Caribou Slobber... From nearly perfect to over carbonated

First ever time home brewing. Used the 1 gallon Caribou Slobber kit. No hydrometer. Allowed 12+ days fermentation then bottled per instructions. First few days bottles were in the pantry at about 60-62 degrees. I moved them upstairs for warmer temps, about 69-70 but blocked from light. I decided to sample a bottle after 10 days and even before refrigeration it tasted great. For the first week or so in the fridge all was still good. But the last few bottles now have the sweet flavor overrun by carbonation. Any advice? Can the remaining bottles be salvaged?

Put them in the fridge for at least 3 days. This is how long carbonation it can take for CO2 to be fully dissolved in the beer. Other than that open them up carefully. If the beers are gushing then it’s a sign you bottled before fermentation was complete or that you used too much priming sugar or that there is a better fermenter like brett than has joined or any combination of those things. Typically new brewers, bottle too early, I’m guilty of it. While there are plenty of beers I’ve made that were complete in 10 days, I generally wait 3 or 4 weeks to bottle if I’m not checking gravity.

Agree with the above, and that Windsor yeast can definitely under attenuate.

They have been in the fridge well longer than 3 days. Only one gushed upon opening but that was when I carried it down stairs and likely shook it in transit. Sounds like I may have bottled too soon (only about 60 hours ahead of the two weeks stated in the instructions).

I’d think under attenuation is better for a brown ale. More body and sweetness. I had that for the first few bottles after refrigeration, then they progressively got more carbonated. Though when opened the later bottles didn’t fizz a lot and the head was mild. Maybe the change isn’t carbonation but something else? The bold sweet flavor has waned. I guess I should have had a party and finished the batch quickly!

Under attenuation is never good as it leaves residual sugars left to ferment when bottling condition. This can result in over carbonation when racking/rousing the yeast to the bottling bucket AND adding priming sugar. Excessive yeast won’t result in over carbonation, but excessive sugar will.

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As the bottled beer gets cold, it will absorb more of the CO2… perhaps easing away from being gushers…
Sneezles61

@sneezles61 will remember this pic.Here’s the bottle bomb graveyard picture from Spring 2015, not coincidentally, caribou slobber. This was in the yard of our old house…. Every one of the bottles blew up, and the first one drew blood, and parts of the bottle went 30 yards. Under attenuation indeed.

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Well my experience is wants the bottles are over carbonated not much you can do. Quickly pour into an oversized glass let them settle for 10 minutes and drink. I just dump them.

Isn’t that considered… abuse? :joy:
Sneezles61

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Just culling the herd

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Thanks a ton! So it appears a couple of factors led to my batch’s situation. First, the temperature during fermentation didn’t consistently stay high enough…hazard of brewing in winter. Second, related to the first, I didn’t allow enough time in fermentation. Now that I have a hydrometer, I should be able to avoid the second issue in the future.

Damn, that’s an impressive explosion. I’ll consider myself lucky…

Then next part of the equation is trying to figure the highest temperature achieved during fermentation. If you can record this you will get perfect bottle conditioning every time because you will be able to gauge the amount of CO2 already in suspension before priming, But you can get great carbonation without this step just not as consistent.

I’m down to the final 3 bottles and pouring out quickly and letting it sit a while definitely helps. Even with the extra carbonation and reduced ABV, this is still a tasty ale. Can’t wait for my next batch. Thanks for the help everyone.

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