Overcarbonation Situation.

[Sediment]

I have brewed about seventy or so gallons of beer in the last year. Not too bad, I'd say. I've never had a problem with carbonation until now. Here is the recipe:

1 ¼ tbsp gypsum
5 lbs. Mutons Extra-light dry malt extract
2 lbs. Cook's Pure Honey
1 oz. Hallertauer hops 4.7% alpha boiling
½ oz. Hallertauer hops flavor
½ oz. Hallertauer hops aroma
1 ½ oz. Fresh coriander
½ oz. Dried orange peel, sweet
irish moss
White Labs Heiferweizen yeast WLP300 (recipe calls for whit beer yeast but they didn't have any)

O.G. 1.040
F.G. 1.020

So I had the biggest blow off I've ever experienced in terms of the fermentation. Atomic. I let things settle down. At two weeks I bottled. Now here is the catch. Used some older corn sugar. Not sure it was actually corn sugar. I wont get into the whys and what have you this post is already long enough.

So, six days post bottling I am getting super over carbonation. When I open a bottle, it's like I just won the Monaco Grand Prix. Champagne powerful.

So would you say this is hopeless?

Am I looking at potential bottle bombs with this kind of reaction at just six days?

I'm afraid I either bottled too early or I used too much of the wrong sugar. I put the beers in the fridge to chill them down and see what happens that way. Sucks because this beer is great tasting.

 

[JJL]

Warm beer always gushes. Although, your situation does seem a little excessive. Since it's been 6 days and you already have carbonation, I wouldn't worry too much about these things blowing up at this point. Most of the fermentation should be complete inside the bottle. You might want to keep an eye on them and listen for a hiss coming from the bottle, but I wouldn't worry too much until you open the first cold bottle.

 

[avidhomebrewer]

Yeah, you may (probably do) have bottle bombs on your hands. I had a batch like that once. I ended up opening each bottle and carefully pouring into a carboy to finish out.

A final gravity of 20 seems a tad high for what you mention. I would be willing to bet it wasn't done fermenting and you added more fermentables and capped it all.

 

[JJL]

Yeah, you may (probably do) have bottle bombs on your hands. I had a batch like that once. I ended up opening each bottle and carefully pouring into a carboy to finish out.

A final gravity of 20 seems a tad high for what you mention. I would be willing to bet it wasn't done fermenting and you added more fermentables and capped it all.

You're right. I didn't even see that the FG was 20. That's right on the edge of bottling too early. Normally you'd like to the FG sub-20. You still might be ok. It has been a week, and things are currently ok, but you are going to want to watch. You might want to put your bottles in an enclosed container like a cooler or a plastic tote box just in case one does blow. At least it will be contained.

 

[Sediment]

Thanks for the replies. I'll see how the chilling goes today and give it a go this evening with another test. I have read that the Heiferweizen yeasts are extremely active. Probably should have given it more time.