Combating over carbonated bottles

[brewerTristan]

Since my chest freezer died on me, I've been relegated to the lowly task of bottling all my beers again.

The latest beer I've bottled was an English bitter. As per the style guidelines, I calculated the added sugar to get me between 1 to 1.5 volumes of co2. Unfortunately, the bottles have carbonated quite a bit more than this - not to the point of excessive foaming, but still far too "biting".

I have two questions: (1) is there any reason why my sugar calculations may not be accurate? I checked the finishing gravity and it was where I expected it. I let it ferment around 10 days. Perhaps it wasn't done? The other point of relevance is that I've had to store the conditioning bottles in higher than desirable temperatures (80 F). (2) is there anything I can do to salvage the bottles I have left? I have heard of people venting the bottles or performing a "double pour" when serving the beer. I tried this last option, but it just resulted in a big mess and lots of wasted beer.

Your help is much appreciated.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

Since my chest freezer died on me, I've been relegated to the lowly task of bottling all my beers again.

The latest beer I've bottled was an English bitter. As per the style guidelines, I calculated the added sugar to get me between 1 to 1.5 volumes of co2. Unfortunately, the bottles have carbonated quite a bit more than this - not to the point of excessive foaming, but still far too "biting".

I have two questions: (1) is there any reason why my sugar calculations may not be accurate? I checked the finishing gravity and it was where I expected it. I let it ferment around 10 days. Perhaps it wasn't done? The other point of relevance is that I've had to store the conditioning bottles in higher than desirable temperatures (80 F). (2) is there anything I can do to salvage the bottles I have left? I have heard of people venting the bottles or performing a "double pour" when serving the beer. I tried this last option, but it just resulted in a big mess and lots of wasted beer.

Your help is much appreciated.

I'm sure there's a very good reason why this wouldn't work, but couldn't you just open each bottle, then recap it? The CO2 is heavier than air and should stay in the bottle. Or am I talking out of my ass?

[brewerTristan]

Since my chest freezer died on me, I've been relegated to the lowly task of bottling all my beers again.

The latest beer I've bottled was an English bitter. As per the style guidelines, I calculated the added sugar to get me between 1 to 1.5 volumes of co2. Unfortunately, the bottles have carbonated quite a bit more than this - not to the point of excessive foaming, but still far too "biting".

I have two questions: (1) is there any reason why my sugar calculations may not be accurate? I checked the finishing gravity and it was where I expected it. I let it ferment around 10 days. Perhaps it wasn't done? The other point of relevance is that I've had to store the conditioning bottles in higher than desirable temperatures (80 F). (2) is there anything I can do to salvage the bottles I have left? I have heard of people venting the bottles or performing a "double pour" when serving the beer. I tried this last option, but it just resulted in a big mess and lots of wasted beer.

Your help is much appreciated.

I'm sure there's a very good reason why this wouldn't work, but couldn't you just open each bottle, then recap it? The CO2 is heavier than air and should stay in the bottle. Or am I talking out of my ass?

Yeah I thought the reason against opening and recapping would be oxidation, but if CO2 is heavier than air, as you say, this shouldn't be the case. The trouble then, I guess, is that the CO2 won't actually get dissolved out of the beer/bottle and so recapping will just trap the CO2 in the bottle, which will eventually dissolve back into the beer.

[brewinhard]

When you bottle beer you have to take into consideration the actual temperature of the beer at bottling time. Finished beer (being a fermented beverage) will contain certain amounts of dissolved CO2 depending on the temperature. So different amounts of priming sugar will be used according to what the temperature of your beer is when you are bottling in order to achieve your desired carbonation levels. In the back of Brewing Classic Styles and Palmer's book How to brew are carbonation nomographs that will help you get your desired volumes of CO2 based on beer temperature and priming sugar amounts. As for what your beers are carbonated to now you may be out of luck. I would just open a bottle earlier before you drink it and leave it in the fridge and allow some gas to escape but it still probably won't be where you want it. Drink'em up and chalk it up to the learning curve.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

So we need JZ or John Palmer to weigh in. Is it theoretically possible to uncap and recap the bottle to adjust carbonation? Yeah, it's a waste of caps and time, and you risk oxidation. But is it possible?

[brewinhard]

I would tend to think that most of the carbon dioxide is dissolved and uncapping and capping really wouldn't do too much except expose your precious schwill to evil oxygen molecules. Although in the earlier post I did think that the double pour would help to knock some of the carbon dioxide out of the beer and create a less carbonated product. Try pouring the beer back and forth between two glasses before drinking the bitter and see if decreases the CO2.

[Mylo]

So we need JZ or John Palmer to weigh in. Is it theoretically possible to uncap and recap the bottle to adjust carbonation? Yeah, it's a waste of caps and time, and you risk oxidation. But is it possible?

You could take a key or screwdriver and pry up the edge of the cap just enough so that some pressure is relieved, and then crimp it back down with your capper. I've done that before...


Mylo

[brewerTristan]

So we need JZ or John Palmer to weigh in. Is it theoretically possible to uncap and recap the bottle to adjust carbonation? Yeah, it's a waste of caps and time, and you risk oxidation. But is it possible?

You could take a key or screwdriver and pry up the edge of the cap just enough so that some pressure is relieved, and then crimp it back down with your capper. I've done that before...


Mylo

This seems like a good idea. How long would you recommend leaving the bottles partially uncapped for? The beer I have is probably close to 2.5 to 3 volumes of CO2 and I'd like it around 1.5.