Frequently Asked Questions For The New Brewer

[adraine]

This is a great resource guys well done.
I had all the basics but reading this stuff is just a great reassureance.

Cheers

 

[bozzy]

after reading through that i have a question (i searched the site but didnt find the answer)

to what extent do bottles explode? do they just blow the caps off or do they shatter the glass? im guessing they shatter the glass i just wanted a bit more of an idea

thanks in advance

bozzy

 

[Steve]

to what extent do bottles explode?

imagine looking up at the ceiling and walls (if they are stored inside) and see a 4 inch shard of glass half protruding out of it. Then imagine that that wall was your leg, arm, chest, head.! They are dangerous

 

[bozzy]

OH

thats far more than i would have thaught. i think ill be moving my freshly bottled brew out of the kitchen cupboard and into the outside laundry. just in case.

 

[Steve]

OH

thats far more than i would have thaught. i think ill be moving my freshly bottled brew out of the kitchen cupboard and into the outside laundry. just in case.

saying that - ive never had one go off. If you ferment it out properly and prime the bottles properly you'll be right.

 

[buttersd70]

imagine looking up at the ceiling and walls (if they are stored inside) and see a 4 inch shard of glass half protruding out of it. Then imagine that that wall was your leg, arm, chest, head.! They are dangerous

domonsura posted a photo once of bottle bomb damage (it wasn't his, he was storing it for someone else to take to a swap, iirc). Went off in his old workshop, and it literally was a 4 inch shard embedded in the wall...
Wish I could find the piccy, it was really cool.

Edit: as with steve, never a bomb, not one.

 

[Adamt]

 

[Steve]

domonsura posted a photo once of bottle bomb damage (it wasn't his, he was storing it for someone else to take to a swap, iirc). Went off in his old workshop, and it literally was a 4 inch shard embedded in the wall...
Wish I could find the piccy, it was really cool.

Edit: as with steve, never a bomb, not one.

....also as a side note a bloke on here years ago, trevc I think he was called from WA posted pics of a pet bottle he was storing yeast in in his fridge. It blew and almost took the door off. So plastic isnt safe either..
Cheers
Steve

 

[buttersd70]

lol, cheers adam..I remember now, it was in his coolroom. :huh:

 

[bozzy]

thats a hell of a glass shard.

quick question. i got overanxious and bottled my first brew at 1.010 FG as it was at that reading first thing that morning and that night (12 hours apart) having not read enough i was worried it would spoil if left for to long once fermentation had finnished (realise thats stupid now)

did i bottle too soon and am i at risk of exploding bottles. was a coopers mexican cervenza kit with brewers sugar, 1.042 initial gravity and bottled in stubbies with carbonation drops.

should i open one to see what happens?

 

[buttersd70]

thats a hell of a glass shard.

quick question. i got overanxious and bottled my first brew at 1.010 FG as it was at that reading first thing that morning and that night (12 hours apart) having not read enough i was worried it would spoil if left for to long once fermentation had finnished (realise thats stupid now)

did i bottle too soon and am i at risk of exploding bottles. was a coopers mexican cervenza kit with brewers sugar, 1.042 initial gravity and bottled in stubbies with carbonation drops.

should i open one to see what happens?

Chill one. When it's cold, open carefully....then pour. It should take about 2 weeks for it to be fully carbonated. If its only been in the bottles a few days adn it's really fizzy, you have a problem. If its been in the bottle over a fortnight, and its really heavily carbonated, you have a problem. If the carbonation is right, or if its under carbed (if its still fairly young), relax a bit.
If yours falls into one of those problem categories, open one warm, and see if it gushes.....if it doesn't, then open the lot, wait a couple of minutes, and reseal. If it cushes when warm, then chill the lot, then when cold, take them out of the fridge and open them....put new bottle caps on, but don't seal them, and leave for 1-2 hours. Then re-cap. If you need to recap the batch, check one again in about a week, and repeat if needed.

 

[Jakechan]

....also as a side note a bloke on here years ago, trevc I think he was called from WA posted pics of a pet bottle he was storing yeast in in his fridge. It blew and almost took the door off. So plastic isnt safe either..
Cheers
Steve

Im racing to the fridge right now!

 

[bozzy]

Chill one. When it's cold, open carefully....then pour.

is there any special reason to chill it first? like is it going to react less if its cold or something along those lines.

 

[buttersd70]

chill it so that you can check the carbonation....if poured warm, it will look a lot more carbonated than it actually is, and even a properly carbonated one will just go all fizzy. Pouring cold lets you look at the carbonation in a condition that you will be used to, to judge if it is overdone. Also, if its cold, and the carbonation is ok, you can just drink it instead of actually wasting it.

 

[bozzy]

thanks heaps for the help.

it was pretty flat (at a guess id say less than half a carbinated at it should be) didnt fizz up in the bottle at all. looked ok when poured into the glass but head quickly disappeared. think it should be quite drinkable in a week or to.

 

[buttersd70]

thanks heaps for the help.

it was pretty flat (at a guess id say less than half a carbinated at it should be) didnt fizz up in the bottle at all. looked ok when poured into the glass but head quickly disappeared. think it should be quite drinkable in a week or to.

If thats the case, it should be OK then. Nothing eases the concerns of bottle bombs more than having a flet tester.

 

[gorefeast]

Thankyou so much, this has set me on the path to beer abundance.

 

[faith]

this must sound like a stupid question, but how do you use the bottler contraption i cannot see how it fits into the tap and dont want to attempt to test it with 23ltres of brew to fly all over my kitchen floor, somebody please take pics and post thanks, Faith
:beerbang:

 

[clean brewer]

this must sound like a stupid question, but how do you use the bottler contraption i cannot see how it fits into the tap and dont want to attempt to test it with 23ltres of brew to fly all over my kitchen floor, somebody please take pics and post thanks, Faith
:beerbang:

Push the end of the bottler into the end of the tap, it should fit quite tightly, then put the bottler into the bottle and depress(the end of the bottler is spring loaded), let the bottle fill and then ease off and take the bottle out... Too easy..

 

[Bribie G]

Push the end of the bottler into the end of the tap, it should fit quite tightly, then put the bottler into the bottle and depress(the end of the bottler is spring loaded), let the bottle fill and then ease off and take the bottle out... Too easy..

Not necessarily. I bought a bottling 'stick' 'wand' 'cane' whatever from Woolies when I started, it's a Brigalow brand and the M*F*& thing does not fit inside a standard fermenter tap, it's too fat. I didn't bother taking it back but got a good one from the Local Home Brew Shop. Bloody Brigalow hey.

Is your problem that the stick won't fit up into the spout of the tap? If so then where did you get the stick from? If not from a LHBS then take it along to your local and do a side by side comparison and get a slightly thinner one.