My first bottle bomb

I had my first bottle explode last night on my 3rd batch ever, a Double IPA (OG 1.072). Ironically it happened when I was bottling my 4th batch. The bottle shattered and the force of it actually broke 2 other bottles that were right next to it. The DIPA was a kit from Midwest and I did exactly what the instructions said (IE: didn't add any other sugars or anything that didn't come in the kit). This is the 3rd week of aging at about 68~ degrees in a cabinet. I was worried that more would explode so I took all the 12oz bottles (which was the size that blew up) and put them in the fridge to prevent them from carbing anymore; I left the 4ish 22oz I have out. I tried one of the 12oz of the DIPA and it was carbed perfectly IMO. My 1st and 2nd beers seem to be fine, and the 2nd one (a dark ale) is still aging in the same cabinet

So my question(s): Is this something that will happen if I leave my big beers out too long to carbonate? Since the bottle exploded with such force, I'm assuming this was too much pressure as opposed to a crack or anything like that. Should I be stirring in the dissolved corn sugar? I was thinking I shouldn't because that might put oxygen in the beer, but maybe this would prevent too much sugar going into one beer?

Thanks!

Scooters,
Yes, definately stir in the bottling sugar. This can be done with a sanitized spoon in a gentle upward motion without splashing. It is important to integrate the sugar evenly so that you don't have some bottles that explode and some that are flat. Adding the sugar to the bottling bucket before racking the beer is also helpful.
Cheers!
mark
www.backyardbrewer.blogspot.com

Scooters,
One other thought. Are you checking your final gravity? It is important that the beer attenuates to the proper level. If there is a lot of unfermented sugar in the beer, this will contribute to the overly carb'd beer.
mark
www.backyardbrewer.blogspot.com

mbird,

Thanks for the reply. For this specific beer it hit right in the middle of the range FG 1.011 and the range was 1.010-1.012.

I'll make sure to try the slow stirring for my next bottling session

Also if you sample a bottle at 1 week, 2 week, 3 week time periods, you can determine how the carbonation process is progressing. If they seem to be over carbing, you can get them to a refrigerator before a bottle blows.

NRS

i usually rack on top of the cooled sugar water. the swirling of the siphon mixes up the sugar pretty evenly.

if after all is said and done, and the other bottles are ok, it could be a weak bottle, or it could be a bottle that wasn't washed/sanitized completely, and that one bottle had an infection.

Thanks for the responses.

I do rack onto the sugar water, which I thought would stir it up enough to not have bottle bombs.

I guess I'll try to be more careful with cleaning and sanitizing my bottles.

I've been going with a longer than 'normal' secondary fermentation, especially when I dry hop. I find the fermentation is restarted when dry hopping; meaning, there is ACTIVE bubbling in the fermenter 2-3 weeks after dry hopping, when it initially appeared stable in there.. The bubbling/activity continues for weeks.

You may have bottled before it was ready and fully fermented.

Maybe it was just a bad bottle.......