Bottle Bombs

[hazz20]

Hey all, had a bottle explode the other day after brewing out to about 1004 from 1040, k and k lager, saflager s-23. Thing is it had been conditioning for about 2 months, then in the fridge for 3 months before I took it out as we were moving the fridge. Within a few hours it had exploded all over the place. I can only assume it was because it went from a cold fridge to a warm garage. Any ideas? I've put them back in the fridge so I'm hoping no more go off.


Hazz

 

[flattop]

Glass has a natural shelf life as well as the brewing influences, you could have been unlucky and the temp differences would have made it worse..

 

[raven19]

A rise in temperature would result in some of the CO2 in solution being pushed into the air gap in your bottle. If it was highly carbed before the temp increase, the increase could've been enough to push it over the edge to blow up.
I would hope placing back in fridge will calm them down.
It may have just been a dud bottle too.... or a bit of gunk in that bottle caused the issue...
Have you tried opening one bottle when cold and one when warm to see the difference in gas build up?
My 2c.

 

[Fermented]

I would hazard a guess at a dud bottle; either manufacturing defect or other non-visible stress in the glass or a thin spot.

If all of the bottles were treated the same and only one went pop, then it's reasonable to assume there was an anomaly only in one.

Cheers - Fermented.

 

[EK]

If all of the bottles were treated the same and only one went pop, then it's reasonable to assume there was an anomaly only in one.

Or possibly that one bottle was overcarbonated?

hazz: How did you carbonate? Sugar, dex or some other powdered/granulated means? Did you use carbonation drops?

:icon_cheers:
EK

 

[hazz20]

Have you tried opening one bottle when cold and one when warm to see the difference in gas build up?
My 2c.

Haven't tried but shall do.

Used coopers carbo drops, actually had another one pop 12 hours later too, but that's only two out of almost 60.

Hazz

 

[EK]

Haven't tried but shall do.

Used coopers carbo drops, actually had another one pop 12 hours later too, but that's only two out of almost 60.

Hazz

Unless you added more than one drop per 330/375ml or two per 700ml then that shouldn't be the source of the problem.

At 1004 that shouldn't be the problem either.

The only thing that I could think of as possible some sort of bacterial infection-like thing.

:icon_cheers:
EK

 

[flattop]

Unless your hydrometer is dodgy.... it should have fermented out.
No chance the yeast cake got swirled up and a couple of bottles copped too much sludge?
2 bottles blown rules out glass defect and points to too much carb or yeast or infection i suppose.

 

[Jase71]

So as a rule, if a bottle bomb is going to be witnessed, how long after bottling can it be considered safe, and unlikely to any longer be a threat ? I ask this because my laundry is rapidly filling up with crates, and I would like to move some of the batches after perhaps 2 months from bottling - into a carpeted spare bedroom. I would be very f**ing pissed off if even a single bottle spewed forth its beery goodness in there, that's for sure.

 

[Fermented]

Jase71: Maybe you could just put some pallet wrap / glad wrap around them until it's drinking time? It would hold in the spills if it happens.

The way I got around it was to get those giant plastic storage boxes with lids and wheels. First full glass bottling made me mega-paranoid as it was the time of the thread with all the shards of glass in the wall, ceiling, etc. Each box holds about 35 x 330 ml (Squire style bottles), will keep the mess in if I get a bomb and the rather thick polypropylene they're made from has reasonable ballistic resistance so increases the safety factor a little. There are bigger ones for longies, but I'm short on space. Just my $0.02.

Cheers - Fermented.

 

[petesbrew]

Just witnessed a bottle bomb going off.
I was in the garage, cleaning up, and thought, I'll sort out my beer cupboard. Rearranged everything and grouped them all together per batch.
An hour later, I've just finished adding a new temperature gauge to my mash tun, and thought, I'll throw one of my dubbels in the fridge. Pulled one out of the cupboard, then went about rearranging my stacked bar fridge to fit it in.

30 seconds later.... BOOM!!!
I swear for one bottle. it sounded horrible - like a full crate of beer falling off a shelf and the sound of a wave of belgian dubbel washing all over the shelf, settling into foam.
30 seconds earlier, I would've copped that blast in my face. Thankyou, God.
Spent the next hour transferring the remainder of the batch into the esky and sealing the top

Will open the remainder carefully.

Here's some piccies of the carnage (from the bottom shelf).

 

[komodo]

Ouch. Thats a little close for comfort. Its threads like these that reminde me why I dont bottle

 

[rackemup]

Faaark, thats heavy doc...
good to hear you were not injured

 

[petesbrew]

Thought I'd bump this post again for the morning crew of last night's explosion.
Two thoughts of why it blew up.
1. Had a couple of gushers - most likely cause. I'll blame my lazy bottle washing method.
2. Old bottles don't like being moved around and rearranged? Maybe putting them down a bit hard.

 

[Jonez]

I had two bombs on the weekend. Found the two broken bottles among the others. Bottom came off in one of them. The other broke the body of the bottle. I have never witnessed any but all the explosions I have had ( 3 in total in over a year) seem to be mild. Not a lot of glass scattered, not chain reaction. I even think I was home when it happened (judging by the freshness of the beer spilt) but did not hear the explosion.

 

[barneyb]

Eep, this thread is a worry seeing as I'm bulk priming for the first time this weekend - hope I do it right!

Doubly concerning seeing as I store my beer bottles in the garage, looks like Ill have to put some shielding in those milk crates.

 

[petesbrew]

Eep, this thread is a worry seeing as I'm bulk priming for the first time this weekend - hope I do it right!

Doubly concerning seeing as I store my beer bottles in the garage, looks like Ill have to put some shielding in those milk crates.

I usually put an old drop sheet on top. Anything to save a blast.

 

[Rod]

Eep, this thread is a worry seeing as I'm bulk priming for the first time this weekend - hope I do it right!

Doubly concerning seeing as I store my beer bottles in the garage, looks like Ill have to put some shielding in those milk crates.

Bulk priming is the way to go

minimizes the chance of bottle bombs due to varying priming sugar additions


Remember to be careful how much sugar you add

recommended additions

Final SG

1006-1008 180 grams sugar
1008-1010 160 grams sugar
1010-1014 140 grams sugar
1014-1018 120 grams sugar
1019-1025 100 grams sugar

Sometimes you may get bottle bombs with freshly bottled brew when the
temperatures are like they were this week around 40C in the garage.
They can carbonate quicker

 

[bum]

Jeez. Tread carefully with the rest, Pete. Good luck.

 

[HoppingMad]

Had one go boom 3 weeks ago.

Coincided with a sudden rise in temperature in Melbourne on a really hot day so will agree with Raven's early assessment on post 3. Would agree that this happened with me and that sudden heat was a cause.

Another factor with my explosion was that the bottle was a VB twist top long neck that had seen some reuse.
Don't seem to have these issues with the heavier glass like Coopers Tallies. I guess bottles that come from bottle conditioned beers - like coopers, belgians and the like tend to be packed in thicker glass and able to cope with a bit more pressure. I guess CUB and the like put the words 'Not for refill' on the side for a reason. Not that that's going to stop me!

Something to consider.

Hopper.