help me save my overcarbed stout

[puckjer]

so i made the irish car bomb stout from this forum a while back and bottled it with 5 oz of priming sugar. this beer sat in the primary 2 weeks and 4 weeks in the secondary and i hit FG on the money. i let it sit in the bottle for 4 weeks before i tried one and sure enough it is slightly over carbed. i really dont want to pour all these out so here is a possible solution i have come up with.

uncap all the bottles and pour them in my keg. purge the Oxygen out then drop the pressure to like 5psi (i usually carb around 12psi). maybe even purge the keg every couple days and then eventually bring it back up to serving pressure. has anyone ever tried this? the beer is not much overcarbed so i wouldnt think it would take that long. i didnt keg this one to begin with cause i wanted to bottle age it.

thanks for any help

 

[scottland]

Before you do that. Crack a bottle open slightly, wait for the hiss, then re-cap, and check in about 4 days. That will decrease the PSI in the headspace of the bottle to 0. Once you re-cap, the co2 in solution and co2 in the beer will equalize, reducing the carbonation in the beer.

You might have to wait a few days and repeat, but it'll work.

 

[puckjer]

that was plan B. how long should i wait after i recap to try them again?

 

[scottland]

Shouldn't take more than a day or two. Two to three should be safe.

 

[lowtones84]

Did you keep them in the fridge for a day or two before popping them open? I've heard that this can make a difference, and have a small amount of experience with it being true.

 

[smokinghole]

When I have over carbonated beer I take and chill them down. Then about a six pack at a time I pop the tops and let them of gas for about two hours. It's not a science but it works. If you don't chill you'll have a foam spurting out of the bottle.

 

[ultravista]

Where's the recipe for the car bomb stout? Sounds interesting.

 

[stratslinger]

Depending on how overcarbed they really are, you might have some luck just lifting the edge of the cap enough to let gas escape - but not actually remove the cap - then put them away again for a bit. You may need to repeat this process a few times to get down to your desired carb level.

I've a handful of bottles left over from one similar batch where I had some success using this approach.