. Onward with the move and hopefully the oxidation won't cause too much of a problem. Thanks!