Evan!
Well-Known Member
No matter how much you brew, you can still get screwed by lazy-ass English yeast.
I brewed this face-rockingly awesome Old Ale awhile back, and because I'll be aging it for a long time, I naturally carbed it in bottles rather than going to the keg. I went from 1.074 to 1.020...figured that it was done because I had high mash temps and good amount of specialty grains, since I wanted it to finish high.
Now, I have over 2 cases of slightly overcarbed Old Ale. It's not enough to make it a real problem like some overcarbed beers I've had, but it's enough to take it out of the style range. There must have been a few points of fermentable sugar left in there that the essex strain just didn't feel like eating. ********* Brits are good fer nuthin!
Now, I know that with ale that you age for extended periods, you actually usually get a slow increase in carbonation---I even get this with most aged commercial brews too. So after a few years, this will probably get worse, not better, and the base beer is way too awesome to just let sleeping dogs lie.
So, what I'm trying to do is uncap them, offgas some of the co2, then recap them. I'll probably do several test bottles...one where I just let a little gas off, one where I take the cap off and replace it after 5 seconds, and another where I take it off and let it sit for 30 seconds or more. This is really the only way to figure out the very best method to get the desired carb level...
But I've never done this before, so, is there anyone out there with experience offgassing to decarb an overcarbed beer? It's not bad enough to foam up out of the bottle when I open them...any advice?
I brewed this face-rockingly awesome Old Ale awhile back, and because I'll be aging it for a long time, I naturally carbed it in bottles rather than going to the keg. I went from 1.074 to 1.020...figured that it was done because I had high mash temps and good amount of specialty grains, since I wanted it to finish high.
Now, I have over 2 cases of slightly overcarbed Old Ale. It's not enough to make it a real problem like some overcarbed beers I've had, but it's enough to take it out of the style range. There must have been a few points of fermentable sugar left in there that the essex strain just didn't feel like eating. ********* Brits are good fer nuthin!
Now, I know that with ale that you age for extended periods, you actually usually get a slow increase in carbonation---I even get this with most aged commercial brews too. So after a few years, this will probably get worse, not better, and the base beer is way too awesome to just let sleeping dogs lie.
So, what I'm trying to do is uncap them, offgas some of the co2, then recap them. I'll probably do several test bottles...one where I just let a little gas off, one where I take the cap off and replace it after 5 seconds, and another where I take it off and let it sit for 30 seconds or more. This is really the only way to figure out the very best method to get the desired carb level...
But I've never done this before, so, is there anyone out there with experience offgassing to decarb an overcarbed beer? It's not bad enough to foam up out of the bottle when I open them...any advice?