Bottle bomb stories anyone?

[davester]

Does anyone have a good story about exploding bottle/s ??

We might get a laugh and learn something.

I have heard stories but no real first hand information.

The only exploding bottle I have ever had was an already cracked bottle (I think), it broke cleanly into 3 pieces. I have never had a problem before and now thouroughly check my bottles for cracks before bottling.

The only drama I had was the cracked bottle was on the "top floor" of my 6 storey brewing cupboard and 750mls of half carbonated beer dribbled thru the rest of my stock...doh... cleaning time.

Other than that, all OK.

What is your story??

 

[kook]

I've had two bottles go off now. They were both thin-walled screwtop bottles (tooheys old). I think that I may have overfilled them and not left enough headspace. They both blew pretty good, shot through a cardboard box and left shards of glass all over my brew room

It was a honey brew too, so I suspect that bottling straight after primary (not using secondary) may have resulted in some of the honey breaking down a lot slower. I've had a few bottles from the brew and theyre a bit overcarbonated, but ohwell.

This all occured on two days where it was over 35 degrees.

 

[Vindaloo]

I've had no exploders so far (touch wood).

Maybe that's the wonder of PET

Vinds.

 

[Indy]

hahaha i've had a great one!

on my second brew i made up for my lack of sugar in the bottles of the first..... (about twice as much dextrose!) :wacko:

after about one week in bottles before any bottles exploded i was going to drink one, just to see how they were coming along, pulled it carfully out of the fridge and got my schooner glass ready to fill....

as i opened the bottle i had nooooo idea, that cap could have taken out my eye, omfg! BANG; cut a strip across my cheek as it flew toward the ceiling, through the fluro light & its' cover, shattering & raining all over me & the floor, woah! :blink:

the next day i took one to N-curlie head fishing & opened one there.... lol, everone jumped, thought i had a gun or something, & the lid never came down, i think it's still in orbit...

anyway the next day when i went to open all the other bottles 5-6 had already gone, chain reaction
glass was everywhere, in the walls & the ceiling & all over the floor...

cheers :chug:

 

[RegBadgery]

Well almost going blind sounds pretty crook, Indy - but imagine if you'd had an open fermenter underneath the shattering fluro light - could have ended up losing a brew ;-)

cheers
reg

 

[PostModern]

I've had a few fountains in my early days of brewing. Thought that a little extra sugar in the bottles would make for a stronger beer. :blink: I ended up opening the whole batch, losing half down the driveway and rebottling. What little survived ended up tasting pretty damn nice as I recall. (Coopers Lager ca. 1989).

The bomb story I have is from a mate's grandfather who lives on the South Coast of NSW. He had about 200 bottles of beer of various ages in his "cellar" which was just a lattice covered void under his house. The side that was most accessable (highest) is the Western side. Anyway, one hot Summer's day, one of the bottles went off and set off a chain reaction. He lost nearly all of his collection. He gave up brewing shortly afterwards

 

[Snow]

Oh man that's tragic.

My experience was in Townsville. Grade 11, many many moons ago, me and a few mates tried our hand at our first kit brew. We bottled the beer the day the airlock stopped bubbling, put 2 teaspoons of sugar in each bottle (we thought it would make it more alcoholic) and then proceeded to store all the bottles in my mate's back shed. Well, all this, combined with 35oC+ temps caused the whole lot to blow in one night on day two. The police were called and the stench was present for about 9 months. We were still finding glass in his camping gear 5 years later!

 

[kook]

I've had no exploders so far (touch wood).

Maybe that's the wonder of PET

Vinds.

Well, I had an explosion this morning. Around 4.30am, woke up one of my housemates. A 2 litre coke bottle decided it didnt want to hold ale anymore

The bottom broke out of it, and it obviously shot up, and hit the roof. Result: 2 litres of ale over the walls, and roof <_<

I just spent about 1/2 hr with the mop washing the walls/roof with bleach. Looks like it was just a dodgy bottle though, cause the others arent expanding or anything.

