My JAOM bottle popped

[Soulpanda]

Ok, so I did not break the warranty, at
least as far as I know, and was happy
with the results. I used the three and a
half pounds, and used the other half in
something else, and used Mr. Fleismann's
Bread Yeast just as I was supposed to
I started it in July,got it off the fruit in
October or November, when it had fallen
out, and bottled it in January. A few warm
days here and my wife tells me while I am
at work that one of the bottles popped its
cork. It was dry and superfizzy. So she put
the remaining two bottles in the fridge, plus
the half bottle of the one that popped, and
they haven't done anything.

So, here is my plan:

1) Combine all bottles, and maybe the half
bottle if it doesn't taste bad, into a carboy

2) Backsweeten, stabilize

3) put into half-gallon/wine bottles carboys
to degas for a bit

4) Rebottle

How does this sound guys? I feel that this is
probably the way to go about it, but I wasn't
expecting my JAOM to become sparkling either.

 

[Swordnut]

JAO's are pretty resistant to just about anything but you'll probably oxidise it in the procedure. There's obviously active yeast in there so backsweetening will result in a restart of fermentation if you don't stabilize it well. You sure you've waited for long enough to clear up? Any sort of haze might indicate yeast and possible reactivation.

I'd say, uncork/screw each bottle to let excess C02 out, then seal up again. Refrigerate for a week and see if the bottles clear up more. But that's just my noob approach

 

[Medsen Fey]

While it is still cold, open the bottles and put them back in a carboy under airlock, let it get nice and warm, and let it finish. When it is done, you can add more honey to sweeten, and you won't need to stabilize. With active fermentation you don't have to worry about oxidation.

When this was fermented, what temperature did you keep it at?

 

[Soulpanda]

It stayed at room temperature throughout the
process, and was in a dark cupboard before
bottling. I understand bread yeast enjoys warm
temperatures, but I did not think the the ambient
temperature was so cold as to put them to sleep,
and it has been bottled for about three months so
far. But I take it you think the winter was too cold
for it?

 

[Medsen Fey]

JAO batches rarely restart, but if they aren't fermented and cleared at mid-70s F temp, that can possibly allow some yeast to survive.

 

[Chevette Girl]

Out of the 40 or so JAO's and variants, I've only had two restart after bottling. I second (third?) the carboy + finish + stabilize + backsweeten idea, that's what I did with mine. And yeah, it won't oxidize if it's fizzy, the CO2 coming out will chase most of the oxygen out of any headspace.

One of the many things I'm fussy about when I bottle is making sure I don't cross-contaminate between batches containing different yeasts or of different sweetness levels, if you happened to rack or bottle something with EC-1118 in it and weren't really meticulous about sanitizing between, all it would take is a few cells and you're primed to go, eventually, yeast being the fickle thing that it is, stopping when we don't want it to and surviving when we'd really rather it didn't

And Swordnut, just because it looks clear doesn't mean there's no yeast in suspension, the only way you can ensure this is with a very fine filter (I think it's the .5 micron?). They're still there, you just can't see them.