Do i have bombs ?

[Old_el_Paseo]

I made my first apple cider about 5 weeks ago. Fermented, secondary...
9 days ago i bottled evrything. I added 1.89 liters of best quality apple juice to every 6 liters of pure cider.
The apple juice contains 25 grams of sugar (27 total carbohydrates) per 250ml (1cup). So that means ~190 grams of sugar per 6 liters of cider.

Or 24grams of sugar per 330ml bottle (11oz).

I was suppose to heat sterilise them after a couple of days to stop fermentation but i totally forgot about them. I was cleaning up and getting ready to bottle my wife's porter when i found the apple cider. I had bottled one in a plastic botle to know when to heat sterilise (when plastic bottle is hard). The plastic bottle is rock hard and the glass bottle caps are kinda Bubble shaped from the pressure.

Do i have bombs ? Is it too late to heat sterilise ( heating them to 50 degrees will tempoarily raise pressure im bottles).
Should i open all of them up and reprime and recap ?

Any advice ?
I have not opened any since im going to bed ( im not gonna drink a bottle before bed ). But tomorrow afternoon i will open one of the glass bottles with my welding equipment on for protection

 

[Old_el_Paseo]

Ok. Right after writing the previous post. I thought about what would happen if a bottle exploded (mess,wife nagging...) So o opened one up to check. Almost 1/4 of the bottle rocketed out of the bottle in bubbles...

Pressure did not seem extreme, but morw than should be in there.
How much pressure can a bottle take ? Can i heat sterilise and expect it to not foam that much when cold ?
Now what do i do ?

Thanks

 

[bembel]

I made my first apple cider about 5 weeks ago. Fermented, secondary...
9 days ago i bottled evrything. I added 1.89 liters of best quality apple juice to every 6 liters of pure cider.
The apple juice contains 25 grams of sugar (27 total carbohydrates) per 250ml (1cup). So that means ~190 grams of sugar per 6 liters of cider.

Or 24grams of sugar per 330ml bottle (11oz).

I was suppose to heat sterilise them after a couple of days to stop fermentation but i totally forgot about them. I was cleaning up and getting ready to bottle my wife's porter when i found the apple cider. I had bottled one in a plastic botle to know when to heat sterilise (when plastic bottle is hard). The plastic bottle is rock hard and the glass bottle caps are kinda Bubble shaped from the pressure.

Do i have bombs ? Is it too late to heat sterilise ( heating them to 50 degrees will tempoarily raise pressure im bottles).
Should i open all of them up and reprime and recap ?

Any advice ?
I have not opened any since im going to bed ( im not gonna drink a bottle before bed ). But tomorrow afternoon i will open one of the glass bottles with my welding equipment on for protection

WOW, you basically added a 1/3 of the total volume in 'priming sugar' The recommended amount of priming sugar, depending on level of carbonation desired, so lets stick to 'medium' is approximately 3/4 of a cup (6oz x 28g/oz) or 168 grams for a 19 liter batch.

you added 190 grams for a 6 liter batch, which is just shy of 4 times too much.

Wear protective goggles next time you get near them, but I would put them in the fridge immediately and crank the temp as low as possible, wait 2 days, then open them all up carefully into a sterile bucket and consider doing a 'third' fermentation until the gravity is down to 1000 then re-bottle with MUCH LESS sugar

 

[Cider123]

psst... tu tienes bombos

 

[Old_el_Paseo]

Si. Mi tienned bombas. 50 bombas carajo...

I added that much because the cider was much too strong (about 11%). So i added 1/4 volume apple juice to soften the taste.
I added 4 liters to the total 16l batch. I was going to heat sterilise them once it was enough bubbles, but i totally forgot about them.
I read that i could just pry up the cap a bit and let some pressure out and the cap would still seal. Could i do that and sterilise them after (boil at 50 for 15 minutes).
Or just remove cap a recap. A hope it still primes itself with the rest of the priming sugar ?

That cider cost me a lot (40 kg of fresh apples that i juiced myself). I dont wanna have a crappy non bubble cider.

 

[Hello]

DO NOT heat those bottles. I made the mistake of doing this after bottling a cider and waiting 4 days. Within a minute of the bottles heating up most exploded. Glass shards were nearly all contained until I opened the lid and bottles continued to burst. I got cut on my hand, my ceiling has stains from the cider, and all 4 cases of cider had to be disposed of. I tried to uncap them, but even cold the caps were flying off, sometimes taking a bit of glass with them, and it just became dangerous even with heavy gloves and protective eyewear.

So no. You cannot heat those. In fact, you can chill them, gear up and uncap them, but even then you may find you're still dealing with major gushers.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Personally I'd chill them all first, then (carefully) open them all over a bottling bucket, wait until all of the foam subsides, reprime (if necessary, probably won't be), rebottle, and remember to pasteurize.

You've really got time bombs on your hands. Left alone they'll almost certainly explode. You can't heat them for the same reason. Even if you put them in the fridge there's still a risk (but it would be minimized).

 

[Old_el_Paseo]

Damn. Ill have to remember that next time i make a cider.
Guess ill cool then to 1 degree and the uncap them slowly and recap.
Maybe i could take a gravity test to know about how much sugar i have left in them. Or just test a bottle every couple of days to make sure they are not overprimming.

