Any fix for over carbed beer?

FreshZ · Sep 17, 2012

I bottled my English brown PM on 8/19. The bottles have been at 65-67 degrees for almost a month now. I keep putting a couple in the fridge for 3 days plus and when I open them, they fizz out of the bottle like a newly carbed beer. This is my 9th batch out of 11 and I used about 4.2 oz of corn sugar for a 5 gallon batch. None of my other batches have done this and I've lost 4 out of 5 bottles I've tried to open. Anything I can do? I don't think it's an infection and I've waited long enough. Recipe here if you care. http://hopville.com/recipe/1441323

Whattawort · Sep 17, 2012

My general rule is 3/4cup dextrose (by weight) to 1 cup water. Let them hang out in the chill chest for a good week (2 would be better) before cracking another open. That's a lot of CO2 that has to come into equilibrium with the beer. Out of curiosity, how much head space do you leave in your bottles?

oze152 · Sep 17, 2012

Whattawort said:
Let them hang out in the chill chest for a good week (2 would be better) before cracking another open.

+1

The bottles should be chilled for about 2 weeks in my opinion, and I have found that for beers that are over carbonated, lowering the temp in your beer fridge helps as well.

tgmartin000 · Sep 17, 2012

4.2 oz in 5 gal is probably giving you about 2.5ish volumes? That's a bit high for the style, but shouldn't give too many problems. Are you sure it was 5 gal?

You can also Degas the beer by gently prying up the cap so it doesn't come off.

FreshZ · Sep 17, 2012

tgmartin000 said:
4.2 oz in 5 gal is probably giving you about 2.5ish volumes? That's a bit high for the style, but shouldn't give too many problems. Are you sure it was 5 gal?

You can also Degas the beer by gently prying up the cap so it doesn't come off.

Yea I may have gotten less after racking but I still got 53 bottles. I was aiming for 2.2 volumes and misjudged the trub. I will try leaving them in the fridge longer. This is really weird.

I ferment for 4 weeks. I usually pop the first couple in the fridge after 2 weeks in bottles and try after 3 days. Never had a problem before. This is a session beer too and I hit 1.012. Frustrating.