will over-carbed/too much priming sugar get better with time?

[BowAholic]

I have done lots of searches and haven't found an answer. I have made LOTS of beer and never had a bottle bomb...until now. I made some Caramel Amber Ale as per a recipe on here on my mother's memory on her birthday. I was really looking forward to having one 'with her'... anyway, a month in the primary, 2 days cold crashed and then 2 more days after adding gelatin to make it really pretty... after 1 week, a bottle blew up while carbing. I just figured it was a bad/used bottle or that the shed may have gotten too hot as I carb there in the summer...at 76-80*... which is warmer than I normally bottle condition. Then #2 and #3 blew at day 9-10. I was almost afraid to go in my brew shed but put on my welding gear and moved the 2 coke cases to my fermenter at 65* until I decide how to handle them. I pulled one bottle out (heart pounding a bit) and barely lifted the cap...foam began spewing so I set it down...did this maybe 4-5 times before I could remove to cap completely. There was a little over 1/2 bottle of beer left. I poured it into a glass and it smelled a bit green/winey, but the flavor was good, for a hot/early beer. I decided it wasn't an infection, so I must have added a little too much sugar since I used my big postal scale to measure 5oz of dextrose. I usually use a small digital scale and measure 1 oz at a time.
Anyway, I put both cases in the fermenter at 65*- my question is... If I can wait as long as it takes, will the gushers go away so that it will be drinkable? I would sure rather give it time than to mess with it any more right now.

 

[burninator]

In my experience, they will get worse, not better. I've had some beers that I over-primed somewhat, so that they were perfectly drinkable for the first few weeks, but the last bottles were undrinkable.

 

[CUrchin]

First, be aware of bottle bombs. The welding gear is a good idea (including heavy gloves and eye glasses), IMO.

Secondly, did you take a FG reading? While it should have been done at a month, you still should check to make sure the beer is done, or "beyond done" in the case of a slight infection that may have kept going after bottling.

I am unclear about what you are doing by putting them in your fermentor- Are you uncapping and pouring (read oxidation) or are you putting full bottles in a bucket for safety?

If it was me, I would put the bottles in a cooler on ice for a week or more to get as much of the CO2 to go into solution as possible, and then try to uncap and recap the bottles to release pressure. That said, I also wouldn't hold out much hope that the situation will improve. Good luck.

 

[JimRausch]

Yes, sorry but I agree with burninator. Unless you relieve the pressure somehow, they won't get better. I have seen posts where people burp the caps multiple times to degass, but it does seem like a royal pain to me(but a shard of glass from a bottle bomb is probably worse). If you can, refrigerate the rest asap. 65 might slow things down, but it's not cold enough to stop fermentation. Here's hoping it was just a few bottles from an incomplete mixing rather than a whole batch overprime. In the past I have had 2-3 bottles from a batch blow out their bottom, 2-3 bottles flattish, and the rest be fine.

 

[BowAholic]

thanks! You were right in that I moved them acroos the shed to the freezer to lower the temp to 65*...and to prevent pieces from going anywhere else bit in the freezer. The bottles scare the heck out of me... I guess I could take the fermenting bucket out of the bottom of my fridge where I'm cold crashing another beer, and put the 2 coke crates full of bottles in there instead. I have a heavy coat over the crates as well in case one goes off, but I'd still mess my pants if it happens while I'm holding the crate.

EDIT: After thinking about everything that could go wrong... I decided to take a fermenting bucket of Cathy's APA (US-05) out of the freezer since it has been at 64* for 10 days... leave a bucket of Cathy's APA (Nottingham) in the freezer that has been at 64* for 5 days... leave the over-carbed beer in the freezer (don't even want to touch it), and then I set the freezer to 54*. The beer in the fermentation bucket will be OK with the Notty and the beer that is over-carbed should stop since it has US-05?