Over Carbonation

Lovely Bloke

Can anything be done about over-carbonation.

Opened a bottle of our first Extract last night, and my kitchen is now a lovely shade of Beer Brown, it was like a F1 Champagne bottle being opened, ceiling, walls, floor covered in beer.

Wife is not happy :rolleyes:

Can the batch be saved, because the beer itself is quite nice.

Suggestions?

Khannie

Leave in the fridge for a long time, then chill in the freezer a little more before opening. It does help.

I also found opening the bottle at an angle (ready to pour into the glass) helps too. By the sink is a winner too.

Lastly, get a good bottle opener (one that will open quickly, opening slowly has limited usefulness in my experience).

Lovely Bloke

Ha, if you'd seen this the angled bottle and over a sink suggestions are, let's say, not going to make much difference.

We had literally an arc of beer from one wall to the other, covering the ceiling, dripping onto the window and floor and a mouthful of beer left in the bottle.

matrim

How did you prepare the bottles? Batch or drops?

I've occasionally found that after batch priming one or 2 bottles could have extra carbonation but the majority are fine.

mayto

If you opened them when well chilled they will not foam as much but if they are really overcarbonated they will still foam. What was the final gravity when bottling and how much priming sugar did you use?. A gusher is usually either from bottling too early before constant FG is reached in recommended range, using too much priming solution or an infection. I remember a kit I did a few years ago foamed like mad when opened a bottle which I think was an infection when using bleach/vinegar sterliser, I stopped using after some failed batches.

Lovely Bloke

matrim wrote: »

How did you prepare the bottles? Batch or drops?

I've occasionally found that after batch priming one or 2 bottles could have extra carbonation but the majority are fine.

Interesting, there was about 18litres of beer before priming, and we batch primed with approx 7grams of glucose per 500ml (I think). That would be approx 250g of glucose boiled in a small amount of water, placed into the second fermenter and racked the beer onto it, then bottled.

Lovely Bloke

mayto wrote: »

If you opened them when well chilled they will not foam as much but if they are really overcarbonated they will still foam. What was the final gravity when bottling and how much priming sugar did you use?. A gusher is usually either from bottling too early before constant FG is reached in recommended range, using too much priming solution or an infection. I remember a kit I did a few years ago foamed like mad when opened a bottle which I think was an infection when using bleach/vinegar sterliser, I stopped using after some failed batches.

It had been in primary fermentation for 4 weeks, now I never actually checked Gravity at any stage, but it had stopped bubbling by about day 11 anyway.

It doesn't taste infected either, in fact, it's very nice, hence trying to save it.

I think it may have been the primer.

Khannie

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

we batch primed with approx 7grams of glucose per 500ml (I think).

That is a sh*t heap. Way, way too much for a beer.

mayto

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

It had been in primary fermentation for 4 weeks, now I never actually checked Gravity at any stage, but it had stopped bubbling by about day 11 anyway.

It doesn't taste infected either, in fact, it's very nice, hence trying to save it.

I think it may have been the primer.

Ye really looks like you overprimed, you are looking at 4.5 vol c02 which is a lot more that usual 2.5vol c02. Using 3.2g per 500ml would have been a typical priming amount. Be careful taking the lids off as they could come off with force, also keep bottles covered as I often had bottles explode with bits of glass everywhere which is not nice.

tteknulp

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

batch primed with approx 7grams of glucose per 500ml (I think). That would be approx 250g of glucose.

250g is way to much ,recipe for bottle bombs .

Dextrose
Use 80g-100g ale or stout , 130g-150g for lager for 23ltr

Lovely Bloke

Yes, it's definitely the glucose.

Thing is, I've done it again with a second batch of extract, 250g into the same litres.

Could I pop the bottles and ferment it out, then re batch prime? (all sterilised work obv)

Anyone done that before?

Khannie

Never done it, but it all sounds above board. It'll add extra ABV mind you. Probably close to 1.5% by the time you drink it versus out of the fermenter.

Lovely Bloke

Khannie wrote: »

Never done it, but it all sounds above board. It'll add extra ABV mind you. Probably close to 1.5% by the time you drink it versus out of the fermenter.

Yeah, that's not an issue, it's not overly strong as is anyway.

I reckon I'll pop the bottles the next couple of days and ferment it out then.

loftybush

I've had overprimed bottles before.

If you just barely start to remove the cap, it is possible to let out all the gas in the headspace and just recap.

The last time I did this I was afraid of bottle bombs and repeated the process twice but was left undercarbed. So my recommendation would be to let the gas out once with one bottle, put it in the fridge for a little while, open (outside) and see if its an ok level of carbonation.
Might take a couple of bottles to get the right level, but then you can just apply the fix to the remaining bottles

Donadea Leo

sorry for reawakening an old thread, but have had an issue with about 4 bottles of an extract brown beer, was happily drinking the rest of the batch, patting myself on the back for producing lovely beer. My first extract so delighted with myself, when i ve come across about 4 over carbonated bottles, they taste more of foam than anything else, they didn t taste infected. Just wondering what reasons could be for this as i batch primed. Gave away a few bottles so hopefully those ones are alright.

tyler71

Sounds like your priming solution didn't get evenly mixed into your batch. If you added the solution first the overcarbonated bottles were probably the first that you bottled. It's a bit tricky as you want good mixing but also want to minimise the amount of oxygen that you get into your brew by active stirring so everyone probably has their own tricks to do this. I make sure the siphon is by the wall at the bottom and creates a bit of a vortex as it enters. I also add the priming solution in portions during the transfer. Can't claim that this way is perfect but no problems so far.