Potential Bottle Bombs?

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Dazza88

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Hi,

Did a brew late July in the style of a pure blonde on recommendation of recipe from LHBS guy (kit n bits). Used a dry enzyme in it. They have been in bottles for 8 weeks (to the day i think). Tasting pretty good now but not my favourite brew I have made - actually after a few glasses pretty satisfied with it. From memory, fermented for nearly two weeks until stable at 1004 (three days).

It has been warming up in SE Qld last few weeks. I opened a tallie of this brew tonight and got a bit of a shock when the top burst off into my hand and a loud high pitched pop occurred (think: lit match into hydrogen gas). It was like opening a champagne bottle and without notice it was a little worrying. It poured like champagne too - lots of head on pour or open, wait 10 minutes, then pour for manageable head. The same occurred with a few stubbies i opened. This didn't occur when i opened a stubbie of the same stuff a few days ago (which may have been in the fridge for a while unlike tonight's bottles). Further a bottle of Dark ale was opened and no champagne effect was noticed (put in fridge same time as original offending tallie of Blonde).

Should I be worried about bottle bombs?

I have put the remaining bottles in the fridge thinking this should reduce their bomb potential. Funnily enough i just attempted my first lager in the bar fridge this week, I seem to be able to maintain 15 degrees Celsius with fridge setting on low (trying to slowly get to 12). Therefore i have potential bottle bombs being slightly cooled right next to my fermenter which i imagine isn't bomb proof (it could get messy). I have also put a few bottles in the kitchen fridge, I don't want my wife getting exploding bottles when she opens the fridge.

So my other questions to the forum are (in their experience):

Is there a time onto the bottling period when bombs are mostly likely to occur? (eg. first few weeks, months or whenever)

Has anyone else had the champagne effect with their brews but have had no explosions?

Should I be worried about my other brews and their storage in the lead up to summer? (Put them all in a fridge?)

Is dry enzyme the home brewing equivalent to C4?

Obviously this brew had more fermenting to be done. The dry enzyme I hear will result in an FG of 1000 ish. How many points of gravity drop in the bottle will cause an explosion? Does the rule "3 days stable FG then bottle" not always hold?

Maybe i should polish the rest of this brew with mates at a BBQ tomorrow night.

The beer must be OK, I am rambling on . .
 
Not rambling at all. The more info you give the better people can help you.

Having said that I do have a quick question to help clarifiy something - when you say it is like champagne do you just mean the head comes up fast or it continues to come up even after you've poured? If the latter I'm wondering if you might have a gusher infection rather than an unfinished beer. Someone more knowledgeable than me might be able to shed some light.
 
Gushers can happen due to higher carbonation levels combined with minimum headspace in the bottles too.
 
^There's one of those blokes I was talking about now.
 
Hi dazdog,
I have had batches that are perfect over winter and spring. A couple of bottles get distributed to friends and they fizz like crazy in January or February.
At first we thought infection.
But why only two bottles out of 30?
We traced it to hot weather...stored at higher temps.
So, yes, I have experienced your "champagne effect" with no explosions.

Perhaps they could have been carbonated a little less.

Essentially, as you have pointed out, the one in the fridge didn't go haywire.

I wouldn't worry too much about bottle bombs here. More about storage and perhaps look at slightly less sugar at the carbonation stage.

Cheers
 
Thanks guys,

The perfect spot in the house for winter temps is now getting pretty hot, I might have to annoy the bro in law for that fridge he said he bring over.

A gusher infection? Any other signs apparent for that type of infection? The beer is improving with time and is quite drinkable.

Yes I will carbonate a little less plus i have been more patient (i.e busy and forget fermenter) in allowing the last few brews more time in fermenter to ferment out and then condition.
 
Dazdog, you say that flavour is improving over time so it may not be infection related. I'm guessing that there was a reasonable amount of dextrose in the brew. If so, this would result in quite a low finishing gravity and in combination with the enzyme you could be looking at a very low gravity. Even though it appeared stable at 1004 there is some chance that it was still slowly inching away. As you suspect, a little more fermentable in the bottle on top of the carbonating dose and the result is the champagne effect.

I don't know if you need to look at reducing the amount of carbonating sugar in the future as you say other beers have been fine. The likely culprit is the yeast still slowly chewing through remaining sugars. It can be an issue with beers that have such enzymes added. I hope your retailer made this very clear.

In terms of what to do now, you've done the right thing by cooling them down as this will dramatically slow any further carbonation. Depending on the types of caps, another possibility is venting the bottles. The idea to drink them as soon as possible is also a good one.
 
So to sum up:

1. You could have an infection. This could be all brew or limited to one or two bottles. If not all bottles fizz/gush you can be fairly certain it's not the whole brew. If the beer tastes fine, you can be fairly certain it's not an infection.

2. You could have bottled too early and the yeast could still be chewing away. Again - seeing if it's limited to one bottle or is happening in several more is a good indicator.

If this is the case you do have the possibility of bottle bombs and may need to be cautious. There are a couple of solutions. Chill all the bottles, decap and allow a little of the gas to escape, then reseal. Be careful handling the bottles before chilling and wear eye protection. You can also store and observe for bombs - wrap every one tightly in glad wrap, then leave outside in a place that can cope with beer spillage.

3. You may have overprimed. It's probably worth working out if this is the case so next time you can adjust. No point adjusting if that's not it. It may be worth your while looking up how to bulk prime.

4. You may, as I suggested, simply have filled the bottles (or some bottles) too full. Bottles need headspace just like primary fermenters. You should be able to tell if this is the case. Bottles should be full but not right to the very top. Some space should remain in the neck.

First thing to work out is is this a consistent problem across the brew or limited to one or two.
 
I think it might be extra fermentation in the bottle. The issue seems to be occurring with all bottles as of yesterday. Previous opened bottles had been in fridge for a while and the remainder are only just put into fridge last night. Will chill and drink sooner than later.
 
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