Pop and reseal overcarbed beer?

[jonbenderr]

Hello all! Been a bit since I have posted but I have been having great success with homebrewing until this recent batch and just had a question.

Brewed up a belgian IPA while I was in the process of moving. Boosted the gravity a bit with some extra malt. Stuff is way overcarbed and I'm pretty sure what happened is I primed and bottled too soon and the yeast were still working a bit on fermentables? Maybe? So CO2 was being created not just from priming sugar but also from yeast still having some goodies to eat.

Had about 2 weeks in the fermentor. I know that is not long enough, but like I said, poor planning in regards to my move gave me no other choice.

Regardless the beer actually still tastes great once you get past the foam.

Question is, if I pop bottles open and then quickly reseal and give them time to resettle, could this resolve some of the overcarb issue? Even if it ends up being a little flat after that, I don't care. Absolutely loved the sample straight from the fermentor with zero carbonation so I wouldn't mind if it was a bit flat.

Just feel like I'm losing a lot of good beer to foam.

Any thoughts?

 

[xpops]

have you tried it with just a couple first?

i've done the opposite with success - popping open an uncarbed batch of double IPA (guess yeasties all died off) and added a little bit of new yeast to each bottle and recapped (so tedious!)...but 2 weeks later they were beautifully carbed!

point is - i was in a dire situation like you were, and feared losing a delicious batch of beer. I vote crack a few open (maybe cold first, so they don't foam all over the place, especially if over carbed), recap and check them in a few days. If it works, do the whole batch!

Necessity is the mother of experimentation! (well .... invention...but same thing )

 

[JJ900]

I've done it with cider and it worked pretty well. Just do a few at first to see how long to keep the cap off before recapping. Although you may have no choice but to recap fast if they are gushers.

 

[LLBeanJ]

 

[jonbenderr]

Just an update...

Using the guy's method in the video LLBeanJ posted...the beer has been salvageable.

However, I tend to crack mine open just enough to hear a constant fizz and then there is some slight foam that comes out of the cap. Let them sit for a couple hours while the excess bleeds off and they pour out beautifully and still taste great!

Thanks for the input guys!