Over Carbonating Bottles

[jerb]

Hi all,

I'm having concerns about my latest batch of Hefeweizen. It was bottled 5 days ago and seems to be fully carbonated already. The OG was 1048, FG 1014. I thought this was fully attenuated. I primed 15 Litres of beer with 168grams of malt/sugar mix, aiming for carbonation of about 4.0.

I opened one bottle to check the carbonation level, and it's already "fully" carbonated.

Now, I'm speculating that primary fermentation in the bottle takes about 5 or so days, and possibly everything is OK, but I really don't want exploding bottles.

Should I release and recap all the bottles, or will the secondary fermentation over the next two weeks add little further carbonation?

All help appreciated.

Jerb..

 

[mfdes]

4 volumes is a shitload of CO2. Orval which is similar is packaged in special bottles to resist that CO2 pressure. Did you use Champagne bottles? If not, you might want to consider venting some.
How long did you wait after fermentation ceased before bottling them? Not to be pedantic, but it is important to let them sit in the primary for a while after fermentation completes to a) ensure all undesirable fermentation byproducts are reabsorbed by the yeast, and B) make it possible for you to prime accurately (CO2 partial pressure must have come to equilibrium for accurate calculations).

MFS.

 

[boingk]

You will generally want 2.7 volumes of gas to carbonate a beer - less or more depending on style and personal taste.

This works out to 8g sucrose/Litre of beer, or 6g/longneck and 3g/stubbie.

I hope you're using plastic bottles....

EDIT: Priming rates for malt are 12g/L, and dextrose is around 9.5g/L or 7g/longneck.

 

[jerb]

4 volumes is a shitload of CO2. Orval which is similar is packaged in special bottles to resist that CO2 pressure. Did you use Champagne bottles? If not, you might want to consider venting some.
How long did you wait after fermentation ceased before bottling them? Not to be pedantic, but it is important to let them sit in the primary for a while after fermentation completes to a) ensure all undesirable fermentation byproducts are reabsorbed by the yeast, and B) make it possible for you to prime accurately (CO2 partial pressure must have come to equilibrium for accurate calculations).

MFS.

Most Weizens are 4 to 4.5 units of CO2. I've used 500 ml bottles which were originally weizen bottles, so they should be able to with stand the pressure, but only if they don't end up more carbonated than that.

The beer was in the fermenter for 10 days. I usually leave it for around two weeks to allow for secondary fermentation to be mostly completed, but in the case of weizen I didn't want too much of the yeast to flocculate out of suspension.

Any comments on the attenuation from 1048 to 1014, and (the majority of) primary fermentation, or carbonation, in bottles taking 5ish days would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Jerb..