Over Primed - Possible Bottle Bombs. Please Help!

[nowashburn]

Two weeks ago I bottled a Barleywine AG from Northern Brewer:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewi...grain-ale-kits/barley-wine-all-grain-kit.html

I just opened one to try it and she was a HUGE gusher. I couldnt immediately think of what went wrong, but then it all came into focus...

I usually buy the 5oz bags of corn sugar to bulk carb and just use the whole bag (give or take depending on style). This time, however, I had a 1 pound bag and without even thinking I used the whole thing because its what I'm used to doing. I feel like an idiot but hey, **** happens.

Anyhow, the bottles are 1 litre flip tops and I haven't gotten any bombs yet. I guess that just shows how strong those suckers are. Should I slowly open these suckers, let them sit and then recap? If I do that, how long should I let them sit for? Thanks for any advice!

 

[buzzkill]

get them cold. Then open one at a time and recap ..bummer man.

 

[nowashburn]

get them cold. Then open one at a time and recap ..bummer man.

how long should i let them sit uncapped?

 

[Reno_eNVy]

HOLY BALLS!!! A whole pound? Dude, open them all right now and dump them very very slowly into a bucket, being careful not to splash. Let the fermentation finish in the bucket and then re-bottle with the appropriate amount of sugar... be sure to weight it this time .

Do it ASAP because I promise you will have two cases of liquid hand grenades. My bottled barleywine has been sitting for about 3.5 months and is just now carbing properly (common for high ABV% beers.) The fact that you have gushers at two weeks is pretty scary.

Also, how long did you let the beer sit before bottling? Are you sure it was finished fermenting?

 

[nowashburn]

HOLY BALLS!!! A whole pound? Dude, open them all right now and dump them very very slowly into a bucket, being careful not to splash. Let the fermentation finish in the bucket and then re-bottle with the appropriate amount of sugar... be sure to weight it this time .

Do it ASAP because I promise you will have two cases of liquid hand grenades. My bottled barleywine has been sitting for about 3.5 months and is just now carbing properly (common for high ABV% beers.) The fact that you have gushers at two weeks is pretty scary.

Also, how long did you let the beer sit before bottling? Are you sure it was finished fermenting?

holy balls is right! 2 weeks primary 4 weeks secondary. don't remnember the exact FG but she was def done. I['m going to go open them up now and i will update. should i just let them sit for like 30 mins and just recap or go through the whole bottling process again?

 

[nowashburn]

UPDATE: i had to empty these all back into the bucket. there was waaaayyyyy too much pressure in there to just slowly releaase some gas. i really cant believe those bottles didn't explode. now i'm just waiting for the foam to settle down and ill take a gravity reading too determine what to do next.

 

[nowashburn]

UPDATE: the gravity right now is 1.02. Im going to pitch more sugar (the correct amount) and rebottle.

 

[nowashburn]

FINAL UPDATE (hopefully): Everything is finally rebottled, whew! I lost just under a litre in the precess which is a lot less than i anticipated. Hopefully nothing got infected and everything turns out tasty. thanks all for your help!

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Oh no... dude I hate to further your woes but you shouldn't have rebottled yet, especially shouldn't have added more sugar. There is likely still sugars that were not yet consumed in the original bottles. You're going to end up with the same situation. I had recommended waiting for fermentation to finish... that would be probably another week or so, not an afternoon.

 

[nowashburn]

Oh no... dude I hate to further your woes but you shouldn't have rebottled yet, especially shouldn't have added more sugar. There is likely still sugars that were not yet consumed in the original bottles. You're going to end up with the same situation. I had recommended waiting for fermentation to finish... that would be probably another week or so, not an afternoon.

even after 2 weeks in the bottle and a 1.02 gravity reading you think there are still fermentable sugars?

 

[Germelli1]

I would agree with Reno, 1.02 is not an incredibily low reading. I hate to see you have to go through any more trouble then necessary...but hopefuly the BW is amazing to make up for it!

 

[nowashburn]

Well, hopefully ill be lucky and not end up having to do this again. I'll recheck in another 2 weeks (if there are no explosions before then) and post an update. Thanks again for the input!

 

[nowashburn]

Quick update here. I just tried one of these beers and it is fantastic. Hopefully they will get much better with age. Thanks for all the help in dealing with this stupid mistake!

 

[Germelli1]

Phew! Glad it worked out for you and you got to learn some important **** in the process!

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Excellent, glad to hear it all worked out. Be sure to keep us updated in coming weeks!