Had a friend brew up a batch of milk stout. He split it into 2.5 gallon fermenters where he added blueberries to half, and a vanilla bean to the other half. When he went to bottle it, he forgot to convert the priming sugar for the half batch, and added enough to bring it to 4.5 volumes co2... Im trying to give him some advise, but have no idea on what to do other than open the bottles in a week, and hope for the best. Any advise?
What was he carbonating to? *Some* bottles can take 3.5-4 vols of pressure. If he was carbonating from 0.7 to 2.2 he's adding 1.5 vols, then add that again and he's looking at 3.7. High, but not unheard of depending on glass quality etc... That said, it will be a mess to pour. I have heard of people popping the edges, listening for a hiss and leaving them like that for a while (I would suggest a day to let lots of CO2 out of solution), then recrimping the same caps. This is a pretty random way of doing it, and the less time between popping & crimping, the less CO2 comes out of solution and you're only relieving the headspace. As someone who has overcarbbed a keg, I can tell you that it takes a lot of pressure reliefs of just the headspace to relieve the pressure.
I'd suggest maybe a week at room temp, and then chilling them ALL if possible. Getting them cold will help stop that, get it into solution, but might not stop the random gusher when opened.
put them in a fridge asap and itll slow if not stop the carbing, i would let them carb a little though, then crash chill them and leave them cold so they dont explode, besides that prayer may be an option.
Give them away to people you don't like. Tell them it ferments best if they leave it under their pillow at night.
