Bottle bomb stories anyone?

[beernography]

I've had bottle bombs from an infected batch... only 2 out of the loat and wasn't here to witness it at the time so I'm not as afraid of it as my mum is B)

Like I've said before I keep my beer in the 'beer tower' of newspaper lined milkcrates (the last bombs didnt penetrate the paper) and every couple of days give it a rattle hoping any bottles about to explode will do it then instead of when I go to drink it.

 

[0M39A]

I've had bottle bombs from an infected batch... only 2 out of the loat and wasn't here to witness it at the time so I'm not as afraid of it as my mum is B)

Like I've said before I keep my beer in the 'beer tower' of newspaper lined milkcrates (the last bombs didnt penetrate the paper) and every couple of days give it a rattle hoping any bottles about to explode will do it then instead of when I go to drink it.

wouldnt shaking them up every couple of days make your beer cloudy as hell, as its never had any time to be left alone and settle?

 

[newguy]

A couple of years ago I rushed a doppelbock and bottled too early. Some time later they started to blow. I had them on the concrete floor of our furnace room in the basement. The beer managed to get under the wall and soak the carpet in the next room. When dark brown doppelbock meets off-white carpet, the result isn't pretty.

 

[antains]

YAY! I've made bottle bombs. Sh*t! Duck!

This morning, amidst all the noise of the construction next door, I heard a boom and a smash all too close to the house.
I realised it must be the stout that I bottled recently. I went into the cellar and sure enough one of the buggers had burst.
Luckily, this batch (all in glass bottles) is stacked into sections of concrete pipe - one bottle per section - so no other bottles went off. Although this one was pointed right at the bottle of Moet and the bottle of Chandon on the wine rack nearby. Good reminder that I needed to grab one to celebrate becoming parents. (Yeah, I don't think I've mentioned that enough here. :lol: )
I'm putting it down to one of two possibilites which both lead to the possibility of more losses.
1. rumblings from the construction site
2. the amount of sugar I put in the bulk secondary was 5 or 10 grams more than I should've (the yeast had stabilised, so I don't think it was that).

Oh well, gotta do these things at least once, I suppose, but it makes me want to go grab a few more PET bottles so I can save this stout, coz it really was nice on the first sampling.

 

[brendo]

Ant - I haven't had bottle bombs myself - but I have read plenty of posts on here with regard to it. I believe you would probably be best to 'vent' the bottles by uncapping them and then recapping them with new seals - might save a few bottles of your labour inducing stout.

Cheers,

brendo

PS - on second thoughts, maybe those bottles are just trying to give birth.

 

[petesbrew]

YAY! I've made bottle bombs. Sh*t! Duck!

This morning, amidst all the noise of the construction next door, I heard a boom and a smash all too close to the house.
I realised it must be the stout that I bottled recently. I went into the cellar and sure enough one of the buggers had burst.
Luckily, this batch (all in glass bottles) is stacked into sections of concrete pipe - one bottle per section - so no other bottles went off. Although this one was pointed right at the bottle of Moet and the bottle of Chandon on the wine rack nearby. Good reminder that I needed to grab one to celebrate becoming parents. (Yeah, I don't think I've mentioned that enough here. :lol: )
I'm putting it down to one of two possibilites which both lead to the possibility of more losses.
1. rumblings from the construction site
2. the amount of sugar I put in the bulk secondary was 5 or 10 grams more than I should've (the yeast had stabilised, so I don't think it was that).

Oh well, gotta do these things at least once, I suppose, but it makes me want to go grab a few more PET bottles so I can save this stout, coz it really was nice on the first sampling.

Dude, wear bomb disposal gear, or at least some eye protection while you do this.
Murphy's law

 

[antains]

PS - on second thoughts, maybe those bottles are just trying to give birth.

Well, it is the Labour Inducing Stout.

Dude, wear bomb disposal gear, or at least some eye protection while you do this.
Murphy's law

Thanks, Pete. I intend to, but it's good to get the reminder.

 

[raven19]

Bottle Bombs - none from too much racking sugar fortunately.

However I lost a number of beers in flip top grolsch bottles as they were conditioning in the garden shed out the back. Add a hot spell of 15 odd days of over 35 degrees, and well when I went to see how they were going, there were maybe 3 left out of 10, remaining ones had blown out the bottom or sides.

Also had a couple go off back in my early brewing days using old bottles that we soaked and scrubbed and obviously didnt get quite clean enough.

Bring on the kegging system one day soon... then it will only be an odd 6 pack here or there... rest in kegs.

 

[Effect]

I have only had one bottle bomb in my whole life.

I bought about 80 grolsch bottles from someone off this forum, I was lucky enough to get about 8 of them full of beer.

