Bottle Bombs At Work!

So I bring 10 X 3 different homebrews to the office to give out as gift packages to some co-workers. I'm surfing when I hear the first bomb go off under my desk.

Great.
Now I'm sitting in an office that reeks like beer at 7:45AM with what looks like 6 more bottles potentially waiting to explode.

What do I do?
Just find an outdoor trash can to get rid of these suspect beers or what?
I obviously can't give them out and I can't open and recap here either.

What a nOOb!

There is a fridge here, but I'm worried that they will go off in there too.

Well, if you want to try and save them, get them in that fridge now. You might want to put them in a tied off garbage bag, though, just in case!

Hey, look at the bright side. You have another war story to tell the kiddos!


TL

Sorry about that, man.

I would not give potential bottle bombs as gifts. Its dangerous to the recipients, and you don't want to give that impression of your homebrews, do you?

Take them back home and drink them up yourself.

Just give them to the guy you don't like so much......

Just give them to the guy you don't like so much......

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Tempting, but my mortgage requires that I keep my job!
All I want to do is try to keep them alive until I can get them home!

Fridge STAT, then get a cooler and ice for the trip home. Once home open and recap.

Bottles are in the fridge, fingers are crossed!

So much for good intentions...

option 2

start talking about the "good old frat days" or something similar and talk your co-works into chucking them off the roof to explode on the concrete


see who can get the biggest "spread"


waste of beer though .......


option 3

tell your boss that these bottles could potentially explode at any given moment without prior notice and they must be drank IMMEDIATELY .....
(they are like your children and to toss them would be similar to abortion)



good luck

Do you think transporting the bottles shook them up and caused that or contributed to it? Anyone else have a comment on that or experienced that?

Had you open any of the bottles before to check the carbonation level?

The reason I ask is I am going to be transporting some brew about 1200 miles in my car starting in a few days. I don't want bottle bombs going off in my car. I guess I will put the brew in side one of those Igloo coolers that locks just in case. This brew has only been in the bottles for 8 days so far. I opened one yesterday and it had mild carbonation.

meatman

Well, I used 7/8 cup of sugar to prime, and I have noticed that different bottles produce different heads. I guess the sugar didn't mix well enough in the bottling bucket, leading to some bombs, and no doubt some weakly carbonated beers.
I have since bought a longer siphon hose.

It was louder than I expected it to be sitting under my desk. I wouldn't want to hear that sound while driving at freeway speeds!

FYI, This batch is about 2 months old.

Fenster said:

Well, I used 7/8 cup of sugar to prime, and I have noticed that different bottles produce different heads. I guess the sugar didn't mix well enough in the bottling bucket, leading to some bombs, and no doubt some weakly carbonated beers.

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Ok, I could be wrong on this, since I force carb and don't bottle condition, but I thought that the rule of thumb was 3/4 cup of priming sugar per 5 gallon batch!? If my memory is correct, then you have more than doubled the recommended amount of priming sugar, and it is not surprising that they are exploding, especially when you shake them up by moving them, and then store them in a room temperature environment, under your desk. Sounds like a perfect way to get the yeast going again.

You can always uncap them and re-cap them, venting some pressure. Tat may be hard to do at work.

You are right, 3/4 C is the norm.
7/8 C however is not twice as much as 3/4 C.
It is 3/4 C + 1/8 C which is not that much more, although it is apparently enough to cause at least one bomb!

I didn't give out any bottle bombs but I did give a cider to my boss that fizzed all over when he opened it. He called my home, laughed and asked for another one. He was able to save about a quarter of the bottle and liked what he tasted. Of course I had to give him one after what he went through.

vent them as best as you can!

good luck!

Play dumb.

Open the fridge and exclaim..."Hey look everyone...someone left a bunch of beers in here..."

Then walk away and speak of this to no one.

Next time:

Insure your fermentation is absolutely complete before bottling.
2/3-3/4 cup of priming sugar max...I lean towards the smaller amount and allow more time.
Blend thoroughly in boiled/cooled water and mixed very well into bottling bucket.
Always test several bottles you plan on giving away.

Fenster said:

You are right, 3/4 C is the norm.
7/8 C however is not twice as much as 3/4 C.
It is 3/4 C + 1/8 C which is not that much more, although it is apparently enough to cause at least one bomb!

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Sorry, too sleepy-eyed when I read and typed that...
my mistake

It's fun hearing about these things, it reminds me of my high alchohol RIS that I dubbed the "love potion" and it backfired on me when SWMBO complained that it gave her headaches - lol.

Fenster said:

Well, I used 7/8 cup of sugar to prime, and I have noticed that different bottles produce different heads. I guess the sugar didn't mix well enough in the bottling bucket, leading to some bombs, and no doubt some weakly carbonated beers.
I have since bought a longer siphon hose.

It was louder than I expected it to be sitting under my desk. I wouldn't want to hear that sound while driving at freeway speeds!

FYI, This batch is about 2 months old.

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7/8 of a cup for 5 gallons? Thats too much

7/8 of a cup for 5 gallons? Thats too much

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What can I say? When you're right, you're right.
Let my noobish mistake not be duplicated.

It's not too much. It would make for a pretty high carbonation, but it isn't THAT much. The problem is the lack of mixing. Like you said, some of that batch will likely be pretty flat. So the bottle bombs had a disproportionate amount of sugar. The best thing to do is to put all of that batch in the fridge to stop all fermentation. Second best is to use a bottle opener to lift up on the caps and release some pressure. This can be done without fully opening the bottles. BTW search youtube for bottle bombs and you'll see that coolers, boxes, bags, etc. may not be able to contain exploding beer bottles. I've seen pics of glass sticking out of drywall, furniture, etc. Be extremely careful with potential bombs! Usually they just come apart and spill beer. Occasionally they launch glass and shred coolers.

Dr Vorlauf said:

7/8 of a cup for 5 gallons? Thats too much

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I disagree. It is a little on the high side but definitely within reason for may styles such as Belgians or heffs.
Even if he used twice the recommended bottle bombs should be rare as the bottles are designed for considerably more pressure than normal.
Most likely the sugar was not well mixed in the beer. You should dissolve the sugar in a small amount of boiling water. Put the sugar water in the bottling bucket and then rack the beer in. Perhaps giving a little swirl or stir after complete. This should result in an even distribution or the sugar.
Another strong possibility is that the beer was not complete and the relatively warm office and bumpy ride awakened the yeast and caused more complete fermentation. It only takes a couple gravity points to create a bottle bomb.

Craig

meatman said:

Do you think transporting the bottles shook them up and caused that or contributed to it? Anyone else have a comment on that or experienced that?

Had you open any of the bottles before to check the carbonation level?

The reason I ask is I am going to be transporting some brew about 1200 miles in my car starting in a few days. I don't want bottle bombs going off in my car. I guess I will put the brew in side one of those Igloo coolers that locks just in case. This brew has only been in the bottles for 8 days so far. I opened one yesterday and it had mild carbonation.

meatman

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Worst that could happen is that you'll have to drink them. Try explaining the situation to the Highway Patrolman!

Today I found out that a bottle of wine I gave to my brewing buddy blew up on him the other night. Problem is that the rest of the batch is stored in crates under my bed. It could get bad.