Options for gushing batch

[hallerobin]

Seeing the thread on freezing bottles, I thought I'd ask you all what you do when you have a batch that goes too far along in bottle carbing and results in gushers.

The only thing I've done so far is to open all the bottles, let them gush, and then pour all the salvageable cider into a growler, putting it in the fridge to keep refermentation from starting.

Has anyone had success with recapping or rebottling and maintaining at least some carbonation without the need to cold crash?

Would letting the bottles gush and then pouring the cider into a bottling bucket, rebottling, and immediately pasteurizing work?

 

[ciderdude]

I have had that issue before. The first time I bulled my way through it and pasturized anyway... i lost about half my bottles to breakage during pasturization and had a terrible glass shard mess to contend with. The last time it happened I had been out of town frequently for work and did not keep track of the carbonation level closely enough resulting in gushers. I carefully burped each bottle and recapped with fresh O2-consuming caps. It took about 2 hours for 58 bottles but seemed to work well. I lost 1 bottle in pasturization out of that batch.
Needless to say, the best method is to keep CO2 levels in check and pasturize on time. These days I use 2-4 small bottles with each batch as "testers" to crack open and drink, one at 1 week post bottling and then one about every other day or so after, depending on CO2 levels. Each recipe is different in results of course. I have had a batch ready to go at one week, and others that take more than 3 weeks, so testing is important. My wife and I put up about 40 gallons of different ciders per year and vigilance pays off, especially considering the subjective nature of each batch.