Homebrew Tragedy! [with Pics]

[seravitae]

...and this is why bottling in glass with natural carbing is baaaaaad. Not worth the risk. Glad everyone survived.

 

[manticle]

...and this is why bottling in glass with natural carbing is baaaaaad. Not worth the risk. Glad everyone survived.

No it's why bottling in glass with natural carbing improperly is bad.

I haven't had an exploding bottle for at least 2 years (coincides with me learning to finish my brews properly and bulk prime). Only ever had a couple then and it was due to hot weather + me not knowing what I was doing.

Let beer finish, stay patient and glass conditioning is fine

 

[warra48]

No it's why bottling in glass with natural carbing improperly is bad.

I haven't had an exploding bottle for at least 2 years (coincides with me learning to finish my brews properly and bulk prime). Only ever had a couple then and it was due to hot weather + me not knowing what I was doing.

Let beer finish, stay patient and glass conditioning is fine

I agree with Manticle.

I bottle all my brews in glass, haven't had a bottle blow on me since 1973 (yes, 1973).

Probably helps that my ales are all in the fermenter for at least 2 weeks, and up to 4 weeks, before bottling.
Plus, I tend to carbonate at the low end of the range, or even a little lower. I don't like high carbonation. Hefeweizens are the exception, and I reserve my stock of Coopers tallies for those exclusively.

 

[Acasta]

Yeah after this, i learned to leave fermentation longer, and it has improved on clarity of the brew, and death rate has decreased significantly.

Didn't realise about the image being too big, here it is again resized;

 

[rendo]

top post Acasta,

Thanks for sharing, its a good reminder how dangerous brewing can be (if you arent doing quite right, infections, bottled early, overcarbed, etc etc,dropping bottles...now thats an easy-ish mistake to make. Gotta keep the bottles outta reach from the kiddies)

glad to hear everyone is ok, sorta.

Yeah after this, i learned to leave fermentation longer, and it has improved on clarity of the brew, and death rate has decreased significantly.

Didn't realise about the image being too big, here it is again resized;

 

[Muggus]

Scary stuff. Glad to hear no one was seriously hurt.

From past experience of bottle bombs I know how destructive they can be, which is why I keep them to condition in a seperate dark room, in boxes, away from the rest of the house.
I'm still finding shards of glass in the boxes, ceiling and walls in there; good thing the explosion(s) were contained.

 

[Shed101]

Yeah definetly a bad combination. just wanted to get the story out there.

I'm afraid you need to edit the story and bump up the stitch conut a bit.

Two stitches? I get more than that cutting the grass (i'm not telling you how I cut the grass).

To really teach people a lesson stitches need to be double-figures - try 12?

 

[mje1980]

When i first start using liquid yeast, i used to bottle the first starter at peak activity, in glass. One night, after i'd bottled about 10 stubbies of fresh Irish ale yeast, i heard a serious bang. I went outside, and found the fridge blown open. i figured out what had happened, and put the rest in the bin. over the next 12 hours or so, they went off in the bin like grenades. The door of the fridge had glass shards embedded in the plastic. Scary. I now happily use PET, and when it comes to bottling, i always undercarb, regardless of glass or plastic, as i find even undercarbing by 1/3, the beer always carbs up anyway.


Lucky mate!

 

[ekul]

Hmmm, i'm moving the 12 stubbies that i didn't have enough room for in the shed outside right now. That looks nasty! Hope your mate is alright

 

[rendo]

Dead set, about 10mins after writing the below about dropping bottles, I went under the house to get some more brew to stock the fridge. I have NEVER dropped a bottle, but I did.....BANG...right on the top of the bottle...it didnt break...shat my pants, kept thinking shes about to blow. Got my beer and bolted... I'll check it out tmw. Think I might pop the top on that one and drop it in the bin. (will drink the beer if thirsty....for sure)

SHIT.....

top post Acasta,

Thanks for sharing, its a good reminder how dangerous brewing can be (if you arent doing quite right, infections, bottled early, overcarbed, etc etc,dropping bottles...now thats an easy-ish mistake to make. Gotta keep the bottles outta reach from the kiddies)

glad to hear everyone is ok, sorta.

 

[chappo1970]

Glad everyone is ok... and great post to demonstrate how dangerous bottle bombs really are to the experienced and noob brewers.

Imagine if this happened around your kids or someone else's kids for that matter? Just for a second? I would struggle to forgive myself I know that much.

This is exactly why glass has been banned from QLD case swaps. In the past year I have had two bottles go off (given to me by other brewers, truely ) and it wasn't pretty. Thankfully one exploded away from me while opening it and the other just exploded in the fridge and dinted a keg. There was a great photo here once where a bottle had exploded in BeerBelly's shop, a shard of glass was completely inbedded in the plasterboard. Be careful brewers.

+1 for making this a sticky Mods! This should serve as a vivid reminder to the danger of bottle bombs to the forum community, no?

 

[Acasta]

I'm still finding shards of glass in the boxes, ceiling and walls in there

Wow, it actually embedded into the walls and roof? Jeeze!

 

[Screwtop]

My last explosion was about 2006 while I was in the shed, glass and beer everywhere, took a lot of cleaning up small glass chards and washing everything that had been bathed in beer, PITA. Had used an old milk crate for bottle storage. Few weeks later again in the shed I heard a loud hiss and the unmistakable sound of beer pissing out under pressure. A PET bottle had cracked at the base (same batch of beer) and let go. However this bottle was stored in a plastic crate with a solid bottom and sides, you know, the stackable cubes. It contained the spilt beer in the bottom (easier cleanup) and would have provided much better protection from exploding glass than the open sided milk crate. Ever since I make a point of storing carbonating bottles in these crates and using the old milk crates for storing empty bottles.

Lucky boy, that injury could have been to the eye.

Cheers,

Screwy

 

[Acasta]

With all this talk of clean up it reminded me, the bottle was in a Esky being chilled in ice, when it exploded the whole thing shattered but only the top went like a rocket, the rest of the glass was trapped by the ice.
Also reminds me of ANOTHER story, ive only been doing this a short while, so im sure you master brews would have a story of 2. But one time using a hand capper i was banging down on the capped with a hammer and the bottle smased in my hand, and i was left holding the neck and capped while the rest of the bottle flew away haha. Needless so say, I now use a Bench Capped.

 

[Shed101]

i store my bottles with a blanket over the top of the open boxes ... ostensibly to keep the light out, but I suppose any explosions would be contained.

i undercarbonate if anything so hopefully I won't have any bombs h34r:

 

[Siborg]

for some reason I can't see the first pic... or the re-posted pic. Getting "403 Forbidden"

 

[Acasta]

I think it was removed from imageshack, maybe because of the gore nature?
Sorry.

 

[mxd]

I use Grolsh bottles, an I 'm pretty sure there would have been a couple of bottle bombs if I had been in thin bottles. It's certainly scary stuff.

 

[Fourstar]

Another reason wny im glad i use these!

Put it this way, if you can get one of these to blow up in your face. Well, you where probably asking for it!

 

[petesbrew]

The OP only showed one pic... was that the fatal injury? Lucky he survived

Got my bottle bomb stories here, so no need to retype em.
Yep, they go off with a ******* great bang hey? I keep em safely away in the garage.
I'm even sus about leaving them in an ice bucket at a party. I'd hate to be the one responsible for a lost eye or worse.
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...27782&st=20