My Bottle Exploded

[mishabella]

Hi All,

One of my bottles exploded, is it because of the heat? I bottled these on 29th Nov, if they were going to explode shouldn't of happened back then?
The bottle that did explode, is a bottle that I had in the fridge then took it out to age some more, I opened the three other bottles that were in fridge a while ago too, and they fizzed all over the place, so I opened one of the bottles that have never been in the fridge, and it didn't have quite the same reaction but did fizz over too.
I have them sitting in my wardrobe, and it went all over my clothes YUCK, are they getting too hot is that the problem?

 

[snagler]

For safety sake its probably best if you diffuse all the other bombs. Approach with caution wearing goggles to shield your eyes and empty them all down the sink.
Start another brew but next time be sure that your fermentation has finished and you havent added too much carbonation sugar to the bottle?????

 

[mishabella]

For safety sake its probably best if you diffuse all the other bombs. Approach with caution wearing goggles to shield your eyes and empty them all down the sink.
Start another brew but next time be sure that your fermentation has finished and you havent added too much carbonation sugar to the bottle?????

Well I am sure the fermentation was finished, I let it brew for two weeks by memory at 24C, took hydrometer reading, and used carbonation drops so no measuring required, that's why I am asking can it be something else like the heat, or something else.

 

[newguy]

A few possibilities:

1. The beer wasn't finished when you bottled, which when added to the priming sugar = bottle grenades.
2. The beer was finished, but you added too much priming sugar. Boom.
3. The beer was finished, but you picked up an infection which will happily eat the sugar the yeast won't. Boom.

If you do risk emptying the rest of the batch, please, PLEASE wear some heavy clothing to protect your chest, neck and face in particular. It's wise to protect arms and legs (crotch) too.

 

[Duff]

Never tip beer down the sink, it's un-Australian.

If you have enough room in your fridge or fridges, then cool them down firstly. You may be able to take off the caps slowly and release pressure, then recap. In future, make sure your brew is finished fermenting before bottling. What was the hydro reading?

Temperature wise, it shouldn't make a difference IMO if the beer has attenuated fully. It may cause off flavours however.

If all else fails, after I had my first bottle bomb which painted the roof with sticky beer, my wife agreed to a keg system. Give it a go, you may have some luck

Cheers.

 

[Stuster]

Sounds like an infection. Did you taste any of that brew? Any flavour problems? How did you clean and sanitise your bottles/hoses/etc?

 

[mishabella]

Sounds like an infection. Did you taste any of that brew? Any flavour problems? How did you clean and sanitise your bottles/hoses/etc?

Ok the hydrometer reading was 1000 or 10.
I was going to tip all this beer down the sink anyway because it is undrinkable, so yeah may be an infection.
Cleaned bottles with bottle brush and sanitiser, rinsed, let them dry tipped upside down on bench.

As for the keg system, I am a single mum pensioner that unfortunately cannot afford the keg system, and I also live in a flat with no garage etc for brewing, so I have to make do with I got for the time being.

I think it must be infection, because I did not know how to use fermenter etc, didn't put water in airlock, was suppose to sit at 11C, it was sitting at 24C, tastes disgusting so infection.

 

[Wortgames]

The heat will make any problems worse, but it wouldn't be solely responsible.

Newguy has pretty much summed up the 3 possible explanations. It's up to you to work out which one(s) are the most likely. Could you have accidentally double-dosed a couple of bottles with carbonation drops?

One possibility which hasn't been mentioned is excessive headspace - if you've got more than an inch or so you can get quite amazing pressures building up in the bottle.

With the other bottles, the first thing is to separate them - if one goes off and it's in a crate with others, they will probably all go. I agree that pouring them all down the sink is a bit extreme, at least until you've identified the problem, but you need to handle them with caution - keep them away from the kids and the missus and keep them all as cold as possible. A beer fridge in the garage is a great idea, and a sheet of board or some wet rags in between bottles will help to minimise losses.


EDIT - sorry, didn't see your last post - sounds like you've sussed it out

 

[snagler]

Yep Misabella after reading your follow up post it could only be an infection. Right ???????????

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Being fairly new to this game, I am unsure of exactly how much over-carbonation is too much. I don't have a shed, so have to store all my work inside.

I don't use much glass - mainly PET, but I store all my glass bottles (when full) in a cheap plastic storage box from Bunnings with a lid that clips on. I figure that if one of them goes off, it may take the rest with it, but reduces the amount of beer and yuck that will coat the inside of my 'storage facility' (a wardrobe). h34r:

 

[mika]

I always have trouble with exploding bottles at this time of year, despite what the Hydrometer says. If I have one explode and de-gas the others they seem to be OK, taste is never quite as good but not bad like "Yuk, Infection !"

