Homebrew Tragedy! [with Pics]

[Acasta]

Looks bad right?

Well The other night me and some buddies were at a Party with some good ol' Home Brew in the Esky. One of the worst batches we'd ever made, it was an English Bitter that may have been sligtly infected, anyway.
We were sitting down and talking doing normal things, all of a sudden! BOOM! Massive explosion, glass shards everywhere! The largest and sharpest piece flew up and accross the room, over 3 people on the couch, once we all came to out sences my Friend (and fellow brewer) had been near fataly wounded in the explosion! [This is the image your seeing above] Anyway, he went to the hospital and waited around for 3 hours and ended up with 2 stiches.

All in all, it could have been way worse, he and everyone around are lucky that it was just a flesh wound to the hand.

Anyway, more pics;






Yes i understand why the bottles exploded and noone at fault but myself and fellow brewer included.

 

[501]

fark!

how over carbed was the batch on average.

Lucky no one lost an eye etc.

 

[Dazza88]

That is crazy.

 

[Acasta]

Im not too sure to be honest, i would say bottled a day too early? And only 8g/L of table sugar.
Its becase in the esky of ice, the bottle srinks and the gas expands. Leading to bang.

 

[Pennywise]

A big lesson learned I would assume? Glad no one was seriously hurt.

 

[manticle]

Someone should sticky this thread so the next person who asks "brew at 1020 for 3 days - should I bottle anyway?" can be directed to it.

 

[brando]

I'd say it was either bottled several days too early, or was more than slightly infected.

 

[Acasta]

Yes i understand why the bottles exploded and noone at fault but myself and fellow brewer included.

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

 

[mxd]

now this is the reason you need kegs and party kegs

 

[manticle]

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

Good on you for posting it. It's a good lesson for many brewers and takes a bit of guts to post something that potentially makes you look or feel stupid.

 

[501]

love the kegs,

bottled for years though with only 2 dangerously over carbed batches...
they were both dry enzyme noob kit experiments.

wouldn't mind some more details on the brew - processes etc,
just out of interest.

 

[Acasta]

Yeah, moving away from Kits and such now. Not kegging just yet. Only been doing this 4-5 Months.

 

[Greg Lawrence]

What type of bottles were they?

 

[Acasta]

I usually use alot of different ones, but the one in question came from a White Rabbit. Im pretty sure those bottles are thin, but i doubt the main cause of the explosion.

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

Very unlucky! i have a similair story. a few months back i had come home from work and put a few tallies of HB in the freezer, long story short - dropped one of the tallies and a shard of glass shot up and hit me about 1/2 an inch from right eye! have a corker of a scar, people dont believe me when i tell the story.

 

[Acasta]

Jeeze! its amazing how if things were just a little different, our stories could have turned out way worse!

 

[jyo]

Mate, that is very lucky!

 

[Noxious]

Im not too sure to be honest, i would say bottled a day too early? And only 8g/L of table sugar.
Its becase in the esky of ice, the bottle srinks and the gas expands. Leading to bang.

Don't mean to add insult to injury but please explain how the carbon dioxide (gas) expands under cooler conditions?
In almost all cases, gases increase their density at lower temperatures, (excepting supercritical fluids - as I doubt the bottle would reach the temperature & pressure needed to reach the critical point of CO2), and as the volume occupied is constant, the gas would usually expand if the temperature is increased.
I would be more inclined to believe your first two possibilities - un-finished fermentation and/or too much priming sugar in a thin bottle.

 

[Nick JD]

PET bottles FTW.

 

[Acasta]

Don't mean to add insult to injury but please explain how the carbon dioxide (gas) expands under cooler conditions?
In almost all cases, gases increase their density at lower temperatures, (excepting supercritical fluids - as I doubt the bottle would reach the temperature & pressure needed to reach the critical point of CO2), and as the volume occupied is constant, the gas would usually expand if the temperature is increased.
I would be more inclined to believe your first two possibilities - un-finished fermentation and/or too much priming sugar in a thin bottle.

Well look at you, arn't you the big boy! haha, My mistake.