A Gusher

[shughes600]

Any ideas on how to decarbonate a bottled beer. I have an english ale that tastes really good. This baby is in my top five. The problem is that it is way over carbonated. At first it tasted a bit bright. It was awesome while green so i only have a little bit (a little under a case) left, but they gush. I was contemplating the idea of opening them into a bottling bucket and rebottling. I wish I had kegged this batch. I adjusted the priming amounts for the next batch as this is way too good a beer not to brew again.

Note: there is absolutley no off taste that would indicate a contamination.

[Fast_Eddy]

Rebottling might be the only way to remove the CO2, but IMHO, I would just deal with the gushing because O2 ruins the taste of good beer so fast. It would be a shame to get that off taste in all of the beer.

[Tweek]

no way to fix it. you are screwed. bu t seriously what I would do is chill them hard then open them slowly and by the time they are at drinking temp they will have dispelled some c02. that is the way I would handle it.

[S.F.B.]

What Tweek said. Not being screwed. :D The other part. Chilling will minimize the gush because cold liquid tends to absorb gasses. Then letting it warm slowly it will dispel some of the cO2.

[YamahaXS]

Come on, Gentlemen! I have seen too many resourceful replies in other threads to think that we can't come up with a solution to this man's problems.


Lets brainstorm a bit, afterall, he has close to 24 bottles to experiment with!


My ideas:

1) rig up a needle valve screw tap and punture the bottle cap, set the valve to just barely open and allow for the excess gas to escape. you can buy these at Home Depot for a dollar or two.

2) Use a bottle cap to barely break the seal off the cap, say 20-30 minute before you drink the beer.

3) Freeze the beer, open the cap, let thaw, drink. *caution: exploding bottles*

4) use a hammer and ... oh nevermind this one. :D

Btw, you bottled too soon... or perhaps used to much priming sugar.

good luck and let us know what happens!

[DarkBrew]

Like Mr. (2 brews under his belt... holy @!#% mega hop utilization) knows anything....

I agree with the "cold uncapping" method. The chances for rebotttling seem slim.

[paul84043]

I agree with the cold theory, I think that is your best avenue to drink these successfully. The CO2 will be released much more slowly when the beer is well chilled and it should degas a bit as it warms to a reasonable drinking temp.

[BucksBrew]

I screwed up too! Help! I started another thread but got no answers!

I treated my Bass Ale like a Lager! I know, duh!

I fermented cold, realy didn't ferment sugars and I bottled!

It is sweet and under carbonated in the bottle. I thought short of dumping my beer flavored syrup, I could empty into a carboy, repitch some yeast and see what happens? Any thoughts? I primed with sugar before bottling!

Help a brotha out will ya! That was my Chris Rock impression BTW! haha

[shughes600]

Gotta keg? You could easily go that route, as could i . I just have no keg space right now. I would weigh the merits of aerating the beer when transferring to the carboy. I am quite sure the new yeast will take hold at ale temps. I think that warming the existing bottles to ale temp and rousing the yeast would likely result in beer grenades, though there might be a day or too in there where the stars line up and the beer is perfect.

I opened another of my overcarbonated bottles last night. It didn't gush. It threw a wicked head though. After I let it sit an hour or so it was nice. BTW letting it sit in open air for an hour and then tasting is what led me to believe that the beer was simply overcarbonated in the first place.

[b3s]

an alternative to kegging is the tap-a-draft (http://www.defalcos.com/tapadraft.htm) system. i absolutely love it...not quite kegging...but better than the party pig...and cost-wise highly reasonable.

my bottling today took about 30 minutes. two 6L PET bottles for the tap-a-draft, 12 ez-top bottles for emergency rations and one 22 oz. bottle for long term storage...two 6L PETs is basically 2/3 of a five gallon batch.