Low bottle conditioning temperature

[Tiredboy]

As mentioned on another thread I've had my first bottle bomb (third batch) - well 2 actually (one was before day 8, one on day 10). I dropped the temperature of the freezer to around 40F with the intention of opening and recapping them all but when I opened a bottle it didn't seem too bad (large head but no gushing or excessive bubbling). I now can't decide what to do. I don't want to lose more beer but I also don't want to risk a batch of too flat beer (it's a belgian). Freezer now set at 65F (although slowly warming up to this). So, if I leave it at 65 what effect will this have on my carbonation/conditioning time? I don't want to let it rise too much in case I get another bomb and need to recap (someone suggested dropping the temperature prior to recapping) as I don't want to cycle the temperature too much as I'm pretty sure that will cause off flavours. on the other hand I'd rather have 20 bottles of good beer in a month than 25 ok beers after 2 if it's going to greatly increase the conditioning time.

 

[tgmartin000]

How long have they been in bottles? If it's only been 10 days, I'd give them time.

 

[onthekeg]

How well did you mix the priming sugar in the bottling bucket? Stratification in the bottling bucket can lead to bottlebombs also. Some beers have more sugar than others and explode.

 

[Tiredboy]

tgmartin000 - what do you mean about giving them more time. I hadn't intending on drinking them (except the trial one the other night) unitl they had been in the bottle for at least 4 weeks. My issue is what effect sitting them at 60-65 for 2-3 weeks of this time will do (after they sat at 70-75 for 10 days).

onthekeg - I thought Id mixed OK (sugar solution in the bottling bucket, rack the beer on top and mix as it fills). I think one problem might have been that I had more lossses along the proccess so may have been using 5 gallons of sugar with closer to 4 gallons of beer.

 

[TopherM]

If you only used 20% extra priming sugar, you wouldn't have bottle bombs. Do you know the exact amount of priming sugar you used?

For typical beer bottles, you won't have bottle bombs until a little over 4.0 atmospheres of pressure. It would take about 50-60% extra priming sugar to get you up to that level.

Your brews will still carb and condition at 65F, just a little more slowly than at room temp.

What you really need to do at this point is put a single beer in the fridge or freezer UNDER 45F, give it 2-3 days to properly absorb the CO2, and see if it's at the level you like. If NO, then your whole batch needs to sit longer...give it another 4-5 days and do the same process again. If YES, then put the whole batch in the fridge, and the cold temps under 45F will stop the carbonation process by putting the yeast into hybernation.

That's what you're looking at at this point.

 

[Tiredboy]

Thanks.

I can't remember the quantity of sugar used but it was belgain candi crystals and I followed it exactly (I still need to recheck what amount it was) but have a feeling it was either 2/3 or 3/4 cup. Full details about the process (and amount of sugar used) is on another thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/starting-get-bottle-bombs-what-should-i-do-323725/

So will sitting at 65F affect the conditioning rate of the beer (ie will it affect how long it tastes "green" - not that I really know what that means!).

I'll follow your suggestion and see how the cooled beer is on sunday. I'll leave the rest at a max of 65F in the meantime.

 

[Andrew5329]

What potentially happened is that you didn't get a good seal when you capped those two bottles and the cap gave. I think if it was too much priming sugar you'd have had more than two bottles burst.

 

[Tiredboy]

The caps didn't go, the bottles blew to bits - glass everywhere! Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[Tiredboy]

What you really need to do at this point is put a single beer in the fridge or freezer UNDER 45F, give it 2-3 days to properly absorb the CO2, and see if it's at the level you like. If NO, then your whole batch needs to sit longer...give it another 4-5 days and do the same process again. If YES, then put the whole batch in the fridge, and the cold temps under 45F will stop the carbonation process by putting the yeast into hybernation.

Great suggestion. Did this over the weekend. Beer was fantastic. All the rest have been dropped to 45F and time to start drinking!!