Overcarbonated beer--can I save it?

[Reindeer]

I've struggled quite a bit with overcarbonated beer. Had one bottle explode, a few gushers, but mostly just problems with pouring a glass full of foam. The beer tastes fine, but its annoying to pour half a bottle of beer, waiting 15 minutes for it to settle, and slowly pouring in the rest and spooning off the excess foam.

I've done enough research to come to the conclusion that there's 3 things that can cause this: Too much priming solution, bottling too soon, and storing the beer too warm. I'm very confident that the first two are not the problem, and my basement where I store the bottles stays around 72 deg, so I'm sure thats my issue. I need to figure out a colder place to store the beer, but thats another issue.

My question is: I've got a couple batches of beer that are overcarbonated, is there a way to bleed off some carbonation? I've seen mention of uncapping the beers for a few minutes, then recapping them. Does that work? Any recommendation on how long to leave them uncapped? Or, I don't have enough room in my fridge to keep all the beer I've got, but would it work to throw as much as I can fit in the fridge for a few days to slow/stop carbonation, then move it back to the basement?

 

[mrdauber64]

You can gently and carefully lift the cap without taking the cap off and bleed off some CO2. You might have to do this a a half dozen times over the course of a couple days to get them right, but it does work. I did this on an RIS that was way over carbed and now is perfect. Here is a YouTube video showing how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itrjDXPKEGw

 

[dobe12]

72F is a fine carbing temp and definitely not too warm. I don't bottle often much more, but when I do, my bottles sit in a closet that hovers around 75F and sometimes above.

Make sure your beer is fully attenuated. Waiting a minimum of 2-3 weeks is suggested. Most beers will be ready by then. How long are you fermenting your beers? And are you taking gravity readings?

Also, double check how much sugar you're using to prime. I'm going to assume this is the issue. Do you weigh out sugar, use cabing tabs, other to prime?

Not to skirt around your question, I just think you need to figure out why your bottles are overcarbed rather than how to fix them now. I can't help with that. I've had overcarbed bottles a few times and realized it was from the large carbing drops I was using. I switch to the smaller type that call for either 3, 4, 5 per bottle and have not had the same problem.

 

[abeasst]

I've seen people barely open the top of a bottle kind of like a shook up can to bleed off some CO2 for a few minutes before drinking it and deal with over carbonation.

 

[joyceman]

I screwed up the carbing on a Pliny clone (I think due to being under volume w/ higher trub loss than I anticipated). No bombs, but the same issue you had overflowing foam when the bottle was opened.

My solution was to pour four bottles into a 64 oz growler in advance and then pour from the growler when I was ready to drink them. It worked pretty well, but I usually had to let the foam drop before I dumped the last 1 or 2 beers into the growler.

 

[pfgonzo]

Chilling the bottles during carbonation may slow the process, but it's likely to start back up when you remove them from your fridge.

If you're consistently having overcarb problems, the obvious solution is to reduce the amount of priming sugar for future batches. You'll probably have to experiment for a few batches to find what works for your brewery.

Addressing the present batch: You could upcap-bleed-recap, though that does introduce the potential for infection. If you have gushers, you might foam out the top a bit before you recap.

I keg now, but one thing I've noticed is that I tend to get a new glass every pour. If I reuse a glass, the previous pint's foam lacing provides too much in the way of nucleation sites for the second pour which is waaaay too foamy. Think 4/5ths the glass foam. One thing that might work to save the current batch is making sure you use a clean and DRY glass for each bottle. Make sure it's tilted 45 degrees to the bottle and pour slowly. No glub glub glubbing.

 

[insanim8er]

Here is a YouTube video showing how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itrjDXPKEGw

Whew... Another overly explained youtube video... 11 minutes that could've been condensed into 30 seconds or less.

 

[duboman]

Sorry but it's not the storage temp but one of the previous two including the possibly of infection.

Once the fixed amount of sugar is consumed there is no further carbonation occurring regardless of the temp.

You can uncap and recap to try and control the current batches or get them all cold and keep them cold, once they warm again they will continue to carbonate if sugar is still present.

As already mentioned you're either using too much primer or not waiting to confirm FG prior to bottling.

If you are not weighing out your sugar and measuring by volume then begin weighing to the gram, it's simply more precise. Basically 21-28 grams per finished gallon of beer is a good guideline for most styles. That's .75-1oz. As I mentioned, that's finished beer volume, if you plan on 5 gallons but only bottle 4.5 then you used too much sugar.

Priming properly is simple but exact science. The yeast consume a fixed amount of sugar to produce a specific volume of co2 in a confined space.


Sent from the Commune

 

[Reindeer]

Sorry but it's not the storage temp but one of the previous two including the possibly of infection.

Once the fixed amount of sugar is consumed there is no further carbonation occurring regardless of the temp.

You can uncap and recap to try and control the current batches or get them all cold and keep them cold, once they warm again they will continue to carbonate if sugar is still present.

As already mentioned you're either using too much primer or not waiting to confirm FG prior to bottling.

If you are not weighing out your sugar and measuring by volume then begin weighing to the gram, it's simply more precise. Basically 21-28 grams per finished gallon of beer is a good guideline for most styles. That's .75-1oz. As I mentioned, that's finished beer volume, if you plan on 5 gallons but only bottle 4.5 then you used too much sugar.

Priming properly is simple but exact science. The yeast consume a fixed amount of sugar to produce a specific volume of co2 in a confined space.


Sent from the Commune

Ok, you've convinced me. I made the assumption that since I was following the recommendations of the recipe to the letter I was using the correct amount of priming sugar. I'll try your recommendations on the next batch. Way easier than trying to figure out how to keep several cases of beer at 65 degrees. I'm religious on checking the final gravity at least 3 times to verify its done fermenting before bottling.

I've still got a lot to learn, that's why I love this forum.

 

[Reindeer]

I'm going to try popping the caps off then recapping a couple bottles before I put them in the fridge and see if that helps with what I've already got.