I overcarbed and also bottled my beer too early - gushers

[Brewsterguy]

as my title says, made 2 mistakes. got minor gushing after 2 weeks of bottle conditioning.
today I vented all of my beers and recapped. hopefully i was able to fix this.

why am I writing this? It seems there are no definite answers for this on the forum. This is always suggested but never answered. I will update in a few weeks.
15/04/2023
final update and summary for everyone:
I made a beer and with bad timing, bottled after 5 days.
2. I overprimed a bit
3. started getting gushers
4. decided to unvent all of my beers and re-seal them with a bottle capper.
5. I let all my beer sit in room temperature for over a week.
6. I put some bottles in the fridge, some kept in room temperature
7. bottles in fridge dont gush, bottles in room temperature gush but very little. meaning you uncap and see foam, but you have more than enough time to pour. fridge bottles are perfect (I only tested 2 on room temperature to make sure they wont explode.
Conclusion: partially venting until foam reaches the cap, and resealing may cure overprimed gushing beer bottles

 

[hotbeer]

I have tended to over carb the pale ales I was brewing and the only time I had gushers was when I didn't clean and sanitize the bottles well enough.

You might let one of your gusher's degas and then check it's SG. If it's near 1.000 or just a point or two higher you may have some infection.

I've figured the priming sugar for 3.0 - 3.5 vols maybe a little more and not had issues for all of those brews. Probably a couple dozen.

I'd be interested in the OG an FG of your beer, both the recipe prediction and actuals. Along with the current SG of any bottles that weren't gushers and the SG of those that were gushers.

And do you know you overcarb'd them because you miscalculated the priming sugar amount or are you just assuming that because they are gushers?

 

[Kickass]

why am I writing this? It seems there are no definite answers for this on the forum.

What question are you seeking an answer to?

Are you asking how that happened, or are you asking how to fix it?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

as my title says, made 2 mistakes. got minor gushing after 2 weeks of bottle conditioning.
today I vented all of my beers and recapped. hopefully i was able to fix this.

why am I writing this? It seems there are no definite answers for this on the forum. This is always suggested but never answered. I will update in a few weeks.

Please be careful. True bottle bombs (the ones with broken glass) are best avoided - even if one needs to dump a batch.

 

[Brewsterguy]

What question are you seeking an answer to?

Are you asking how that happened, or are you asking how to fix it?

at the moment Im not seeking an answer. I was checking on the forum what people do when they have gushers. people always say: try venting and recapping etc', but I never saw someone type what he did and what came out. so I figured I may as well write this and update whenever I have an update.

 

[Brewsterguy]

I have tended to over carb the pale ales I was brewing and the only time I had gushers was when I didn't clean and sanitize the bottles well enough.

You might let one of your gusher's degas and then check it's SG. If it's near 1.000 or just a point or two higher you may have some infection.

I've figured the priming sugar for 3.0 - 3.5 vols maybe a little more and not had issues for all of those brews. Probably a couple dozen.

I'd be interested in the OG an FG of your beer, both the recipe prediction and actuals. Along with the current SG of any bottles that weren't gushers and the SG of those that were gushers.

And do you know you overcarb'd them because you miscalculated the priming sugar amount or are you just assuming that because they are gushers?

I used 180 grams of dextrose and ended up having 58 beers of 330, at 18C while bottling.
my og was 1.048 and FG was 1.010
The problem? I bottled after 5 and a half days because I had planned an overseas trip, and I saw the airlock stop bubbling.

my gushers are beers which have time to pour. when uncapped theres 15 seconds before they foam over. the total batch age is 22 days since pitch.
I assume I over carbed and bottled a bit early.
i clean my bottles in a dishwasher, then I scrub each with a bottle scrub and dish soap, wash with water, soak in a bucket of starsan and then use a sanitized bottle dryer tree thing. I think I kept good sanitation while boiling, cooling pitching etc. I doubt its an infection.

 

[PCABrewing]

I used 180 grams of dextrose and ended up having 58 beers of 330, at 18C while bottling.
my og was 1.048 and FG was 1.010
The problem? I bottled after 5 and a half days because I had planned an overseas trip, and I saw the airlock stop bubbling.

my gushers are beers which have time to pour. when uncapped theres 15 seconds before they foam over. the total batch age is 22 days since pitch.
I assume I over carbed and bottled a bit early.
i clean my bottles in a dishwasher, then I scrub each with a bottle scrub and dish soap, wash with water, soak in a bucket of starsan and then use a sanitized bottle dryer tree thing. I think I kept good sanitation while boiling, cooling pitching etc. I doubt its an infection.

You probably aren't getting much mileage out of the dishwasher phase except for the final sanitization from the high water temp, provided your dishwasher does that.
They really are hit and miss getting the stream up into the bottle so not so good at "scrubbing" up inside a bottle.

You might consider using the dish soap and brush first, then run them through the dishwasher with NO Rinse Aid.
If you are using pods as detergent they probably have rinse aid included. Try a straight detergent from Finish or cascade.
Running them through the dishwasher last should sanitize them if the machine has that as a "feature". Most that do heated drying will sanitize by default.
It is possible that you are leaving a detergent film with the current process though I don't know that I'd blame the issue on that necessarily.

 

[Protos]

I was checking on the forum what people do when they have gushers.

