I cooled a bottle of beer in the refrigerator for 6 hours. This beer was bottled 12 days ago. When I opened the bottle, it spewed out everything as if it had been shook up before opening. Only about a teaspoon of liquid was left in the bottle.
Yeah... assuming you primed with the proper amount (e.g., 3/4 cup corn sugar for 5 gallons), make sure you let the beer finish fermenting prior to bottling. This has happened to me several times. Patience is key. My rule of thumb is, wait until you think fermentation is complete and you are ready to bottle, but then wait an extra week prior to doing so. You'll often find your specific gravity will change by another 0.002 points within that time, which can make all the difference in the world in carbonation.
Case in point: My Scotch ale was "done" fermenting a couple of weeks ago at a "final" gravity of 1.028 (which seemed a bit high to me), and I considered bottling at that time, but decided just to rack it instead to see what would happen. I checked it today and the gravity is now 1.026. If I had bottled a couple of weeks ago when I thought fermentation was "done", my bottles would certainly be overcarbonated. Unfortunately, the ale ended up tasting like shit and I ended up dumping it all out, but that's another story! We all make mistakes from time to time.
Just be patient next time around. That's the best advice I can give you. And, make sure you don't overgrind your grains (at least, that appears to be the answer to my unrelated problem).
I won't commen't why this happened, since I don't know the details.
If you want to be able to drink this beer, try leaving the bottles in the refridgerator for at least 24 hours. I've also had a batch of overcarbonated beer, and leaving the bottles in the fridge for a long time helped a bit.
I may of put a little more than the 3/4 sugar, but I thought that the yeast would stop when all the oxygen was used up in the capped bottle like in a soda.
The yeast normally uses oxygen to multiply to reasonable numbers, then all the little critters get on wih the job of converting the sugar. Generally, they won't stop until it's all gone, or there is too much alcohol for them.
I have had this happen to me a few times as well, and leaving the bottles in a fridge for a long time has had no effect. So what I do now, for the first bottle of every batch and any that appears overly carbonated, is open the bottle carefully in my sink with a glass under it to catch the foam. This normally works to catch enough of the brew to drink if it is overly carbonated, if there is the right amount of carbonation there is no harm in opening it this way first.
If the whole batch is way overcarbonated, you might be able to salvage it by: 1. Cooling it as cold as possible - even down to, say, 33F. (This will get as much CO2 into solution as possible). 2. GENTLY/SLOWLY, only slightly raise the cap to release the CO2. Be very careful not to agitate the bottle, etc. 3. Recap. (If you were very careful opening it, the same cap will be OK for this - or use new caps, either one). Hopefully this will keep it from all gushing out!
You can do a few this way and see if it will help.
I had one blow up today and decided to open the rest. It sounded like a gun shot. The one that I put in the fridge over night only spewed a foam stream, after the top was launched, of only three feet high. the others had a stream of about five to six feet high after launching the tops.
Using too much yeast, unlikely. Over priming, possible. No one seems to have mentioned poor sanitation. My experience has been, when you have a bottle that self-empties; you have a dirty bottle. Before you get all upset check another bottle. BTW, shouldn't matter if the bottle has been in the fridge for 10 hours or 10 weeks.
Yeah, poor sanitization or incomplete fermentation at bottling time would be my guess. Infection can do crazy things. Leave your beer in secondary at least a week. Then bottle. I personally have never had any of these problems, thankfully.
One must always check the FG before bottling or keggin' your beer. I've done the same thing. I hate that! Read the lable on the yeast package or check the producers website for fermentation details. Typically you should have a final gravity of 1.012 to 1.010. That is the best way to gauge your time to bottle. What you may want to try is cooling your beer to near freezing and "burp" the bottles. Lift the cap a wee little bit to off some of the gas. You may have also over primed your beer in the bottling bucket. That's another reason why it might have gushed, as well as infection as mentioned. But I've found infection is a very rare occurence in brewing. As a last resort you may wish to re-bottle your beers. But be sure to drop the temp like I mentioned. If you are still having troubles, feel free to ship the whole lot to me and I'll take care of it for you ;)
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