Ticking time bombs?

[Handbanana337]

Ok here's the skinny. I've made myself an oatmeal cookie ale. It had an OG of 1.064. It fermented for two weeks and at bottling there was no life left in the air lock however it did foam over for the first 4 days and I inserted anniversary flow tube. After I replaced the Carboy with a sterile air lock. When bottling I had a FG of 1.020.
I added about 6 oz o primer sugar, powdered and unboiled. Stirred and distributed properly as far as I know. Now I have about 4 gallons. It's been conditioning for 3 weeks. Tested a bottle today and got the whole foaming over bit. I added the extra oz of priming sugar because I had 5 for my last ale and I wanted a bit more co2. Am I at risk of being blown to hell?

 

[Handbanana337]

Ok here's the skinny. I've made myself an oatmeal cookie ale. It had an OG of 1.064. It fermented for two weeks and at bottling there was no life left in the air lock however it did foam over for the first 4 days and I inserted anniversary flow tube. After I replaced the Carboy with a sterile air lock. When bottling I had a FG of 1.020.
I added about 6 oz o primer sugar, powdered and unboiled. Stirred and distributed properly as far as I know. Now I have about 4 gallons. It's been conditioning for 3 weeks. Tested a bottle today and got the whole foaming over bit. I added the extra oz of priming sugar because I had 5 for my last ale and I wanted a bit more co2. Am I at risk of being blown to hell?

Btw the beer tastes great. Also please excuse the random words. The spell check on my phone is an sob.

 

[Golddiggie]

6oz of priming sugar in 4 gallons of brew is more than a lot, IMO... Do you recall the temperature the brew was at when you bottled it? If so, look at this site to see how high you carbonated it...

Personally, I always check to see how much sugar I'll need to prime with to reach my CO2 volumes target. Going in blind, sort of like what you did, can be dangerous.

BTW, how long did you chill that test bottle for? I'd put one in the fridge for a solid week and test again.

Also, carbonating too high can be rather bad for the brew. You can produce too much carbonic bite (or carbonic acid) in the batch which is not a good thing. If you want more carbonation than you had last time, figure out what that was, in the brew, and adjust. I've been going for the middle of a style range, most of the time, or at least the first time I brew that style. It's easier to adjust to get more volumes that way (if you want it)...

 

[Xalwine]

I've made myself an oatmeal cookie ale.

OT but can I has recipe?

 

[Handbanana337]

6oz of priming sugar in 4 gallons of brew is more than a lot, IMO... Do you recall the temperature the brew was at when you bottled it? If so, look at this site to see how high you carbonated it...

Personally, I always check to see how much sugar I'll need to prime with to reach my CO2 volumes target. Going in blind, sort of like what you did, can be dangerous.

BTW, how long did you chill that test bottle for? I'd put one in the fridge for a solid week and test again.

Also, carbonating too high can be rather bad for the brew. You can produce too much carbonic bite (or carbonic acid) in the batch which is not a good thing. If you want more carbonation than you had last time, figure out what that was, in the brew, and adjust. I've been going for the middle of a style range, most of the time, or at least the first time I brew that style. It's easier to adjust to get more volumes that way (if you want it)...

It was at approx 68degrees when I bottled it. I opened two more bottles today after being in the fridge overnight and they did not foam over and they actually tasted pretty good. Although I feel the beer needs to mature for a few more weeks. Last time I used 5 oz of primer sugar for just over 4 gallons. Figured another oz wouldn't hurt. Ty for your input! Much appreciated.

 

[Golddiggie]

With 6oz of priming sugar, in 4 gallons of brew, even after factoring the temp (68F) you're at 3.65 CO2 volumes. You could be looking at some bottle bombs there.

Next time, use the calculation tool to figure out how much sugar to add to the batch in order to get your CO2 volume target. I think you'll learn a lot more by targeting CO2 volumes in a brew, adding the amount of sugar to get there, and then adjusting future batches according to your wishes...

I used 3.5oz of cane sugar to prime my Boddington's Pub Ale clone... Came out to just over 4.5 gallons (bottled 4.5, had maybe another quart left in the bucket). So even if I factor 4.75 gallons in the bucket, primed with the amount of sugar I used, I have a CO2 volume of about 2.3... IMO, it's a bit on the high side for the brew. Next time, I'll go a bit lower than that.

I'm actually figuring out how much will actually go into the bottling bucket before mixing up the priming sugar now. That way, I don't carbonate too high. Either that, or I'll factor enough margin into the sugar amount to offset having less brew to bottle. I think it's important to figure out how much sugar to prime with per each batch/style. You don't want a lot of carbonation in a stout, compared with a pale ale, or IPA... Where a Belgian Ale will be carbonated even higher...

It's all part of learning the different styles, at least the way I see it...

 

[Revvy]

Golddiggie's right, you seriously over primed your beer. You used between an ounce and and ounce and a half too much for 5 gallons let alone 4. And to cap it off it didn't sound like you double checked to see if fermentation was complete, and @ 1.020 you bottles at the top end of my comfort zone.

And not boiling your priming sugar is an infection risk as well.

You might try bleeding the co2 by openning and re-capping the bottles but I think that isn't even going to help. Nor will chilling them down for a couple solid weeks. I think you better chalk this one up to experience.

Since it tastes good, you might want to consider getting beer pitcher and pouring a beer or two in there when you want to drink them, and let the foaming subside.

There's not really a good fix for that high of an over carbing that I can think of.

 

[Handbanana337]

I had checked the fermentation it had been dead for almost a week but I let it sit for the last week anyway. The beer had 6 Lb of powered malt and I steeped one pound of oats and one pound of brown malt. Not sure if that's why my FG was high. I do have alot o sediment too. Ugh guess I shouldn't have tried to fix what wasn't broken. I'm gonna check out that co2 targeting formula and use it from now on....in the meantime I hope I dont lose an eye.