Suggestions to Deal With Overpriming

[MisterBungle]

The good news is I used my new mash tun with great success. The bad news is that I didn't account for its reduced volume when I primed before bottling. I've since calculated that I put in enough sugar for 4 volumes. Way too high for style, but more importantly pushing bottle strength. I'm using new, standard 12 oz bottles. I'm looking for suggestions of how to deal with it.

1. Should I put the beer in a bin in the spare tub and just see how it goes?
2. Wait a day or two, uncap and recap the beer?
3. Something else I'm not thinking of?

Also, I assume most of the sugar is fermented out within a week (I've never needed more than a week for carbonation). If I make it to a week and I put it in the fridge, am I in the clear? Bottle bombs in the spare tub would be bad, but bottle bombs in the wife's new stainless steel fridge might have me looking for a new place to live...

Thanks.

 

[Crafty_Brewer]

In "How to Brew" it is recommended to open an over-fermented bottle, and re-cap it. I've heard of guys flaming the lip of the bottle for sanitation (as well as Star-San the new caps of course)

... of course, that might also drop the carbonation too low... but it might be preferable to bottle bombs.

 

[andy6026]

I overprimed my first two batches by using 2.5 cups of white sugar in each 5g batch. I relieved the pressure by removing the caps and recapping 3 times within about 2 weeks. They were still overcarbed and tasted too sweet and terrible. Now these were my first two batches, so I dont know if they tasted terrible because of that mistake or the many others I committed. I ended up dumping them.


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[Hopper5000]

What kind of beer is it? I would put it in a tub just to be safe. You could try uncapping and re-capping or just relieving the pressure a little bit on the caps every day or 2 (just barely break the seal and listen for the hiss sound to stop). You could also try one after about a week and see if the c02 volumes are good and then refrigerate all the bottles and drink them fairly quickly to try to prevent them from carbing more. This might leave the brew a little sweet since all that sugar you put in won't get fermented fully.

 

[JimRausch]

Another option might be to pasteurize them when they reach the carbonation level you want. The cider folks do it fairly often. There's a post over on their forum about 'cooler pasteurization'. Basically, you put the bottles in a cooler, add (170* I think)water and let it sit until it cools. If interested, do a search for the thread. Good luck!

 

[MisterBungle]

Thanks for the responses guys. It is a DIPA.
So any ideas on how to gauge how to vent and how long? At 4 volumes I'm certainly overprimed, but not crazy overprimed like Andy's example (if i'm reading those figures you provided correctly)

I actually like carb to be on the high side, so as long as I get to about 3 I'll be fine. Should I uncap at 24 hrs? 48hrs? How long do I keep it uncapped? Is it probably enough to clear the head space, or should I let it gas off for awhile? Comparing it to a bubbling fermentor, I would think fermentation/carbing would start slowing after the third day (am I way off here?)

Raising the temperature to kill the yeast sounds interesting but scary. Isn't the rise in temperature making it more and more dangerous until the yeast are actually killed?

 

[AlCophile]

Hopper is right; I tried bleeding off pressure, and it works well. Follow up with reapplication of the capper to retighten.
Also, place a piece of material, cardboard or such, between bottles so that one exploding doesn't set them all off.
Not a bad idea to wear eye protection.

 

[kevron]

I had full carbonation in 3 days on my last batch that the mrs. was helping me with. She confused Tea, and Table spoons. They are royally sweet. But in 3 days they were fully carbed. I had 3 PET bottles drank from a brew that was just finishing in the fridge, so I was able to tell by feel that they were fully carbed.

 

[balrog]

I've overcarbed a Scottish80, was great at 4wks, now once opened foam will slowly build and overflow a bottle, but SLOWLY. I'm intrigued by the recapping as well as the pasteurize option mentioned and HIGHLY recommend bottle conditioning in a cooler just in case. AlCophile-are you saying that you pry-bleed-recap with same cap?