Help, primed with local honey, did I make bottle bombs?

[automatauntaun]

So I made this hoppy pumpkin ale (first batch ). 1.044 was my start Gv, my end was about 4.1 %.
{I got help with all this here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/priming-honey-got-some-questions-362277/}.
I primed it with some local unpasteurized honey.
I asked how I should measure it out and was given the advice of using 4.7 oz of honey for exactly 5 gallons of beer. Which seemed like a correct measurement when I used a on-line calculator. I kept them in the dark at 75 degrees and swirled them twice a week in warm water at the advice of a friend.

I was advised to wait about three weeks for priming to be done. After one week I opened a bottle to test

at one week I had a LOT of foam. Beer tasted fine not overly carbonated and fizzy like a soda.

Last night {Week two} I opened another bottle for a test and it just shot up out of the bottle. Complet fountain. what beer was left still tasted fine, wasn't overly fizzy but, it is obviously over carbonated.
I am looking to find out two things.
A: is it a bottle bomb situation. Should I just pop these and pour em? i don't want to wake up in the night thinking i'm being shot at al a braking bad.
B: Is their anything I can do to salvage these? Would waiting longer like bottle conditioning have any effect on reducing the explosiveness? Would making them colder or warmer help with the over carbonation? Any help would be apriceated. I have no issue pouring these as its my first batch ever, just want to know if i can save this. SO, yeah thanks in advanced.

 

[Pie_Man]

Yes, in my experience, this is a potential bottle bomb situation. I'd get these beers in the fridge and open them with care.

 

[dawgmatic]

If they are infected then there is no way to stop it, aside from pasteurizing the bottles.

Putting them in the fridge will slow down the process, which might give you enough time to drink them all.

 

[automatauntaun]

So would you say these priming measurements are correct? thanks guys.

 

[dawgmatic]

Assuming that your gravity had enough time to finish out and stabilize, that is the correct amount of honey

 

[automatauntaun]

hmm... well, i let it sit in the car boy an extra 3 weeks I think? any way to tell if this is an infection? I assume letting it sit won't help. so the best cours of action is put them in the fridge carefully un cap after their cold, re-cap.
then wait and see?

 

[dawgmatic]

You could do that. Or you could just drink em after you open them. If they keep getting more carbonated then its most likely an infection.

There are a lot of organisms that live in un pasteurized honey so I wouldn't be surprised

 

[automatauntaun]

its two cases of beer i can't drink them all that fast! haha!
Ok heading out to the local store for more bottle caps.

 

[dawgmatic]

Just so you know, recapping will not solve the problem if its an infection. Whatever bacteria you have inside there will keep working. And they're going to change the flavor of that brew as time goes by

 

[maverick9862]

Local unpasteurized honey could have a lot of particulate matter in it since it would only have been strained through a rough mesh. The particulates could be acting as nucleation sites for the CO2 and causing the immediate release of the gas. (think diet coke and mentos experiment) But this is unlikely.

If there's still enough carb after it's foamed up to taste like a beer, then it's probably over-carbonated. Throw them all in the fridge and drink quickly or release the pressure and re-cap. Chances are that it's infected and has a secondary process occurring. DO NOT PASTEURIZE by heating the full, capped bottles.

 

[automatauntaun]

word

 

[automatauntaun]

so in the future should i get my local honey guy to pasteurize it for me?

 

[dawgmatic]

Local unpasteurized honey could have a lot of particulate matter in it since it would only have been strain through a rough mesh. The particulates could be acting as nucleation sites for the CO2 and causing the immediate release of the gas.

Hmmm... Didn't even think of that one. Good observation

 

[bottlebomber]

The honey isn't your culprit. I use 7 ounces of honey and get around 2.5 volumes of carbonation. Either the beer was bottled too soon, or you have a sanitation/infection issue. But before you come to either of these conclusions just fridge all the beer for 2 weeks and then see how it goes.

 

[mikescooling]

IMHO, what I would do is, cover the bottles when I moved them (thinking they could burst) and put them in the fridge set on cold, and cool those bottles out, then try to open one and see if it's better. If it opens well, nows the time to throw a party and drink all of it before it carbs up more. Becarefull, nobody likes a face full of glass (you know this).

 

[dawgmatic]

so in the future should i get my local honey guy to pasteurize it for me?

You just need to heat the dissolved honey to 160 degrees an hold it there awhile

 

[maverick9862]

I would follow mikescooling (#15) procedure myself and just learn from the experience.

 

[OldBunny]

I would suggest immediate action. I had a batch gushering like that this summer and kept hoping it would settle down. Then one night around 15 half-liter bottles blew. The beer mostly went down the floor drain, but I'm still finding razor-sharp shards of glass in odd places in my brewing room.

If it truly is an infection, you'll probably want to just dump them. otherwise, you might want to empty them back into a sanitized carbon, put on a lock and let'r rip for while until it settles down, then rebottle.

 

[automatauntaun]

Well firstly what is mikescooling (#15)?
Secondly I burped and re capped quite a few.
They are super gushers.