Another theory if you will, Solubility of gas increases with decreasing temperature, Cold Keg takes more Gas than warm Keg. So are we seeing the reverse in the bottles. By the time the bottle gets to 45degs (I've seen it on the temp guage) the gas that was being produced for Carbonation can't be absorbed into the liquid, so sits on top and pressurises the bottle until it pops.
I only have a drama in summer and my cleaning regime doesn't change.

Just another thought.

 

[Brownie]

Had my first explosion the week before xmas, with my newly bottled cerveza, luckily my wife decided to put all the kiddies xmas present in my brewing space so they stopped shards of glass flying all over the place.

However one shard of glass was found by my wife when I brought some pressies in for her to wrap.

Brownie.

 

[mishabella]

Had my first explosion the week before xmas, with my newly bottled cerveza, luckily my wife decided to put all the kiddies xmas present in my brewing space so they stopped shards of glass flying all over the place.

However one shard of glass was found by my wife when I brought some pressies in for her to wrap.

Brownie.

So do you think I should wait till weather cools down to do more brew, or should I get some plastic bottles and use them in Summer, and use the glass in winter.

 

[pint of lager]

Brew your ales at 20 degrees if you can. Have a read of some of the basic threads, they will give you some cheap ideas on how to keep your ferment temperature stable.

Ideally, brew at 20, store your beer at 20 for bottle carbonation, then as cool as possible till ready to consume.

If temperature storage is a big problem for you, then PET is a good option to stop the possibility of broken glass.

Temperature of your brew is one of the biggest factors that affect flavour. Sanitation and good ingredients are the other two major factors.

Any PET is fine, if it is clear, make sure the bottles are in a dark cupboard or box as light is bad for your beer.

Have a read of the threads for new brewers. They will give you some more ideas.

 

[chris.taylor.98]

I have also had exploding bottles this time of the year.

I was able to difuse the rest of the batch before they exploded by chilling them all down to 4C then opening and recapping the lot.

This will only work if they explosion is due to overcarbonation. If it is caused by an infection, there is no way to fix it, just tip it out. As pointed out previously, tasting it will tell if it is infected or not.

BTW those cheap plastic bunnings containers will not withstand the explosion, you will find that exploding bottles can go through them. I use an old kitchen cupboard I have sitting in the garage for any of my "doubtful" bottles.

Another way to check for overcarbonation is to bottle at least on or two in plastic PET bottles with the screw on lids ( like the coopers bottles you can buy at most Kmarts etc). It is very easy to see when they are becoming overcorbonated as the cap will start to buldge upwards and they become very very firm. This is a warning sign that you need to check the carbonation of the remaining glass bottles and posibly diffuse them.

 

[shazzam]

I tend to keep my newly bottled beer in plastic stackable milk bottle like crates
with plastic bin liners until they are ready to be shelved 3 - 4 weeks.
This tends to be a cheap satisfactory solution as they stack on top of each other,
keeps the light out and keeps pretty stable if stacked on tile floor.

 

[petesbrew]

Bottled last night, ran out of carb drops, and I just discovered this morning it's one teaspoon/sugar per tallie, not 2.
Now I have 4 or 5 glass bottle bombs ready to go off in the garage... They're sitting in a cardboard winebox, mixed up with the other properly carbed ones. Tonight I'll be double boxing, then sticking it in a plastic container. Stupid me. I think I'll open these with GREAT caution. h34r:

p.s. I warned the wife by phone, "If you hear an explosion from the garage, that's one of my bottle bombs".
She's not too impressed.

 

[DrewCarey82]

It generally takes atleast a month too blow, you'll be fine.

 

[SteveSA]

petesbrew,

You can avoid explosions by removing the tops of the potential bombs and leaving them to ferment out the priming sugar you added. Cover the open bottles with a piece of glad wrap and use a pin to punch a small hole in it. This will only prevent any bugs crawling in but it may not prevent possible infection. This should take a couple of days.
You can then reprime them (carefully) with the correct amount and recap.

Bottle bombs are extremely dangerous and should be avoided at all times. I've only had two in my time, the second went off as I was about to walk into my garage and left the neck and half the bottle embedded in the ceiling.

Steve

 

[Wortgames]

Why not simply wait until they've reached 'normal' pressure and just recap them all in one go? That way you'd vent the first lot of pressure and allow them to continue priming with the remaining half of the sugar.

Not sure they'd taste all that flash after being fermented out once in the bottle with double the dose of sugar, then reprimed with yet a third dose.

That's a lot of sugar to be fermenting in the bottle you're going to serve it from!