# Will My Bottles Explode?



## BEERBOY (16/1/04)

I got my first brew kit for christmas and quickly proceeded to brew my first batch of Cooper Lager using the Coopers sugar in the kit. Now for some reason i threw in a pack of Dry enzyme when i pitched the yeast, with a 1047 hydrometer reading. Anyway for 3 days the air lock bubbled away and then nothing. So i took a hydrometer reading that was 1008, then the next day (day 4) i took another 1008. So i thought that was a bit high but bottled anyway. Now they have been bottled for 7 days and i tryed one last night, and they are very very fizzy, but did not foam up out of the bottle. I used the carbonation drops, 2 per 750ml bottle. 
So my question is, will the burst? and should i recap them?


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## JasonY (16/1/04)

Three days sounds like a quick ferment. If your SG was really 1.008 then I would say you should be fine. Did you check it before fermentation for reference?

Never used carbonation drops but I get the impression they make fizzy coke bubble beer.

Once I had some explode on me, dangerous stuff one set of a chain reaction and ended up with 6 king browns all over the place, this was a foolish 2kg of sugar job. Hopefully you should be fine.


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## deebee (16/1/04)

Sounds like you should be ok, but also sounds like temp was a bit high. If your beer tastes a bit suss - sharp fruity puckering - don't be discouraged. Try again and keep your brew below 25C, below 22 if you can. Gets easier from about late March onwards. (Oh and replace that bag of "brewing" sugar with some malt extract or bag of something from your brewshop.)

If worried about bottles exploding, keep checking them regularly. If you get any gushers (open the bottle and it just spoofs everywhere and won't stop spewing out for ages) you can chill them down on ice for a couple of hours then take the caps off and leave them for a few minutes before re-capping. This will reduce the carbonation levels.

Those carbonation drops suck. Give them to your dog. Bulk priming is the go. Or just use caster sugar and one of those measuring guages from your brewshop. For my tastes, underpriming is better than overpriming.


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## Murray (16/1/04)

I think you will be fine, beerboy.


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## kook (16/1/04)

deebee said:


> Those carbonation drops suck. Give them to your dog.


 Dont waste them on the dog, eat em yourself! Or give em to the kids if you've got any.

They taste like fairy floss


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## johnno (16/1/04)

actually kook i quite like em myself.
they remind me of the old fashioned boiled lollies.
better than paying $12 for 400 grams of boiled lollies at the hand made lolly shop down the road from work.

cheers


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## Guest Lurker (16/1/04)

Hi Beerboy.
Ask four different brewers and get four different answers. Actually I would be a bit worried and would be checking the bottles regularly for pressure. Normally, 1.008 would be quite a low gravity to finish at and I would expect it to be done. BUT the dry enzyme you added can really lower the final gravity. When I used to do the Mexican and Black Rock Dry Lager kits, which come with that enzyme, I had one brew finish at 0.999. Just keep an eye on them by opening one every now and then to be sure.


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## wedge (16/1/04)

if you can try cc them for a few weeks. Just to make sure. My first ever brew finished fermenting in 3days, a waited another 3 just in case! Bottled and turned out ok.

I would rack it to avoid any chance of autolysis.


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## verynewtohomebrew (17/1/04)

Beer Boy 

A little concern here is warranted but dont panic you have your kit now and there is always next time.

A little advice when you first make your wort take a sample and test with hydrometer and record result and then test after 2 or 3 days and again before you bottle that way you can follow your fermentation and know when exactly its complete

If you really want to improve the taste of your beer check out some of the posts on here relating to racking and cold conditioning they are both simple processes but well well worth it much better cleaner smoother beer.

And last but not least avoid the carbonation drops as mentioned they can give a slightly coke bubble feel to the beer.

Any further questions feel free to ask

VNTHB


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## Trough Lolly (17/1/04)

Beerboy,

Congratulations on your first of many brews! You will find that the Coopers yeast is a rather active fermenter and it is par for course that you have a lot of action in the first 3 days. You won't damage the brew, even if you left it on the yeast cake for a couple of weeks, unless of course you had an infection.
You have bottled a tad early (day 4) but I think you will be ok with what you have - just keep them in a cool part of the house and away from the sunlight and you'll be fine. Putting the bottles in the garage is asking for trouble, unless the garage is well insulated from the range of temps that it goes through with the summer weather.

And yes, ditch the brewing sugar and use some light malt extract for your brewing. Have a search for articles on bulk priming and secondary fermentation on this forum and they will steer you down the path towards even better beer!

Cheers and welcome to the forum,
TL


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## 501 (28/12/05)

Dry Enzyme ~~ Danger Will Robinson ~~
^_^


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## mika (2/1/06)

Trying not to Hijack.... Have used the carbo drops for all my brews after all they are just sugar and some glucose to hold it together...someone want to correct me ??