People get gushers because of at least three different reasons. The first is overcarbing. The remedy, as you've correctly noted, is partial venting or full recapping (and storing it cold afterwards). The second, is wort contamination by diastatic or wild yeasts. There's no way to salvage a bottled batch where an unwanted/uncontrolled/wild fermentation has started, just dump it ASAP as this is what produces bottle grenades. The third, is grain contamination with Fusarium fungus. This happens on a living plant in the field and isn't removed neither by malting nor by wort boiling. The result is that a perfectly carbed beer fermented in perfectly sanitary conditions gushes violently upon opening the bottle. This doesnt produce bottle bombs and doesn't affect the flavour (although it makes yout beer cloudy), you just have to be ready to direct your violently gushing bottle fountain immediately into some other receptacle, wait till the gushing is over and then just decant the beer to your glass.

 

[hotbeer]

The problem? I bottled after 5 and a half days because I had planned an overseas trip, and I saw the airlock stop bubbling.

I would have just left it in the fermenter. Especially since from pitch to now your beer is only 23 days old. But still after five days fermentation may have been completed. And if so, the worst result IMO will normally have been that the beer bottles will have a lot of sediment in them than if the beer had been left in the FV to clear up first. Notwithstanding the possible over carbonation issue.

My gushers which I attribute to infection took awhile to build too. I didn't time them though. If your FG was 1.010, then your beer after carbonating is going to be about the same plus or minus a few points and depending on how much water if any you added.

So if you measure the SG of your beer that are gushers and it's nearly the same as your FG or vastly lower, then that might lend more suggestion as to whether it's over carbonation or infection

 

[Kickass]

at the moment Im not seeking an answer. I was checking on the forum what people do when they have gushers. people always say: try venting and recapping etc', but I never saw someone type what he did and what came out. so I figured I may as well write this and update whenever I have an update.

Gotcha. I suppose with the amount of variables, each case is different. I’d assume, as long as the bottle stays intact, a gentle venting is your best option.

 

[hotbeer]

But still after five days fermentation may have been completed. And if so, the worst result IMO will normally have been that the beer bottles will have a lot of sediment in them than if the beer had been left in the FV to clear up first. Notwithstanding the possible over carbonation issue.

Of course now I'm wondering if the excess sediment is getting churned up by the carbonation, whether way over carb'd or even closer to normal, and acting as nucleation points to cause the beer to gush.

 

[Dancy]

The problem? I bottled after 5 and a half days because I had planned an overseas trip, and I saw the airlock stop bubbling.

IMO, 5.5 days in the fermenter isn’t just a bit too early, it’s way too early. Many here say at least 2 weeks and I’ve found sometimes there’s activity beyond that. My last batch, I saw airlock activity at 11 days and decided to give it 3 but ended up at 4 weeks.

 

[mac_1103]

I used 180 grams of dextrose and ended up having 58 beers of 330, at 18C while bottling.
my og was 1.048 and FG was 1.010
The problem? I bottled after 5 and a half days because I had planned an overseas trip, and I saw the airlock stop bubbling.

That much sugar in that much beer should have given you 3 volumes of CO2, which is a little on the high side but not too drastic. You definitely bottled way too early, and that is by far the more likely cause of your gushers.

 

[MrClint]

I had some gushers before I found out that you shouldn't clean bottles with kitchen soap. Lesson learned. I opened the bottles over the sink and let them gush slowly into a pint glass. These gushed but didn't geyser. The beer smelled and tasted fine. Always a good thing when you can drink your mistakes.

 

[brewfrog]

This problem is tough, because you don't know what the problem is?
i had a beer go on the ceiling from my hand, turns out the culprit was using too much great quality wheat munton's dme. i recomend to you to lower the temps a touch when pouring the wirt, use less wheat,and a pinch less sugar.

 

[RM-MN]

as my title says, made 2 mistakes. got minor gushing after 2 weeks of bottle conditioning.
today I vented all of my beers and recapped. hopefully i was able to fix this.

why am I writing this? It seems there are no definite answers for this on the forum. This is always suggested but never answered. I will update in a few weeks.

There will be a lot of CO2 dissolved in the beer, way more than in the little space above the beer so venting once isn't the answer but I have salvaged a batch by venting multiple times. Lift the cap slowly until you hear gas escaping, then release it. Quite often this will let the cap reseal so you can release more later. Be prepared for:
1. A cap that won't reseal and needs the capper to help it.
2. A cap that has to be replaced and recapped.
3. A gusher that you need to have outdoors or over the sink.

 

[hotbeer]

With my batch of gushers, I found out that I could take them from the refrigerator and put them in the freezer for not quite 30 minutes and then open and pour them without a gushers.

However then the beer would be too cold to enjoy and I'd have to wait thirty minutes before it was at a enjoyable temp. But by that time most of the beer in my glass was gone!

There's a chart/calculator somewhere on the web that I used to determine how long I could leave them in the freezer before risking them turning to ice.

 

[Brewsterguy]

final update and summary for everyone:
I made a beer and with bad timing, bottled after 5 days.
2. I overprimed a bit
3. started getting gushers
4. decided to unvent all of my beers and re-seal them with a bottle capper.
5. I let all my beer sit in room temperature for over a week.
6. I put some bottles in the fridge, some kept in room temperature
7. bottles in fridge dont gush, bottles in room temperature gush but very little. meaning you uncap and see foam, but you have more than enough time to pour. fridge bottles are perfect (I only tested 2 on room temperature to make sure they wont explode.
Conclusion: partially venting until foam reaches the cap, and resealing may cure overprimed gushing beer bottles

 

[DBhomebrew]

Conclusion: partially venting until foam reaches the cap, and resealing may cure overprimed gushing beer bottles

FTFY

 

[JaxBrewerSahti]

2 week fermentation, solid sanitization, and carb drops, you can't go wrong