Bottle Exploding After 3 Months

[Clemo]

Hi there, i was hoping someone could help me out here. Ive been brewing with kits for about 3 years now and never had a bottle exlode on me before. Yet, i go out to the garage and find that one of my bottles has exploded!

Heres the thing....

The beer in that bottle was Tooheys special draught made with 500 grams of raw sugar (not the best but ive got a taste for it).
It brewed at about 25c, and was bottled after 7 days. Fermentation was definatley complete.
I used raw sugar again for the priming sugar and used one of those plastic measurers to make sure the bottles werent over-primed.

Now, ive only heard that the only way bottles explode is if primary fermentation isnt complete, or bottles are over-primed. Does anyone have any ideas as to why this may have happened?

 

[Rodolphe01]

Infection introduced at bottling time can also cause bottles to explode, the infection can potentially consume residual carbohydrates that the yeast could not plus the priming sugar resulting in excessive carbonation.

 

[Bubba]

Hi there, i was hoping someone could help me out here. Ive been brewing with kits for about 3 years now and never had a bottle exlode on me before. Yet, i go out to the garage and find that one of my bottles has exploded!

Heres the thing....

The beer in that bottle was Tooheys special draught made with 500 grams of raw sugar (not the best but ive got a taste for it).
It brewed at about 25c, and was bottled after 7 days. Fermentation was definatley complete.
I used raw sugar again for the priming sugar and used one of those plastic measurers to make sure the bottles werent over-primed.

Now, ive only heard that the only way bottles explode is if primary fermentation isnt complete, or bottles are over-primed. Does anyone have any ideas as to why this may have happened?

What were your hydrometer readings and your final gravity?
Infection can cause bottle bombs, incomplete fermentation, weak bottles ot bottles that have been capped a lot using a hand capper, thin bottles, extreme and abrupt temperature changes...there are a lot that can cause it.
Let us know your SG and FG readings and that will help.

ps, you posted bottles exploded after 3 months...have you tasted any to rule out infection as well?

 

[Pennywise]

As above could be anything from a weak bottle to an infection. Have you checked any of the other bottles to see what their pressure is like? Obviously be very careful when doing that, like face/body protection.

 

[felten]

It could have been an infection.

I noticed on the weekend one of my bottles from a batch I put down a few months ago was bulging and the base was distorted (PET bottles), all the other bottles were fine but just the very last one I bottled had some sort of infection that caused it to be super carbonated. But that is probably due to me tipping the dregs of the bottling bucket straight in to the last bottle, because it wasn't enough to pour out of the tap.

anyway... check the other bottles from that batch to make sure they aren't over carbonated too, might want to chill them down first and handle them very carefully if you're using glass, safety gear and all that.

 

[The Giant]

I'm curious as to the benefit of priming with raw sugar as opposed to normal table sugar?

 

[felten]

http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/73...-raw-sugar.html

Benefit? shrug. I think there is little to no taste difference for the minuscule amount you are adding to the bottle

 

[Clemo]

Thanks guys. Ive already drank probably half of that batch and there werent any problems with it, so maybe it was a weak bottle. I appreciate all of your replies.

 

[Clemo]

I'm curious as to the benefit of priming with raw sugar as opposed to normal table sugar?

i doubt the taste would be any different, but the raw sugar is a hell of a lot cheaper

 

[drtomc]

It is entirely possible that the infection is due to bugs in the bottle, not bugs in your priming bucket, etc. That is, one bottle didn't quite get completely clean/sanitized. I've certainly had this happen.

T.

 

[keifer33]

Had 2 PET bottles let go for on the weekend and has left me with a nasty clean up session. They seem to bulge around the base then crack. Am moving all mine into plastic tubs just to make sure and save all the cleaning up again. Sticky sticky beer.

 

[drtomc]

Try glass. Sticky and sharp.

 

[warra48]

Apart from all the other possibilities mentioned above, I am also of the firm opinion that those "plastic measurers" overcarbonate the average brew.

I use several different measurers to prime my bottles, but I have cut them down to about to 1/3 rd capacity. My beers carbonate more than adequately using that.

Another thing I do is to weigh the sugar container before I prime my bottles, and again after I've primed the bottles, so I know exactly how much sugar I've used. I feed that into my BeerSmith recipe page to check it against the recommended carbonation range for the style I'm brewing.

 

[colonel]

I'd say it's just a weak bottle, with a fault.
I've had a couple over the years, and, when cleaning up the mess, have found pieces of glass only about 1mm thick!

As a side note, why are people using potentially poisonous plastic bottles, when there are millions of safe re-usable glass ones out there that do not leach chemicals into your beer?

I realise I could be opening a can of worms here, but why would you make beautiful, chemical free beer, and put it in something more toxic than a home-brew fart?

Anyway, bring on the replies, it's a great forum for getting some strident opinions.

P.S. welcome to brewing, Clemo, It's a great hobby, and places like this would have been handy 17 years ago!

 

[felten]

....

You know you are opening a can of worms because that's what happens when you make a completely ridiculous statement

 

[manticle]

Not that ridiculous. I generally bottle in glass and am quite healthy and slim. However over the weekend I drank a fellow homebrewer's bottle which was bottled in a coopers PET.

This morning I woke up feeling quite good but later today while riding my bike home, I felt like I needed to drink some water. This doesn't often happen to me and I wonder if there might be a connection.

 

[felten]

Whatever you do, don't drink from a tap because the water might have passed through the dreaded plastic pipes!

 

[manticle]

All the hairs on my right leg are facing west too.

I mean all of them. I'm a little disconcerted.

 

[Clemo]

It is entirely possible that the infection is due to bugs in the bottle, not bugs in your priming bucket, etc. That is, one bottle didn't quite get completely clean/sanitized. I've certainly had this happen.

T.

I try to keep the bottles as clean as possible, but I may have included an unclean one by mistake when bottling

I use several different measurers to prime my bottles, but I have cut them down to about to 1/3 rd capacity. My beers carbonate more than adequately using that.

Another thing I do is to weigh the sugar container before I prime my bottles, and again after I've primed the bottles, so I know exactly how much sugar I've used. I feed that into my BeerSmith recipe page to check it against the recommended carbonation range for the style I'm brewing.

Great idea. i might start trying this

P.S. welcome to brewing, Clemo, It's a great hobby, and places like this would have been handy 17 years ago!

Ive actually been brewing for a few years now, but thanks for the welcome. After a few years, youd think id steer clear of the tooheys draught haha

 

[mwd]

Ive actually been brewing for a few years now, but thanks for the welcome. After a few years, youd think id steer clear of the tooheys draught haha

Yes you should didn't you know Tooheys are going on strike and make bottles explode.

Time to try the LCPA clone.