Bottled Too Soon? Results Below.

[Sillybilly]

@bert_wall
Re: Your original post

You were probably unaware of WY3724 (DuPont Strain, WLP565) being a notorious staller, only to take you by surprise when it finally got its act together and fermented your batch out after all. Pitching the wine yeast was totally unnecessary, since they generally cannot ferment maltotriose and have a difficult time even fermenting maltose, the sugar backbones of your beer. I have a really hard time when a homebrew shop recommends this nonsense, and ultimately may have misguided you. But no-one should bottle a 1.025 Saison, that's entirely on you. Glad no-one got hurt.

==> Stick to HBT for advice, next time.

Those vids are awesome! You're very brave handling those bottles on the brink of explosion with bare hands. I'm surprised they didn't explode as soon as you applied stress on the necks with the bottle opener. Some top quality bottles you've got there!

Sorry to hear you only got a mere sample of them. I bet they were tasty!

WY3526 PC is a similar strain, but not as finicky as 3724. Sadly, it's not around often enough.

Are you going to try this recipe again?

Agreed with all, but is WY3726 "Farmhouse Ale" the one you meant to recommend?

 

[IslandLizard]

Agreed with all, but is WY3726 "Farmhouse Ale" the one you meant to recommend?

Oops, I meant WY3726, yes! I'll correct the original reply.
Although it's a different strain than WY3724, with a different flavor profile, it makes a tasty Saison. Use higher ferm temps to bring out a more funky character.

It looks like WYeast removed WY3726 from being a strictly seasonal PC release into regular circulation. That's good, should be somewhat easier to obtain now!

Some of my latest, (now) favorite Saison yeasts are East Coast Yeast's ECY08 (Saison Brasserie) and the Bretted version of it, ECY03, containing the Fantôme Brett strain. That 100% Brett isolate has only been released once apparently, and is difficult to source now.

When working with Brett, you do need to make sure your cleaning and sanitation regimen is solid, so it doesn't unintentionally show up in later fermentations... I do NOT use separate equipment for Brett, but do clean and sanitize well, and never encountered any problems. When in doubt use separate (cold side) equipment.

 

[Sillybilly]

Is WLP566 the equivalent to the WY3726 strain?

 

[IslandLizard]

Is WLP566 the equivalent to the WY3726 strain?

According to Kristen England (Mr.Malty.com):

WY3724 is Saison DuPont
WY3726 is Blaugies
WLP566 is Vieille Provision Saison Dupont

I've not found alternative sources of either.

 

[beirman]

I never had a bottle bomb until this year when I tried my first hard cider with champagne yeast. Accidentally left a couple bottles on top of the kegerator before leaving town for work for a couple weeks. I never considered that the kegger vibrated slightly when it kicked on....shook those bottles up pretty good. My wife heard what she thought was a gun shot, and found cider and glass all over my office. Glass from the bottle shredded my wall paper and embedded in the oak door trim. I found little brown pieces of glass all over the place for months! Just glad no one was standing nearby when she blew!

 

[AJinJacksonville]

I bottled a brown ale a couple of weeks ago, and just 'tried' (aka was thirsty) one. I pried the top off and "guuuusssshhhh..."

Nothing like the YouTube video, but it did leave less product for me to enjoy. What's funny is, the initial fermentation process was the most active I've ever had. As a matter of fact, it was so active that the airlock was filled with crud (still kept the StarSan in there though). Seemed like a typical fermentation period after that. Primed with less than the suggested amount of table sugar for carbonation, and still the gush. I threw a 22oz'er in the fridge this evening...so tomorrow night I will see if I need to vent and re-cap the rest.

Always a learning process...

 

[shoengine]

I bottled a brown ale a couple of weeks ago, and just 'tried' (aka was thirsty) one. I pried the top off and "guuuusssshhhh..."

Nothing like the YouTube video, but it did leave less product for me to enjoy. What's funny is, the initial fermentation process was the most active I've ever had. As a matter of fact, it was so active that the airlock was filled with crud (still kept the StarSan in there though). Seemed like a typical fermentation period after that. Primed with less than the suggested amount of table sugar for carbonation, and still the gush. I threw a 22oz'er in the fridge this evening...so tomorrow night I will see if I need to vent and re-cap the rest.

Always a learning process...

I had the krausen come out my airlock with my batch of IPA. Turned out I didn't leave enough headspace in the carboy. This batch also took a long, long time to finish fermenting. I think it was 1.5 weeks in the end. Still in the carboy though...

 

[jeagle1957]

Well this never happends to me due to bottling straight from the keg to the bottle via couner pressure system. The beer is already carbonated and chilled to 1.5C to avoid likley frothing but that is what the counter pressure is for.

 

[dwhite60]

This is a great way to end up with lots of pointy shrapnel in your arms. I speak from experience. Also, once you "crack the cap"how do you reseal it? It would go flat or gush out anyway . . . .

I've been gone for a while.

One, you don't lift the cap to the point of damaging it. Like someone else said, you re-crimp it to re-seal it. Easy Peasy. I could probably lift a cap enough to vent gas and it would seal well enough to hold pressure just releasing it back down.

Two, the INSTANT you vent that gas the pressure in the bottle drops.No more bottle bombs. More gas will come out of solution and pressure will build again but at the moment it's safe. If you're really worried you could take an oven mit and cut a hole in it for just the bottle neck to fit through while you vent them. If they blow, they are not getting through a good oven mit.

It's really not that hard, or dangerous. Just have to exercise a little caution. The few bottle bombs I've had primarily blew the bottom off the bottle. The bottle did crack but I did not have glass shards stuck in the cardboard box it was in.

I put a lot of time and effort into my beer. I'm willing to take some steps to salvage a batch. Just me though.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[Brownalemikie]

Like DWhite says, you could just lift the cap enough to release some pressure, then simply use your bottle capper to re-cap the bottle with the existing cap.

 

[Opiate42]

Been there done that too.

 

[TheBluePhantom]

In the 70s I did rootbeer as a kid with my father in glass beer bottles. 4 gallon batch and we found 8 bottles blown one morning. Sticky mess but most went down the floor drain in the basement. We fixed that by using champagne bottles, takes the same cap and holds more pressure.

Fast forward to a few years back, I inherited the cappper and thought it would be fun to do with my kids. Recipe said use wine yeast, carb for 1 to 2 weeks and refrigerate. Still used champagne bottles. After a few seeks in the frige he opened a bottle, and it popped the top so hard it wrapped the cap around the opener and left our ears ringing. Nobody has changed the recipes for decades, but yeast is much better, many wine yeasts will ferment at refrigerator temps. Those bottles shot a 3 to 4 foot fountain, and mostly emptied.

Bottles didn't blow though, guy at the homebrew shop told me that the cap will usually pop before the bottle breaks on those. Judging from the fact the caps were hair trigger, i would guess I was close.

In the end, nobody got hurt, I felt so bad I went and bought a small freezer that would hold 3 kegs, and built a keg system for the soda pop. Then since I had the kegs, and the wine carboys from my father, I decided to try brewing a beer. Now I have a bigger freezer for 10 kegs, and if I want bottles, I pull them off the keg. Not worth hurting the family.

Still use the same capper too, It belonged to my grandfather originally...

 

[shoengine]

I decided against bottling our rootbeer, ended up spending nearly $200 getting the stuff to keg 4 gal of rootbeer with. I can see how it is possible to yeast carbonate pop, but the end state of where soda is supposed to be and what yeast wants to do are just incongruent.