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I brewed a small batch, and referred to the Nomograph for Determining Ammount of Priming Suger for 5 US Gallons in Brewing Classic Styles. I wanted to carb to 2.25 vol.s at 70 degrees so I decided 3.3oz of corn sugar was right.
But, since it's a smaller batch (1.5 gallons) I should have divided the 3.3 by 3. Which I forgot to do. So, I've made bottle bombs, I'm afraid.
Anything I can do to save the batch?

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  • What if I vented the bottles sometime during conditioning? I'll pry off the caps, and replace them. This would release the pressure that's built up. When should I do this?
    – Bill Goetz
    Commented Mar 20, 2011 at 21:43

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I think trying to reseal caps results in leaky seals. If you drink them fast enough maybe you don't notice that over time they lose their carbonation to an extent.

I'd plan on carefully monitoring the carb level by sampling the beers each day. Then just store them in a cold fridge to stop the process. Seeing how it seems like a small batch fridge space should be available.

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  • How long would you give it? Maybe start trying it after a week? How long does a bottle bomb take to become dangerous, if you had to guess?
    – Bill Goetz
    Commented Mar 22, 2011 at 2:49
  • Well it carbed up in a week, so I put them in the fridge. After I drank a glass I noticed some weird white stuff left at the bottom, I can only guess is uneaten sugar.
    – Bill Goetz
    Commented Apr 7, 2011 at 0:33
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I have done the same, resulting in a couple of cracked bottles from the pressure a couple of weeks after bottling.

I loosened the caps (just barely enough to release the pressure), let them sit for a few minutes and then resealed the caps. I did this twice over a couple of weeks.

This is possibly a bit dodgy in terms of sanitisation, but I had no issues with any of the beer going bad.

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  • I like it. I was prepared to totally uncap and recap, but your solution sounds like it would work just as well.
    – Bill Goetz
    Commented Mar 20, 2011 at 23:08
  • I was going to answer with "just drink it all quickly and burp a lot", but voted this answer up the chain instead. I've popped tops and re-capped before without a sanitation issue, especially with a beer that's got some good alcohol in it to keep infection risk down.
    – Juanote
    Commented Mar 25, 2011 at 0:40

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