I had one batch go ape... emptied it all.....very depressing....but all the bottle volcanoes made good photos 

Another I got worried about after sampling a bottle, went and just cracked the cap till they stopped hissing and then put them thru the capper again.
I'm drinking the brew now with plenty of carbination and all taste OK (so far).
My concern with pulling caps right off, waste the caps ($$$) and expose the brew to wild yeasts and other nasties...though I guess it is mostly alcohol by that stage.


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## rhydz (4/1/06)

so what should we use instead of carbo drops like what product.


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## Hopeye (4/1/06)

rhydz,

Castor sugar, Plain white sugar, dextrose (tends to dry out the beer) or my personal favourite is to boil up some DME (3-5gms per bottle in roughly 200ml for 8 bottles) (I keg so the 8 bottles are the leftovers) the night before and let it cool, then add @ 25ml to each bottle. Any fermentable can be used with differing taste results, it is only so that the remaining yeast can then ferment the small amount of fermentable placed into the bottle to enable carbonation in the sealed bottle.

David


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## a_quintal (15/1/10)

Hopeye said:


> rhydz,
> 
> Castor sugar, Plain white sugar, dextrose (tends to dry out the beer) or my personal favourite is to boil up some DME (3-5gms per bottle in roughly 200ml for 8 bottles) (I keg so the 8 bottles are the leftovers) the night before and let it cool, then add @ 25ml to each bottle. Any fermentable can be used with differing taste results, it is only so that the remaining yeast can then ferment the small amount of fermentable placed into the bottle to enable carbonation in the sealed bottle.
> 
> David



hey guys i have a question. i brewed a beer last week that was coopers stout, coopers dark ale, 1kg of Coopers Enhancer #2 and 500g light dry malt. Its OG was 1056. After a week in the fermenter I got 2 days straight of FG 1020. i thought this was high and attributed this to 1) lack of temp control and thus underattenuation, 2) due to the nature of the beer it was always going to have a high FG.

Anyway i bottled it at 1020 and its been priming for 4 days now. After reading this article i've suddenly become scared that i have 30 beer bombs sitting under my stairs. Any opinions?


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## Pennywise (15/1/10)

Crack one open now and see how much pressure there is in the bottle. There shouldn't that much pressure in there to explode it yet but I'd still wear some sort of facial protection. If the bottle has a big hiss when you open it like a fully carbed beer then I'd un-cap and re-cap the lot


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## a_quintal (15/1/10)

Homebrewer79 said:


> Crack one open now and see how much pressure there is in the bottle. There shouldn't that much pressure in there to explode it yet but I'd still wear some sort of facial protection. If the bottle has a big hiss when you open it like a fully carbed beer then I'd un-cap and re-cap the lot



after re-capping should it be fine that it won't have any problems or should i keep checking it?


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## Aus_Rider_22 (15/1/10)

a_quintal said:


> hey guys i have a question. i brewed a beer last week that was coopers stout, coopers dark ale, 1kg of Coopers Enhancer #2 and 500g light dry malt. Its OG was 1056. After a week in the fermenter I got 2 days straight of FG 1020. i thought this was high and attributed this to 1) lack of temp control and thus underattenuation, 2) due to the nature of the beer it was always going to have a high FG.
> 
> Anyway i bottled it at 1020 and its been priming for 4 days now. After reading this article i've suddenly become scared that i have 30 beer bombs sitting under my stairs. Any opinions?



Just entered your recipe into ianh's spreadsheet and it gave an estimated OG of around 1.070, which is a bit more than you got, and a FG of about 1.019.

I am sure others can provide more info in what to expect.


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## a_quintal (15/1/10)

Aus_Rider_22 said:


> Just entered your recipe into ianh's spreadsheet and it gave an estimated OG of around 1.070, which is a bit more than you got, and a FG of about 1.019.
> 
> I am sure others can provide more info in what to expect.



ive only got a brigalow hydrometer and its maximum is 1040 and so i measured the extra length and estimated OG. in that case it may have been 1070. thanks guys so far, im still gonna test it. dont want my family grabbing something from under the stairs and getting hurt. scared myself alot then


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## Pennywise (15/1/10)

a_quintal said:


> after re-capping should it be fine that it won't have any problems or should i keep checking it?




Give them a check every couple of days for about a week. By then if you have bottle bombs on your hands you should start getting really big "phhsts" and a bit of foaming by then. Assuming you have a 23 litre batch, I'd expect an FG of 1015-1017, so your not really far off. I reckon you'll be right, may just have fairly overcarbed beers. What bottles are you using?


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## a_quintal (15/1/10)

Homebrewer79 said:


> Give them a check every couple of days for about a week. By then if you have bottle bombs on your hands you should start getting really big "phhsts" and a bit of foaming by then. Assuming you have a 23 litre batch, I'd expect an FG of 1015-1017, so your not really far off. I reckon you'll be right, may just have fairly overcarbed beers. What bottles are you using?



