fatnoah

Recipes 

So I've brewed about 8 batches now and bottle conditioned all of them. Never had any problems until last night when two bottles blew up in my closet. They were a coffee and cream stout (Brewers Best milk stout kit with some extra DME and cold brewed coffee at bottling) that I bottled back in March. My hypothesis is that since I cold brewed the coffee and didn't boil it there was probably some bacteria that got in during bottling. Given that it is a milk stout there is plenty of leftover lactose in there that the bacteria are probably going to town on (especially with the higher temps as of late).

My question is what do I do now? The last one I opened and tasted seemed fine. Not as great as when I first bottled them, but enjoyable. Should I try and refrigerate the rest? Should I toss the rest (7 beers)? I am kind of scared of one of these going off in my hand when I am trying to do something with them.

KeyWestBrewing

Recipes 

If the majority of your batch has been fine your last 7 are probably fine. I've only had one bottle break and since it was the only one to do so I figured it was a weak bottle. I think infection would be hard to get if you sanitized your bottles before bottling, plus the alcohol in your beer would kill most stuff too.... Just my 2 cents.

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Primary : Elderberry Pale Ale
Primary 2 :
Bottled : AmaSimTra IPA x2, Honey Ginger Cider, Badfish IIPA
Kegged : Sorachi Ace/Motueka Pale Ale
On Deck : Black Cherry Cider, Strawberry Lemon Cider, Badfish IIPA, Elderberry Pale Ale, Single Origin Coffee Stout

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RainyDay

Recipes 

I've always added 'things' such as hops, coffee, etc to my secondary without any infection; some things you just cant sanitize while maintaining the flavor integrity. There's enough alcohol after fermentation for it to not be an issue. Probably just an issue with those two bottles, like KeyWest said. Weak bottles, not sanitized, something left over in the bottles after sanitizing.

sieglere

Recipes 

I always store my bottles in a Rubbermaid type bin just in case. If you're worried, put them in there so even if it.goes wrong, the mess becomes less than it would have been.

pgrebus

Recipes 

It's also possible that you had uneven carbonation between bottles - one of my primary drivers to move to kegging. No priming solution, no oxidation, no uneven carbonation, and easy bottling with a counter-pressure filler.

fatnoah

Recipes 

Thanks for all the helpful advice. I particularly like the rubbermaid container idea.

RainyDay

Recipes 

To be honest, even though i'm confident in my process/sanitation/etc, I read a couple threads a few weeks ago on bottle bombs, right around the time I bottles a couple batches. I ended up storing my bottles in my kitchen closet as opposed to my normal beer closet with carpet floors (and my clothes). I'll move them once i'm sure they're set, but cant help but laugh at myself for it.

passedpawn

Recipes 

Once you have one bomb, other can blow just by being agitated. I know this from experience. So, be careful if you decide you want to start moving that batch around. Getting them cold is your best defense by far. When moving them, make sure to consider protective equipment:

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