Dumping my remaining 45 bottles

[WeimBrew]

Well I've tried to wait it out and hope that letting them sit would resolve the problem but my over carbonated wheat beer is getting dumped tonight. I had my first bottle bombs happen last night so I don't think I can take the chance on waiting any more wait and see. When I open these bottles I generally get about 2 oz. of beer after they quite overflowing. I'll drink a couple glasses as they settle.

You guys have about 2.5 hours to convince me to let 'em sit for a few more weeks or the beer funeral will be going down tonight.

 

[brewser7]

Careful not to let any blow up in your hand when opening. May think about wearing some protective gear!!
I've not had bottle bombs yet so I don't know if this is even a possibility. Whatever you choose to do, good luck!

 

[spokaniac]

can you open them slow enough to keep them from foaming out? If so, could you do that then recap them to get the carb level down.

 

[Copbrew133]

Are they chilled? Don't know if it would make any difference, but if they're not might be worth a try. Hate to see otherwise good beer get slain.

 

[petey_c]

I had a similar problem using Coopers carb drops. Since I use PET bottles I was able to vent a little bit of pressure over the course of a couple of days. Way too much effort. I'm not sure how I'd handle it with regular bottle caps.

 

[WeimBrew]

I don't think I'd be able to open them slightly and let carbonation out and recap. I've chilled everyone of them before opening an the second the cap comes off the foamy overflow starts. I think if I tries to partially pop the cap off it would fully come off due to the pressure build up behind it. I'll give it a shot though.

 

[SkiSoloII]

Use good gloves during the process.

Hate to dump if taste is OK. Perhaps chill well to get CO2 into suspension?

Dave

 

[passedpawn]

dump. no question. bottle bombs can be nasty. I wore leather gloves, long sleeve shirt and chem goggles when I dumped mine.

I know kegging is not an option for a lot of people, so I'm not gonna go on about that, but I will say that of all the things that are good about kegging, not having to worry about a bottle bomb is the best thing. I had a bottle rocket to the ceiling in shards only 10 feet from me once and it scared the bejeesus out of me.

 

[BradleyBrew]

I've chilled, allowed the beer to begin to foam and recapped after a few seconds. The beer was "ok" after. However your level of carbonation seems far worse then mine. Good luck and be safe!

 

[bluemoose]

How long were they chilled before opening? If it was only a day or two, I would give them a bit longer.

Worst case, use them for beer bread.

 

[WeimBrew]

I opened 2 yesterday that had been in the fridge for 2+ weeks and did the same thing. All are dumped and no one was hurt. Bottling a new 5 gallon batch Friday.

 

[Fordzilla]

How did you manage to overcarb by that much? Just want to know so I don't do it.

 

[WeimBrew]

It was an extract kit that came with everything needed. It had a 5 oz bag of corn sugar for bottling so I was dumb and used it all without checking the carbonation calculator first. After I opened the first one I went back and used the calc and saw that I should have only used 3.2 oz. Lesson learned.

 

[Special Hops]

It was an extract kit that came with everything needed. It had a 5 oz bag of corn sugar for bottling so I was dumb and used it all without checking the carbonation calculator first. After I opened the first one I went back and used the calc and saw that I should have only used 3.2 oz. Lesson learned.

5 oz sounds about right. I bet you bottled too soon before fermentation finished. What was your final gravity?

Or it was infected.

 

[spearko520]

how did you resist just firing them at a train or bus or something? like you do with old light bulbs that don't work anymore.

 

[homebrewdad]

5 oz sounds about right. I bet you bottled too soon before fermentation finished. What was your final gravity?

Or it was infected.

This. Even if you overcarbed by a full volume of CO2, you should have overcarbed (for the style) beer, not bombs.

How long did you let the beer site before you bottled? Did you take gravity readings on consecutive days (or better yet, a couple of days apart)?

If fermentation was fully done, I'd guess gusher infection.

 

[WeimBrew]

Maybe it wasn't done fermenting. I ha consecutive readings of 1.018. It was an extract so I wasn't expecting it to go any lower. I don't think it's infected. It was a wheat beer kit and I used different yeast than what came with it. I follow the same sanitation steps every time and never have had an infection and the beer tastes good just how it should. Not sure what happened but something definitely did

 

[huge1s]

Did every bottle 'splode? Reason I ask is that I had a similar issue with a hefeweizen and the bottle was either exploding when opened or flat. Turns out that my priming sugar did not get mixed well into the bottling bucket (had a nylon bag over the end to catch peach junk) leaving a few bottles way over carbonated and the rest (mostly) under carbed. Every batch since then has got a nice long stir using the end of my siphon hose while it is in the bottling bucket. It also sounds like it didn't finish fermenting if you bottled at 1.018 though.