My beer geysered on me

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I made a Caribou Slobber from the starter kit about a month or so ago. Today was the one-week date from bottling.

Thought I’d check out one of my beers, popped it open and it geysered. I lost half the bottle. Is there something I can do to keep this from happening in my remaining bottles? Would putting the rest in the fridge help? Should I just wait another week?

I carbonated it the way the instructions say, with one fizz drop per bottle. And they’re the bottles that come with the kit (12 oz)

I know the instructions say two weeks and for some reason I had it in my head today was the two week date, but I didn’t realize that until after I opened it. In my defense the last few weeks were busy with work so October’s a bit of a blur. Anyways I just don’t want this to happen again next week when I open another.

2

Put your bottles in the fridge and let the cold beer absorb the CO2. It takes 2 to 3 days. Gushers are usually from an incomplete fermentation or infection (but usually an incomplete fermentation). How long was your beer in the fermenter? Do you check your final gravity?

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Perhaps, they are close to being bottle bombs… The ferment wasn’t complete when the brew was bottled…
Be very careful… I’d even throw a blanket, or such, over them… if they do blow… you’ll minimize glass flying all over the place… Cold as you can get them will help…
sneezles61

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I used the fizz drops in the past. The problem with them is that with time they stick together break etc. So I got a lot of variability in carbonation results and had one explode in a friends frig. I threw out the fizz drops and no longer use them. I keg most of my beers but bottle a 6 pack from batch so I can do taste tests as well as bottle age. I just weigh out 2.1 grams of table sugar for each bottle and dump it in prior to filling. Its easy to do when only bottling 6 beers.

Agree with others put in in the frig with blanket and open carefully.

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5

Refrigerating seemed to work fine.

The bottles I’ve had so far had decent carbonation and none but the first geysered.

I think the mistake I made was thinking the beer was done fermenting when I should have waited a bit longer.

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6

To learn is to live… Whats up next?
Sneezles61

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Over the years I have tried a few different ways to carbonate in the bottle. Prime tabs were the first try and they were hit or miss. The best tablet type for priming wasn’t really a tablet. It was Domino Dots. What most of us call sugar cubes. It was an innovation by our departed friend @flars One in a 12oz bottle nicely carbonated and they are cheap and readily available at most grocery stores.

All of those drops, tabs or whatever are a good idea but the old fashion bottling bucket seems to work the best as long as the priming sugar is mixed in well and everything is sanitary. Not practical for small quantities of bottles though.

Kegs are the best option if you brew enough to justify the cost. I often prime them and it isn’t always perfect but easier to correct.