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Bottle Eruption

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing
#1

I want to thank you all for the help you’ve given me thus far. I am here again with another question, still about my first batch. The batch was extract Caribou Slobber. I’ve posted about it a number of times. However, I am encountering new things with it each week, haha!

Last week, I went to open a couple bottles that had been conditioning for about a month. As soon as I opened them, the beer eruption from the bottle and went allover the place. That happened on 3 separate bottles. I got frustrated and just stopped trying to open them. Any ideas guys?

#2

These are the usual culprits:

  1. Too much priming sugar causing overcarbonation.
  2. Incomplete mixing of the priming sugar, causing some bottles to be over-carbed and others under-carbed.
  3. Too much trub/particles in the bottled beer creating nucleation sites for CO2, causing it to create excess bubbles.
  4. Beer too warm.
  5. Infection.

I’d try opening them when they’ve been in the fridge for a few days to make sure everything has settled to the bottom of the bottle and the CO2 is fully dissolved. Then just slightly pry up the edge of the cap to let some of the pressure out. Try this a few times before opening it all the way. If there isn’t a whole lot of pressure in there, and it just foams and foams, then it’s probably a bottle infection.

Just be careful - overcarbonated bottles can be pretty dangerous.

#3

This^^^^^^.
Especially the part about chilling the bottled beer for at least 24-72 hours before trying to open them. Did you open them warm? If it is the incomplete mixing, pull some bottles from the other end of the bottling run and refrigerate and open one of them. This one should be relatively flat if mixing was the problem.

#4

Did you get to taste any of the beer? If you’ve had no bottle bombs but are getting that kind of foaming I’d put my money on infection.

#5

Was fermentation complete? What I have done with limited results was lay a dime on top of the cap and pry loose and release pressure then recap. Worth a try

1 Like
#6

Yes, incomplete fermentation would leave enough sugar to over carb the bottles also. Another good reason to have a hydrometer.

#7

I’ve only had eruptions when opening a beer at room temp…so far.

#8

So far my only bottle bomb has been from trying a new priming technique, so my guess is you just added too much sugar.

How’d you prime them?

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