Over Carbonation

[floydgroove]

Hey so this is my first forum post along with my first brew. I finished bottling my Imperial IPA a little over a week ago, as there appeared to be no more yeast activity in the airlock.

I wanted to open a small bottle I had filled to see how the carbonation was going. When I opened the trunk I was storing my bottles in, it was apparent that one of the bottles had bursted. I cleaned it up, opened the small bottle I intended, and began researching.

Now when I opened the small bottle, it did not appear to be overcarbonated and poured into my glass as I would expect most beer to. It tasted like beer, but had a tone of the LME I used. I presume this is normal as it has only been bottled for a week? Overall it tasted fine and was drinkable.

Upon talking to my friend who got me started on brewing, I moved all of my beer into the fridge to slow the yeast down.

Now my question is, how can I continue to ferment my beer for the additional 2-3 weeks?

 

[EPS]

How much priming sugar did you use for carbonation and how did you apply it to the batch??

 

[unionrdr]

Your first mistake was bottling when the airlock stopped bubbling. this is not an indicator of FG (Final Gravity). When the vigorous bubbling slows or stops,it just means initial fermentation is done. If it bubbles at all. It'll then slowly,uneventfully creep down to FG. You need to use a hydrometer to measure OG before pitching yeast,& FG to be sure it's done fermenting.
you got a bottle bomb by not doing this. Could be more,but get them out of the fridge. The yeast will go dormant & stop carbonating your beer. Just put them in a plastic tote so in case the bottles explode,they won't injure anyone.

 

[brettg20]

Hey so this is my first forum post along with my first brew. I finished bottling my Imperial IPA a little over a week ago, as there appeared to be no more yeast activity in the airlock.

How long did you ferment for?

 

[Toga]

your first mistake was bottling when the airlock stopped bubbling. This is not an indicator of fg (final gravity). When the vigorous bubbling slows or stops,it just means initial fermentation is done. If it bubbles at all. It'll then slowly,unevetfully creep down to fg. You need to use a hydrometer to measure og before pitching yeast,& fg to be sure it's done fermenting.
You got a bottle bomb by not doing this. Could be more,but get them out of the fridge. The yeast will go dormant & stop carbonating your beer. Just put them in a plastic tote so in case the bottles explose,they won't injure anyone.

+1

 

[floydgroove]

I used half a cup of honey boiled in with two quarts of water to pitch with. Then I poured it in my bottling bucket before doing the siphon. Once everything was in, I used a sanitized metal spoon to stir with.

I fermented for 12 days, but didn't do a secondary fermentation or hydrometer reading (which I will certainly be doing both on my next batch).

I talked to some of my friends who brew and pulled everything out of the fridge. The without opening the caps completely, I released some of the c02 (as directed by my friends).

At this point I'm going to frequently check on them and then open another one in a week to see how it's carbonating.

Any other thoughts or feedback regarding this would be appreciated.

Thanks for feedback.

 

[Spinrathen]

I would probably recap all of them if it were me, you are asking for problems by uncapping them partway.

 

[EPS]

Ya don't uncap them. That one bottle exploding was probably a isolated incident. Could have not been sanitized well or just got more honey then the others. Honey is hard to mix well in the bottling bucket compared to other priming sugars. I would do what unionrdr said and put them in a bin with a lid at room temp and wait another 2-3 weeks. It takes 3 weeks to properly carb so wait 3 weeks open one up and see how carbed it is. I think you will be fine and that one bottle busting was an isolated incident.

 

[floydgroove]

Well it's been 3 weeks in the bottles now, and everything appears to be fine! The taste isn't exactly what I expected or hoped for, but it's good! Doesn't appear to be contaminated or anything, still a little sweet. I'm going to check them again in a week. Just brewed my second batch this weekend!