I'm gonna name that beer rocket ale

 

[RegBadgery]

One way to lessen the worst effects of bottle bombs may be to place freshly bottled brew in an enclosed environment until fully carbonated (time probably varies in Winter and Summer). I imagine that once carbonated there's far less chance of an explosion. (???) At that point, the carbonated batch could safely be moved to an open area (or cold conditioning) and a newly bottled batch moved to the enclosed area.

cheers
reg

 

[kook]

One way to lessen the worst effects of bottle bombs may be to place freshly bottled brew in an enclosed environment until fully carbonated (time probably varies in Winter and Summer). I imagine that once carbonated there's far less chance of an explosion. (???) At that point, the carbonated batch could safely be moved to an open area (or cold conditioning) and a newly bottled batch moved to the enclosed area.

cheers
reg

It seems not, as the last two bottles I had go were a brew I bottled on 19/9/2002. Those went about 2 weeks ago? 3 ? on two very hot summer days.

Weird thing is last nite was quite cold, I think it must of just been a faulty PET bottle.

 

[Vindaloo]

kook : Heh. I'll have to stop by one day now that I'm living in a sensible location (Nedlands). Am keen to see (and taste ) your setup!

My Blonde was racked on Thursday - and is smelling up the house. I'll likely bottle it this week.

V.

 

[PMyers]

I was told a while back by a friend whom I consider to be a (reasonable) authority on brewing, that the complex sugars in maltodextron start to break down after about eight months, thus converting to simple (ie. fermentable) sugars. This can often result in a restarted fermentation.

Could be the reason why my twelve month old scotch ale seems to be quite a bit more volcanic than it was six months ago.

Something to watch out for.

Cheers,
Pete

:chug:

 

[kook]

Well, I had an explosion this morning. Around 4.30am, woke up one of my housemates. A 2 litre coke bottle decided it didnt want to hold ale anymore

The bottom broke out of it, and it obviously shot up, and hit the roof. Result: 2 litres of ale over the walls, and roof <_<

I just spent about 1/2 hr with the mop washing the walls/roof with bleach. Looks like it was just a dodgy bottle though, cause the others arent expanding or anything.

I'm gonna name that beer rocket ale

Heres a pic showing the results of my rocket ale

http://members.iinet.net.au/~wobsmum1/000_0176.JPG

Yes, that is a ceiling. I had to mop it with bleach :angry:

 

[PostModern]

kook, that's tragic!

 

[Vindaloo]

Hahahaha! Bugggggger!

V.

 

[kook]

Well..

BOOM!

Happened about 15 minutes ago.

800ml bottle (ex-VB) of ESB APA. I think it must of been a faulty bottle, as I primed the 800ml bottles asif they were 750ml. Bah. Weird thing is I bottled that on the 2nd of feb. Months ago. You'd think the bottle would of exploded earlier on ?? I opened another nearby bottle of the same batch and it was fine. Slight hiss opening it, medium carbonation.

 

[Shed]

It's not fun cleaning up after one of these explosions.. glass everywhere. :angry:

This happened to me once. Just one bottle out of 30 exploded, the only explanation I had for it was that I may have double primed one bottle by accident (I now bulk prime) or it could have been an infection in one bottle?

 

[Jye]

Well it finally happened to me a month old hefe in a warm linen cupboard... the pics speak for them self

Luckily he didnt take out any of his mates and the mess was pretty small.

 

[mark.farrell1]

My first brew 5 months ago, two bottles went kaboom in my garage and sprayed beer and glass all over both our 4WDs and everythings else that was in the garage. I fixed this problem by going straight down the HBS and purchasing a keg system. Never looked back. To this day I am still finding a slither of glass here and there and sometimes in my foot... :angry:

Mark

 

[domonsura]

mmmmmmmmm..glass schrapnel..........