Fixing Bottle Bombs

[ducas]

Hi everyone,

I posted a while ago about why my bottles were exploding and, low and behold, I was putting in about 3 times the amount of priming sugar as I should have! Moronic I know, so we don't have to go into that...

Now I'm left with about 3 batches worth (minus the nearly ENTIRE exploded case) of dangerously overcarbed beer. I was hoping I was out of the woods, but I've been labeling over the past week and overnight last night we thought someone broke into the house because a bomb went off!

This beer is a wedding brew, and the wedding is less than two weeks away! Basically, I have about 150 beers that need decarbed, or lessened. I have read on here, and been advised, to chill the beers and pop the caps to release the pressure. Obviously if I just pop them I have a foam mess, so I'm planning on just cracking them (with gloves and glasses) and allowing them to depressurize before recapping. My question is more of the techniques of doing this.

Here's my plan:
1) Chill the beer
2) Ease/bend caps to release pressure slowly as to not foam everywhere.
3) Repeat step 2 until caps are all off
4) Sit out overnight
5) Recap

Would that work?

-Or-

1) Should I do as I said above, going through a case or 2 at a time slowly 'cracking' the caps, not fully popping them at all, and leave them to slow release overnight?
2) Only let them sit for a few hours?
3) Dump into bottling bucket and redo?
- I've read this on here as well but don't exactly know how much primer to add to the bottling bucket once I dump them/how long to wait before rebottling?

Like I said, I'm less than 2 weeks out and obviously still have a bunch of stuff to finish up anyway, so I'm looking for the best, but the fastest, solution. At this point I just don't want the bartenders to sue me for glass shards...

Thanks for any help!

 

[mikescooling]

This is hard to say, if they are at the point of blowing up vs just over carbed, is a world of differance. It sounds like you know these are bombs? If they are at the breaking point IMHO they are a loss. Your a grown up and if you feel safe defusing them, that is your choice. If you can get the beer out of them: you can keg your beer and serve it that way. Great way to get into kegs.

 

[mojo_wire]

I think you should just dump the batch. Even if you are successful at venting without injuring yourself, its unlikely that carbonation levels will be normal two weeks from now. Even if that works there is no guarantee the beer won't be so oxidized it is undrinkable.

Look at it this way, if it wasn't a wedding brew you would dump it without a moments hesitation. Something about weddings makes these little details seem like the most important things in the world, and while you probably looked forward to the idea of home brewed wedding beer, serving gross beer is a bad idea.

I remember before my wedding I got all pissed at one of my groomsmen because he had a different style tuxedo shirt than everyone else. I had just finished writing an angry email to him to get with the program, when I realized "what is wrong with me?" and didn't send it.

 

[MalFet]

Cracking the bottles just once won't be nearly enough. If you want to leave them in bottle, you're going to need to crack and recap at least a few times, tasting along the way to see how the carbonation is coming down. As others have said, the easiest and most surefire way to make this happen is going to be *gently* transfering the beer to kegs and then letting the pressure steady out at your desired level.

 

[ducas]

I'm kind of extra confused because don't they usually not explode after 3 or 4 weeks? These bottles have been like 2 or 3 months in the making. The only difference I can see is we moved them from the temp controlled basement in my brother in laws house (our 'brewery') to my upstairs apartment that is about 7 or 8 degrees warmer. Could that be the problem?

 

[bdh]

I'm kind of extra confused because don't they usually not explode after 3 or 4 weeks? These bottles have been like 2 or 3 months in the making. The only difference I can see is we moved them from the temp controlled basement in my brother in laws house (our 'brewery') to my upstairs apartment that is about 7 or 8 degrees warmer. Could that be the problem?

I had a similar thing happen with some bottles I left sitting around. They were fine for 2 months or so until they got over 80 degrees for about a week while I was out of town. After that they all turned into gushers. The beer was an oatmeal stout with a decent FG, so my theory was that the higher temps reactivated the yeast and fermented some of the remaining sugar.

 

[OldBunny]

I Just had a similar experience with some swing-top half-liters. When I tried to taste the first bottle, 3 weeks after bottling, the bale, the cap and most of the beer hit the ceiling. I found that venting pressure over 3 or 4 days would let me actually pour some beer.

Then, this past Monday night (3+ months after bottling) -- BOOM!

Around 20 bottles exploded, showering my brew shop with broken glass. One bottle managed to nlow its top through the plastic shelf above.

The only thing I can think of was that I bottled before fermentation was complete, although the brew was 3 weeks in the primary and a week in the secondary.

A picture is worth a thousand words --

 

[Jag75]

Oh jeez! ^^^^^^^^

 

[InspectorJon]

I Just had a similar experience with some swing-top half-liters. When I tried to taste the first bottle, 3 weeks after bottling, the bale, the cap and most of the beer hit the ceiling. I found that venting pressure over 3 or 4 days would let me actually pour some beer.

Then, this past Monday night (3+ months after bottling) -- BOOM!

Around 20 bottles exploded, showering my brew shop with broken glass. One bottle managed to nlow its top through the plastic shelf above.

The only thing I can think of was that I bottled before fermentation was complete, although the brew was 3 weeks in the primary and a week in the secondary.

A picture is worth a thousand words --

I think that belongs in the "don't do that" thread.

 

[deeve007]

Oh ****! Do you really think most likely cause is bottling too soon? Really don't want this to happen my first [upcoming] brew...

<edit>So "fudge" replaces the "f" word... lol, I thought this was an 18+ forum for beer brewers/drinkers? No big deal, just found it very funny is all...</edit>