750ml long necks primed with 2 coopers carb drops


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## Pennywise (15/1/10)

Sorry, should have been more clear. I meant what brand, as in Coopers, CUB and the like. The Coopers ones are alot thicker and will resist more pressure, the CUB ones you really need to be carful with a ) bottling too early & b ) overpriming as they are quite thin walled.

Edit: Capital B and ) makes cool face

Edie edit: so does little b and )


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## a_quintal (15/1/10)

Homebrewer79 said:


> Sorry, should have been more clear. I meant what brand, as in Coopers, CUB and the like. The Coopers ones are alot thicker and will resist more pressure, the CUB ones you really need to be carful with a ) bottling too early & b ) overpriming as they are quite thin walled.
> 
> Edit: Capital B and ) makes cool face
> 
> Edie edit: so does little b and )



ah ok. mixture of coopers, tooheys new and CUB bottles. im actually foregoing having beer at redoak tonight to rush home and check the beer.


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## kelbygreen (15/1/10)

I have done 2 batches so far (bout to bottle my 3rd) First one the ants got into the drops, I found this out just after I cleaned and sanitised 30 bottles and it was 6pm so no getting more  so I put a table spoon of white sugar in each and this was perfect carbonation. The second batch I got some fresh carb drops and the beer was way to over carbonated. 

So for this beer I am not sure if I will go back to the drops or use sugar or some other fermentable. What do other people use?? also I hear people adjust the amount they put in from brew to brew as some beer carbonates more. How do you work out how much to add to get the right carbonation levels?


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## bum (15/1/10)

a_quintal said:


> im actually foregoing having beer at redoak tonight to rush home and check the beer.


Now, now. Let's not do anything hasty that we might regret later. You can always start another family.


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## Pennywise (15/1/10)

a_quintal said:


> ah ok. mixture of coopers, tooheys new and CUB bottles. im actually foregoing having beer at redoak tonight to rush home and check the beer.




Go have you beer mate, just check em' when you get home. Obviously check the thinner ones first.


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## Pennywise (15/1/10)

bum said:


> Now, now. Let's not do anything hasty that we might regret later. You can always start another family.




:lol: What did you have for brekky today bum? **** your makin' me laugh today


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## a_quintal (15/1/10)

Homebrewer79 said:


> Go have you beer mate, just check em' when you get home. Obviously check the thinner ones first.



hahaha ok appreciate the quick responses guys tbh i was quite worried for a sec. guess ill be sipping on the new Belgian whit beer they just launched. really appreciate it guys


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## Pennywise (15/1/10)

kelbygreen said:


> I have done 2 batches so far (bout to bottle my 3rd) First one the ants got into the drops, I found this out just after I cleaned and sanitised 30 bottles and it was 6pm so no getting more  so I put a table spoon of white sugar in each and this was perfect carbonation. The second batch I got some fresh carb drops and the beer was way to over carbonated.
> 
> So for this beer I am not sure if I will go back to the drops or use sugar or some other fermentable. What do other people use?? also I hear people adjust the amount they put in from brew to brew as some beer carbonates more. How do you work out how much to add to get the right carbonation levels?



Personally I like to use sugar (if I bottle, which is rarely) with one of those measuring thing from th HB shop. I find (and alot of others do to) that the carb drops can be quite inconsistant in size


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## kelbygreen (15/1/10)

yeah I did read some where as well you can get sugar cubes might give them ago. every one of my bottles I used carb drops were over carbed, maybe I didnt leave it ferment out long enough as few weeks after I found out the dry enzyme you really need to be sure its fermented. Had 2 days same reading but still should left it lol you get to excited when its your first few times


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## a_quintal (18/1/10)

so i checked it and the beer came gushing out. opened all of them and let them finish going crazy, then re-capped. with see again whether the pressure builds up. think i dodged a bullet there


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## Pennywise (18/1/10)

Good stuff, well, not that they gushed, but that you got to it, preventing bombs. If you need to let more pressure out try and only just let the cap off the tinyiest bit, so there isn't a massive change in pressure all of a sudden, that should help with the gushing. Well it did for me the couple of times I had to do it.


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## manticle (18/1/10)

It's been mentioned but that dry enzyme can take things right, right down.

Good that you degassed. One other thing you can do if you are worried (and worry is warranted - broken glass can be nuts) is wrap every bottle tightly in glad wrap. Alternatively you can wrap the box they are in tightly in glad. You will need many layers but it just means any breakage is contained. Individual is more difficult but just means you can chill individual bottles without unwrapping and re-wrapping all the time.


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## QldKev (18/1/10)

hello


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## a_quintal (19/1/10)

never would have thought of the glad rap ideas. ill see how they go and if they keep playing up then ill use that.


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