Have I made bottle bombs?

[robfromdublin]

So last night I bottled 23 litres worth of a ginger beer and bulk primed with 300g of caster sugar to give it plenty of carbonation. I thought I had enough PET bottles but I ran out so had to use a few coopers stubbies.

Is that level of priming sugar likely to cause issues? As they are twisties, is it more likely that the cap will pop than the stubbie break? I don't mind losing a few litres but I'm not so keen on broken glass.

 

[TehCrucible]

I'm no expert but a quick and dirty calculation says 300g of sugar equals 4 vols of CO2 which means yes, you're pushing the limits of a glass bottle. Not sure what to do about that to save it though. Maybe someone else can chime in here?

 

[robfromdublin]

Yeah it's a little over that by my calcs (4.1 including max temp of brew). I only bottled yesterday so I could grab a few more PET's and dump the glass bottled beer in there. Or just keep them cold when they've reached an acceptable level of carbonation.

I guess I'm just trying to figure out if this is an issue or not. My brief googling on bottle bombs suggests that they are quite like bombs and I can expect glass flying everywhere. They are contained in a crate but I shudder to think what might happen if someone picked one up and it blew.

 

[S.E]

[SIZE=11pt]If it’s just a few stubbies I would try opening them to release pressure then re cap them.[/SIZE]

 

[Rod]

In my opinion

180 g in 23 litres is an absolute max

i have done 180g in 25 litres of beer and had a small number of bombs

and a few pressure reliefs using grolsh bottles

no more than 160 g

 

[S.E]

and a few pressure reliefs using grolsh bottles

[SIZE=11pt]That’s what I was thinking with the re capping suggestion. [/SIZE]

 

[MartinOC]

Drink 'em quick/soon.

Learn from the experience & don't do it again.

 

[S.E]

Drink 'em quick/soon.

Learn from the experience & don't do it again.

Ah yes, the obvious solution.

 

[yum beer]

Get em out of glass if you can, at least the pet will just split and spray shit everywhere.
An angry injured SWMBO is better than one in hospital.

 

[MaltyHops]

Assuming there are no oxidation issues with ginger beer, what about pouring all the problem bottles back into a fermenter for a second go?

 

[robfromdublin]

Thanks all.

I'm pretty sure the coopers carbonation drops equate to about 200g for a 23 litre batch. I don't use them myself but it shows that the max is more than this. They've had 4 days in the bottle now so if I recap tonight then that should still give decent carbonation without risk of death or injury. Hopefully...

I'll report back on results