I was doing my first brew day and had them all sitting out on the table. Rustyc was helping me out doing the brew as it was my first AG...I'm outside bout ready to do a hop addition when my girlfriend, another mate and Rustyc tell me that there was an explosion in the kitchen. I see beer all over the walls and floor and one broken grolsch bottle. My immediate thoughts were that one fell off the table...but the bottle wasn't shattered just cracked and it was still on the bench with all the other glass...and no-one was actually in the kitchen to drop it or something on it...funny thing was all of the beer in the bottles were well over a year old...maybe the beer got a bit warm being in the kitchen and kick started one of them...

hmmm...only got 79 bottle now

 

[~MikE]

i made a sparkling mead, was quite awesome ****, but alas was bottled too early. managed to drink most of them before they became fizzers. a couple exploded, so i poped the last 4-5 just to be safe. was covered in mead when one of the tops failed to pop off nicely and it spurted back all over me

 

[warrenlw63]

Brett infected Saison. This one actually blew up a champagne bottle (made a nice noise too). Did the right thing and tossed the rest of the batch out.

Warren -

 

[petesbrew]

Okay, after reading this, I'm going home to move my 2 Murrays Wild Thing RIS's away from the Homebrew.

So far I've had 1 stubby explode, luckily it didn't take any others.
A framboise I did 2 years ago painted a friends ceiling pink on opening.

Ive had to diffuse a couple of overprimed tallies, but that's it... so far...

 

[Airgead]

My only ever bomb (kind of a bomb... no exploding glass) was a mead. It was 5 years old (so safe enough you would think) and there was 1 bottle left on the wine rack. Its Christmas day. The whole family sitting there when we hear a bang. A cork whizzes across the room. The brother in law clutches his ear and turns round to see who has hit him. Sees the now uncorked bottle gushing into the floor and heroically lunges across the room, clamps his lips around the neck and drains the lot.

Cheers
Dave

 

[warra48]

Last one was in 1973, yup 1973.
That was just after the Whitlam government removed the excise from homebrewing. Made the usual mistake of thinking that more sugar equalled more alcohol. What it really equalled was less beer from the exploding bottles.
Haven't had one since.

 

[achy02]

I have had split PET bottles before but no bombs yet.(or ever hopefully) Reading this it makes me wonder how the hell everyone has escaped serious injury??? I guess anyone who has been a victim of an exploding tallie might have given the game away (or been forced into early retirement). That pic of the glass shrapnel in the wall is going to give me nightmares......

 

[antains]

I have had split PET bottles before...

Argh! That was going to be my salvation. Hmmm. Re-capping maybe in order.

 

[Sully]

funny story actually...

my missus and I had been seeing each other for about 2 years and still had our own places. she was married previously to a "Caring Understanding Nice Type" - if you follow my euphonism, who still dished out idol threats etc after all that time had passed, but I wont go into that. we still affectionately call him "*******" to this day after 14 years.

Anyway, I had not been brewing long and kept it over my place stored in the bedroom cupboard. This one particular night I was staying at my place for a change and had this vivid dream, one of those that is like you are actually living it. We ran into "*******" down the street and he was going off on his usual rants at us from across the road. He then confronted us and we turned around to walk away from him and there was a BANG BANG BANG that sounded like a shotgun going off. Thats when i woke up. I was lying there frozen **** scared in pitch black and for a split second there thought I had actually been shot and dead and was in the after life. As I came to my wits and realised it was only a dream, I heard a "drip drip drip" coming from the cupboard. When my body finally got out of the frozen shock, I got up to check it out and low and behold - bottle bombs. I was freaked out not only cause of the dream, but the actual timing of what had happened co-inciding with the events of the dream.

to this day I still remember the dream and circumstances quite vividly and have a chuckle about it.

Cheers

Sully

 

[chimera]

Must have been the weather last week.. couple of low 30s in a row really shakes out the bottle bombs!
I made a batch about this time last year, some dry lager clone, not that great. I can't imagine i bottled too early as i'm consistently slack about these things, more likely it's a gusher infection as every bottle has been overcarbed as hell.

Had one go off the other week, made the garage smell like beer for a day or so. Now I've got to dispose of the other dozen left from that batch. Good beer or bad beer, I still hate tipping it down the sink.

 

[staggalee]

Didn`t I see somewhere that dry/low carb beers are more at risk for bombs with hb?

stagga.

carbohydrate, not carbonated.

 

[Simon W]

....
I was freaked out not only cause of the dream, but the actual timing of what had happened co-inciding with the events of the dream.

OT....
Probably not as coincidental as you think, I have wierd dreams all the time when noises have been incorporated into the dream.
Sleeping during the day gives me the wierdest dreams because of all the normal day noises (tv, radio, traffic, mowers, people talking etc.)
The first time I ever noticed this was as a young kid, maybe 8 or 9, I dreamt that my neighbour was being attacked and she was screaming loudly, I woke up freaking out, heart pumping like mad, eventually worked out that the screaming sound was a car doing a burn-out up the street in front of our house.