 

[automatauntaun]

The honey isn't your culprit. I use 7 ounces of honey and get around 2.5 volumes of carbonation. Either the beer was bottled too soon, or you have a sanitation/infection issue. But before you come to either of these conclusions just fridge all the beer for 2 weeks and then see how it goes.

My only concern is bottles exploding in my fridge.
Will cooling them revers the carbonation process? Or just retard it?

 

[Pie_Man]

Cooling will help prevent further carbonation and thus excessive pressure in the bottle.

 

[bottlebomber]

My only concern is bottles exploding in my fridge.
Will cooling them revers the carbonation process? Or just retard it?

The chilling will make the CO2 absorb from the headspace into the beer, which will moderate the carbonation.

 

[automatauntaun]

How cool, like 40-50? 30? I accidentlt posted this topic twice ( just found that out) and one other guy said that since I am only cooling these bottle and then Opening that's a issue. He suggested putti g them in a fridge for two weeks. And that that my help. Any thoughts? I'm gonna devide this batch up and try multipule methods.

 

[bottlebomber]

Just put them in the fridge or an ice chest. 35-40 degrees.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Just put them in the fridge or an ice chest. 35-40 degrees.

This, so many people dont seem to realize that chilling for a week to get the CO2 into solution is a part of the carbonating process...just carbing at room temperature and chilling for 24 hours is going to cause tons of foam.

I bet if you chill all your bottles for a week they will be fine.

 

[automatauntaun]

Well that would have been helpful for northern brewer to let me know.

 

[Brewskii]

This, so many people dont seem to realize that chilling for a week to get the CO2 into solution is a part of the carbonating process...just carbing at room temperature and chilling for 24 hours is going to cause tons of foam.

It may be advantageous to let beer sit in cold temps for a week or two in the bottle, but that has nothing to do with getting your beer to carb.

As far as co2 in your beer - you only need to chill it until its cold.

If your experience is that you get lots of foam in cold beer, and less after its been cold stored for a week, then perhaps there is something else happening like suspended particals causing nucleation that settle over time(?) But you are not shifting the concentration of gas from the headspace to the liquid.

 

[J187]

Did you just burp the bottles then recap? You will need to let them sit a while. Depending on how over carbed they are, you may have to leave them for a couple hours. Cover them with a small square of aluminum foil.

 

[automatauntaun]

It may be advantageous to let beer sit in cold temps for a week or two in the bottle, but that has nothing to do with getting your beer to carb.

As far as co2 in your beer - you only need to chill it until its cold.

If your experience is that you get lots of foam in cold beer, and less after its been cold stored for a week, then perhaps there is something else happening like suspended particals causing nucleation that settle over time(?) But you are not shifting the concentration of gas from the headspace to the liquid.

Thanks , I seem to be hearing all sortsa different things like cold crash carbonation and over carbonation. This is my first bath so I have decided up my batch to try different methods.

When I say I burped them, I mean I opened the cap a little. And the had a stream of beer and foam going down the side for 5 min.
I then let them sit a little longer and re capped. As for the rest of the beer it's sitting in my cold outside garage. This way If the cold beer settles I'll have one answer and if the revamped bottles over carb again I'll know it's an infection of some form. At least I think this is the best way to go about it. Thanks for all the help! Any more advice is welcome. I am looking to try anything with this batch since its WAAAAAY OC.

 

[J187]

Thanks , I seem to be hearing all sortsa different things like cold crash carbonation and over carbonation. This is my first bath so I have decided up my batch to try different methods.

When I say I burped them, I mean I opened the cap a little. And the had a stream of beer and foam going down the side for 5 min.
I then let them sit a little longer and re capped. As for the rest of the beer it's sitting in my cold outside garage. This way If the cold beer settles I'll have one answer and if the revamped bottles over carb again I'll know it's an infection of some form. At least I think this is the best way to go about it. Thanks for all the help! Any more advice is welcome. I am looking to try anything with this batch since its WAAAAAY OC.

I'd open em all safely and carefully, cover each with a small square of aluminum foil, and let all sit out for a few hours. then recap.

 

[automatauntaun]

to everyone who helped thanks! after one week in cold storage i eased a cap off and it didn't gush! in fact it acted like a moderately normal beer. still gave a large amount of foam on pour but i'm hoping that cools down with more cold.
I am gonna keep them in the fridge for another week or two and see what that does. thanks again to everyone! i will still need to adjust how much honey i used if i ever used it again. but thanks so much!

 

[bottlebomber]

Chilling is ultra important. It seems to defy logic that the beer seems less carbonated but actually the carbonation has just been better distributed into the beer.

 

[Pie_Man]

Yup, cooling helps a lot. A had an American Wheat that I brewed over the summer that I had overcarbed; no gushers, but a lot of foam. I had chilled most of the beers for 1-2 weeks prior to drinking. I recently found two bottles hiding in the back of the fridge, they'd been there for 2 or 3 months now, the carbonation was nearly perfect on those. It seems like you may have similar results.