Is there a cure for fizz?

[Tippler]

This spring I brewed several beers for the summer (Sarah Hughes Ruby, Dark Saison, SummerLightning etc). As they were different styles, they each had different yeasts. I put them all in bottles so they could better be kept at a proper temperature, and I was well pleased with the results. I decided to leave a few bottles of each to develop. Trouble is, a few months on and they all have got too fizzy, so that the yeast in the bottle is disturbed and I end up with a “gusher”.

I batch primed at the rate of 70gms table sugar per 25 litres, and each brew spent 2 weeks in the primary and a few days at 5°C to let the yeast drop out.

Next time I will prime less, but what can I do with the present batch to get them to calm down? It would be nice to have a few left for Christmas but I don't want to serve up bottle bombs!

[Wonkydonkey]

Apart from servIng them at a lower temp, and they may even still be gushers. What I'd do is just gently open them just a bit and with the other hand on top of the lid. that is so you just hear a hiss and the top does not pop off. then leave for another day. If you can do this for a week then maybe you will have beer with less fizz but how much only testing a bottle will tell. But the temp is also just as important

Best of luck, what ever you do..

[Aleman]

If you put a penny over the top of the crown cap, you can gently lift the cap with a bottle opener and release the pressure.
You may need to do this a couple of times, and ideally store it warm while you do so so that CO2 comes out of solution.

Then put then back in a cool spot for a week and try a bottle or two.

[Flaneur]

You could also try decanting the beer into a jug and leaving it to settle for a bit. Then drink the beer. I often do this with Belgian beers, as even amongst well-established brewers, gushers can happen.

[Dads_Ale]

Your priming sugar looks low and shouldn't result in gushers. I prime at 120 g per 25 liters and have no problems. My bottles are stored at room temp for two weeks then put in bottle fridge at 10c. Even without the fridge bit I do not have gushers and I bottle after about 7 days using US05 or So4 yeast.
My thought is that the beer has not finished its primary fermentation.

[Redimpz]

A couple of years ago I had a few gushers from an old peculier clone I'd made. The first time it happened it hit the ceiling, all others were opened in the garden after that.

[super_simian]

Has the flavour or aroma changed noticeably? I went through a real problem with gushers i while back, which I put down to wild yeast, most likely S.diastaticus (which chews through any unfermented dextrins and smells highly phenolic) probably from brewing in an area where a lot of people have fruit trees, and there is lots of wild yeast floating around. I alternate StarSan and bleach+vinegar to try to get everything.

[Capped]

I'm astonished by how much priming sugar you guys use. For 22ish litres fermented for 2 weeks I use no more than a rounded tablespoonful. No gush,fizz or any hint of that horrible tingly carbonation redolent of canned beers, but enough to produce a smooth,tight and long-lasting head.

[Rubbery]

bleach+vinegar making chlorine gas in your brewery sounds very dangerous.

[Aleman]

bleach+vinegar making chlorine gas in your brewery sounds very dangerous.

It doesn't! In the very dilute concentrations we are talking about it makes hypochlorous acid, which is many times more powerful than hypochlorite in bleach.

Of course it has to be mixed properly!!!

Add 1oz (30ml) of bleach, to 5 Gallons (19 litres) of water.
Add 1oz (30ml) of white vinegar to this. (Do not add the vinegar to the bleach first! Chlorine gas!)

>>> THIS <<< is a BBR podcast with Charley Talley of Five Star where he discusses how to make a safe effective no rinse sanitiser using a DILUTE bleach solution to which you add vinegar.

I take no responsibility for anyone trying this and not following the instructions, I don't know how much more explicit I can be

[Tippler]

Thanks for all the advice. Looking back at my records, I can see that some of the beers giving me trouble did finish a few points higher than I had expected, so that's probably a cause. But what else can you do when the SG has been constant for a few days, and rousing the yeast has not changed anything? In the past I've left it for longer (3 weeks +) and ended up with an infection. It's probably noticable this year because I increased the brew lngth and the bottles are sticking around for longer! To cap it all, I have bitter in a budget barrel which is flat as a pancake!