Made bottle bombs, help! :/

[InterCooL]

Hi everyone,

I've made bottle bombs and I don't know how or what to do next. I made about 45 stubbies just over 2 weeks ago and I just discovered at least two have blown.

I did a dual batch of BIAB and fermented them simultaneously. One batch went down to a stable FG of 1006 over three days, the other down to 1010 for four days.

Then I cold crashed them to 2 degrees for two days and bottled them. I had never cold crashed before, I'm thinking this might have caused a problem as I bottled them when the beer was still approxiately 2 degrees celsius. Would the beer expanding to room summer temperature of 35 degrees (on some days) from an initial bottling temperature / density at 2 degrees celsuis be the most probable cause?

And I have no idea what I'm meant to do now... open them carefully (wearing PPE) and dump them? I'll be very upset if it comes to that. This was my first round of all grain

Thanks in advance

 

[mr_wibble]

Wearing appropriate protective gear, could you cool them right down, then pop their caps and re-do ?

 

[Yob]

Won't be the temp, doesn't seem to be terminal gravity, though they both should be equal if the same batch and same yeast.. This only leaves a couple of options, how much did you prime with? And what?

 

[brewermp]

Hey intercool how confident are you of your gravity readings? Cold crashing won't do it. I've done the same thing.

How are you priming?

 

[InterCooL]

I used coopers priming sugar tablets.

One batch was an APA and the other a wheat beer, so different FG was expected.

I'm pretty confident taking gravity readings, but now I'm doubting myself :/

 

[slcmorro]

How many drops per stubby?
Did you take into account the already dissolved CO2 within the cooled beer to begin with?

 

[yum beer]

Get the bottles as cold as possible, put them in a box/esky/container that is covered and prise off lids, you may be able to re cap after relieving the pressure.
Sounds like an issue if they are only 2 weeks old and already blowing, have you had this problem before, did you change your priming amount this batch.

Main problem is see rereading OP is only fermenting for 3 days before cold crashing, let your brew ferment longer, make sure it is finished, no way likely to be done in 3 or 4 days.
I always bottle at low temps, that's not a problem, unfinished ferment and too much extra sugar are problems.
Good luck to you, nothing scarier than popping bombs. PPE and keep others away till you pop them.

 

[Chris7]

Get the bottles as cold as possible, put them in a box/esky/container that is covered and prise off lids, you may be able to re cap after relieving the pressure.
Sounds like an issue if they are only 2 weeks old and already blowing, have you had this problem before, did you change your priming amount this batch.

Main problem is see rereading OP is only fermenting for 3 days before cold crashing, let your brew ferment longer, make sure it is finished, no way likely to be done in 3 or 4 days.
I always bottle at low temps, that's not a problem, unfinished ferment and too much extra sugar are problems.
Good luck to you, nothing scarier than popping bombs. PPE and keep others away till you pop them.

Unless I am misunderstanding what OP wrote, there is nothing there regarding ferm time. Just that one had a stable gravity over three days and the other over four days meaning consistent gravity readings over this time which one can then assume means fermentation has finished, he was not saying this is how long they fermented for. Will wait for OP to clarify though.

 

[wynnum1]

If only 2 have blown then they may be the ones that have extra sediment first or last from fermenter did you bulk prime.Bulk priming has the advantage that it mixes the beer .

 

[InterCooL]

Unless I am misunderstanding what OP wrote, there is nothing there regarding ferm time. Just that one had a stable gravity over three days and the other over four days meaning consistent gravity readings over this time which one can then assume means fermentation has finished, he was not saying this is how long they fermented for. Will wait for OP to clarify though.

Correct. These were fermented for 14 days and I only started cold crashing once I had stable FG readings over 3-4 days

 

[Mardoo]

Infection during bottling?

 

[InterCooL]

How many drops per stubby?
Did you take into account the already dissolved CO2 within the cooled beer to begin with?

1 drop per stubby, like usual. I don't know how to take into account cool CO2, could you please elaborate?

 

[InterCooL]

If only 2 have blown then they may be the ones that have extra sediment first or last from fermenter did you bulk prime.Bulk priming has the advantage that it mixes the beer .

I did try to get the most beer from the fermenter, ie I tipped it to get as much as I could. I could have easily picked up heavy sediments. Ihope this is the cause. If you are right, then not many more bottles will blow

 

[TheWiggman]

As slcmorro said, there's been conjecture here (and elsewhere) about the impact of priming cold conditioned beer as it will contain dissolved CO2 . From Brewersfriend:

"However, if the beer was cold crashed, or put through a diacetyl rest, or the temperature changed for some other reason... you will need to use your judgment to decide which temperature is most representative. During cold crashing, some of the CO2 in the head space will go back into the beer. If you cold crashed for a very long time this may represent a significant increase in dissolved CO2. There is a lot of online debate about this and the internet is thin on concrete answers backed by research. We are open to improving the calculator so please let us know of any sources that clarify this point"

I've sugar primed lagers from a CCed brew at ~1°C and didn't notice and extreme carbonation difference, certainly not enough for bottle bombs.
I'm leaning towards infection. Have you opened a different stubbie to see if the others are heavily primed?

 

[InterCooL]

I've opened 3.
2 were wheat beers, tasted very good, but had heaps of head
1 was the APA, it had no aroma and little flavor, a bit disappointing.

 

[paulyman]

My last two batches were cold crashed for a week, I usually only crash for 2-3 days. They were all bottled in 750mL bottles with 2 drops each and all are gushers. Same deal, fermented for 2 weeks, consistent gravity for 3 or 4 readings before extended CC. It's only a slight gushing, but it's a pain in the arse and requires very careful pouring to avoid just pouring head.

I have added single drops to my current IPA, it's only 6 days in the bottle, but already I prefer the level of carbonation it also has none of the harshness from the over carbed bottles. I'm moving over to pseudo bulk priming for the next batch.

 

[lobedogg]

Carb drops suck. I mean bottling does in general, but they are way too inaccurate.

Bulk prime or..... keg! Recently made the switch and it is honestly the best thing since sliced bread.

 

[InterCooL]

I've done 150 bottles so far with carb drops and haven't had a problem thus far, now I've had 2 blow practically overnight. I'm about to get out and check the rest now

Carb drops suck. I mean bottling does in general, but they are way too inaccurate.

Bulk prime or..... keg! Recently made the switch and it is honestly the best thing since sliced bread.

:\

 

[mofox1]

Hmm. I did a split batch of American Wheat recently, and the comments regarding the CC may explain a bit...

Same wort (cubed into two separate cubes), two FVs, two different yeasts (US-05 & MJ-44). Both attenuated about the same (MJ was 1pt higher), and both received the same amount of sugar per bottle.

While the MJ44 batch was perfect, the US-05 was *very* carbed and resulted in a couple of bottle bombs. I assumed it was some kind of infection either in the fermenter or cube (tasted okay, but really should have taken a SG reading from a bottle, oh well). Now I'm not sure as I'm sure I cold crashed one of them, but not the other.

Unfortunately, I'm in a period of forgetting to write any brew notes so I can't definitely say I CC'd the bottle bomb brew or the safe one.

 

[mofox1]

I've done 150 bottles so far with carb drops and haven't had a problem thus far, now I've had 2 blow practically overnight. I'm about to get out and check the rest now


:\

I only did the one batch with drops... I now just use white sugar in a bottling scoop thingy like this:

Then depending on whether it is a bigger or smaller bottle, or a stout vs a hefe, I adjust the scoop amount as needed. Bulk priming would be more accurate but I really can't be arsed transferring it to another fermenter/etc.

YMMV.