The good news is i love very bubbly drinks. Guess i have what i like now

 

[bembel]

Damn. Ill have to remember that next time i make a cider.
Guess ill cool then to 1 degree and the uncap them slowly and recap.
Maybe i could take a gravity test to know about how much sugar i have left in them. Or just test a bottle every couple of days to make sure they are not overprimming.

The good news is i love very bubbly drinks. Guess i have what i like now

Per my first reply, you have GOT to take a gravity sample before re-capping, I would seriously chill them puppies down to 1C, pour the juice back into a carboy ( or if you want to be really anal siphon it all, but the yeast that eat the remaining sugar will scrub up any O2, so that should not be a huge concern)

you can safely bottle at 1006 if using caps, I have bottled with corks at 1004 and been fine, if you want sweeter, cold crash the lot at the FG that suits you, I find 1010-1015 nice for a sweet cider, 1005 for a medium) and then dose with K-meta for 12 hours followed by K-sorbate before you re-bottle. You can also pasteurize at this point, but immediately after re-bottling

 

[b-boy]

DO NOT heat those bottles. I made the mistake of doing this after bottling a cider and waiting 4 days. Within a minute of the bottles heating up most exploded. Glass shards were nearly all contained until I opened the lid and bottles continued to burst. I got cut on my hand, my ceiling has stains from the cider, and all 4 cases of cider had to be disposed of. I tried to uncap them, but even cold the caps were flying off, sometimes taking a bit of glass with them, and it just became dangerous even with heavy gloves and protective eyewear.

So no. You cannot heat those. In fact, you can chill them, gear up and uncap them, but even then you may find you're still dealing with major gushers.

One of the guys I brew with put his over-carbed bottles into his dishwasher to pasteurize them. He started hearing explosions almost immediately. He opened the door as a reflex and a piece of glass whizzed by his head and hit the wall behind him.

The dishwasher was ruined because the glass shards ended up embedded inside the moving parts. He tried to clean it out, but couldn't get it all. When he tried to run it he heard grinding from the glass particles.

He ended up replacing the dishwasher, and as a bonus, his wife bought a new stove, refrigerator, and microwave so everything matched.

He calls it his $6000 batch of cider.

 

[Old_el_Paseo]

Funny thing. I opened a bottle that was in the fridge for 24 hrs. Barely any pressure and not bubbles/foam gushing out. But when i put a bit in the gravity meter cylinder foam gushed out everywhere.
Seems like apple cider can absorb a hell of a lot of co2 when cold !
Maybe i should make a joke on my friend who complained my beer did not have enough bubbles. I let him pour a bottle in a hot glass

 

[IkeKrizzule]

It might seem funny, but you have some dangerous bottles on your hands right now. Handle with extreme care.

 

[Old_el_Paseo]

;i checked fg and its at 0.996. So i guess fermentation is over ? Thats as low as its gonna get. Ill keep the bottles cool to prevent any further fermentation and keep pressure low. And keep one bottle warm to check gravity again in 48hrs. If its still at 0.996 then i guess fermentatyion is done and bottles are safe as long as i keep them cold.
If gravity changes a bit. Ill follow your advice and just open them all uip. Put in carboy,reprime and re-bottle.
But i wanna avoidf this. Its a lot of work.

 

[TechyDork]

If it was me i would get rid of them and count my losses. Exploding glass bottles doesn't sound like fun to me.

 

[moreb33rplz]

Bombs suck. Bad. I would dump.

 

[Gavin C]

If it was me i would get rid of them and count my losses. Exploding glass bottles doesn't sound like fun to me.

+1 on this

I value my eyes and safety at far more than the cost of a batch of beer/cider.

I'd get them dumped while they are cool and wear all the protective eyewear and heavy gloves. This just sounds like a disaster minor/major waiting to happen.

 

[Turkeyshot]

Since you are going to have to open them all if you were to dump them anyways, you might as well pour it all in a keg if you have one. At least then you will get to drink what you made.

 

[Old_el_Paseo]

Actually i cooled them all and pressure is not that highwhen cold. So i offered everyone cider last weekend. Everyone was happy and burped a lot.
Lesson learned. Make a memo when you have to heat sterilise and calculate primming sugar twice.

 

[Hello]

;i checked fg and its at 0.996. So i guess fermentation is over ? Thats as low as its gonna get. Ill keep the bottles cool to prevent any further fermentation and keep pressure low. And keep one bottle warm to check gravity again in 48hrs. If its still at 0.996 then i guess fermentatyion is done and bottles are safe as long as i keep them cold.
If gravity changes a bit. Ill follow your advice and just open them all uip. Put in carboy,reprime and re-bottle.
But i wanna avoidf this. Its a lot of work.

Checking gravity of carbonated cider is a pointless endeavor. You'd need to let that go flat to really know your gravity. I will tell you, with you back sweetening these things, the gravity is not that dry.

Keep ALL bottles in the fridge and drink them fast. Even in the fridge the pressure builds, it is just way slower.

 

[Old_el_Paseo]

They are all gone
We had a cold cider party last weekend. With cider that much carbonated the most common sound was burp burp burp. Even the women!