Random Exploding Bottles

[leonjw]

Hi all,

In the last few weeks i have had 3 random bottles exploding. Each bottle that has exploded has been from a seperate brew and bottled at different times ranging from 3 weeks to 4 months.

Myself and my housemate check all the brews before bottling with a hydrometer (48hrs) and prime with carbonation drops (2 for each 750ml bottle). Cannot think of why only one bottle randomly explodes whilst the others are fine. Housemate copped some glass frag in his ear when one exploded when he was in the spareroom (beer storage area). Was pretty lucky to not get hit in the eye!

I'm thinking perahaps the warm storage tempertures in the past few weeks have caused it. The house can easily get over 30-35 C during really hot day. Going to wear safety glasses in the spare room for now. Any insight/prevention suggestions would be awsome.

Cheers,
Leon.

 

[matti]

Be more anal about cleanliness, adequate priming and keep the bottles in a cooler place. ^_^
Seriously.

Most likely cause is that these bottle have picked up some dirt along the way during or before the bottling.
The next possibilty is that you poured too much sugar in them and they just got too fissy along the way.
The heat would have releases all the CO2 from the liquid and the weak bottles would have popped first.

I never had a bottle explode thus far. Maybe lucky but mostly because I never over prime and I am anal about ensuring the bottle are absolutely clean prior bottling. i also used to bulk prime before kegging.

1.Ensure the bottle have no crack in them and they are very clean.
2. Don't over prime....
3. Try to keep the bottle in a dark cool place.

If the spare room can't be kept any cooler then yiou just have to drink them faster.

 

[Darren]

Hi Leon,

Dont sterilise in the oven (yo may not have) as it weakens the glass). Bottle capping with a "hammer" capper can also create hairline cracks.

If I were you I would chill all the remaining botlles down. Either that or don a pair of gloves and a face mask and lift the caps on them to release extra gas. Chances are a few more are going to go bang.

cheers

Darren

 

[afromaiko]

And change to PET bottles.

 

[pint of lager]

What the others have said.

A few more suggestions.

Leave the brew in the fermenter for a few more days before bottling.

If making a "dry" style kit with the extra enzyme, leave it for a week longer in the fermenter. The dry enzyme takes longer to do its work.

Some brands of drops have been found to vary in size. You may wish to switch to sugar priming using a little scoop from the hbs. Or go bulk priming.

 

[eamonnfoley]

thank goodness he was ok - just shows the potential dangers of our hobby. Sanitiation is so very important. I was close to this situation, but luckily I tried to open the bottles first- the lids came off like rockets and sprayed beer everywhere. I could feel the force in my hand as the bottles jolted back. Have you considered kegging?

 

[microbe]

Hey Leon,

All the above advice is good.

Just for your reassurance though, I've only had one bottle go off in four-five years of doing this. I, like you, store my bottled beer in a largely unsuitable sometimes hot area. It went fairly early in the bottled life of the batch and the remainder survived to be drunk without any further incident. I put it down to the case of a single bottle being poorly cleaned or perhaps weakened somehow.

I hope this is the case for you, but it may not be, so take all the precautions you can.

Cheers,

microbe

 

[leonjw]

Thanks people,

I sanitise the bottles with no-rinse, use a bench capper and everything. Yeah I think its just a matter of being more anal about everything. I might give bulk priming a go as well as leaving the brew in the fermenter a few more days. Also a good reason to get some kegs going One more year of uni to go then its money and keg set-up time i think. Cheers for the help everyone.

Leon.

 

[petesbrew]

I'm thinking perahaps the warm storage tempertures in the past few weeks have caused it. The house can easily get over 30-35 C during really hot day. Going to wear safety glasses in the spare room for now. Any insight/prevention suggestions would be awsome.

I think that had something to do with my 4 bombs last month. The culprits were well over 6months old. The lucky thing is they were temporarily in the dining room only 4 days prior to the explosion, with my 1week old son right nearby.

 

[leonjw]

Hey people,

Just posting a follow up post to confirm that it was infections that caused the explosions. I recently had a whole batch that was infected and after 4 exploded and i confirmed that the beer tasted rank i opened them all up in the back yard making a huge foamy mess (with jacket, gloves and motorbike helmet for saftey). So far so good since that batch being extra carefull from now on

Leon.

 

[Bribie G]

So you ride a motorbike and you were doing things with exploding recreational drugs in the back yard B) It's a wonder the neighbours didn't call one of those new bikie squads on you

 

[mick8882003]

One word, Kegs!

Seriously I haven't had a bottle explode since I started kegging, give you one guess why

Seriously the time you save is well worth it.