Wow! Second Bottle Bomb

So I just had my second bottle bomb from the same batch! The first bomb happened over a month ago, and all of a sudden one exploded tonight. I had figured that it was just one bad bottle, but this one completely exploded. Can't figure out why this is happening. It was definitely done fermenting (3 weeks primary 4 weeks secondary). Sanitized all bottles the same, soaking in Iodophor and then letting them dry.

Seems kind of strange that two would explode so far apart doesn't it? I figured that if nothing had exploded by now (since it's been over a month since the last one)that I'd be out of the clear. Guess not!

Decided to throw the remaining six in the fridge, just in case. Was completely freaked out just moving them from the closet to the fridge...they seem like they could do some serious damage. Anyway...thought I'd share my story!

How much priming sugar did you use?

Only used 5oz of cane sugar.

First, I would use corn sugar next time for priming. Cane sugar can give a funky off flavor especially if you are working with a light beer.

As for your bombs so far apart, perhaps something got in past the bottle cap? It does seem strange that it should explode so far apart in time but I seem to remember something similar happening to my first batch as well....of course that was 20 years ago, so it's hard to remember if it actually was that long between kabooms. EDIT... also you should mix the priming sugar solution very well in the bottling bucket to ensure equal distribution of the sugar to all the bottles. Another plus for corn sugar which dissolves quicker!

I suggest you drink it as fast as possible...

Have you noticed that other bottles have had too much carbonation or have you had some gushers? I had a batch that fermented 4 weeks and had a stable gravity at 1.016 over three days, so I primed to 2.5 volumes and bottled. Within 3 weeks, they were highly carbonated and it was hard to pour a glass, with mostly head filling the volume. I filled my hydrometer tube and let it settle to check the gravity, and it had dropped to 1.012! My hypothesis is that the racking, bottling, and adding priming sugar stirred up the yeast and fermentation continued to full attenuation.

I noticed that the remaining bottles had lids that were becoming rounded outward, rather than the slightly concave appearance they normally have. I poured them all back into the bottling bucket, added some sugar to let the yeast produce more CO2 to keep out oxygen, and let it attenuate down to 1.012 before rebottling. I figured what the heck- if they're oxidized, I'll toss them. But, surprisingly to me, they turned out great. I suppose it was off gassing so much CO2 that it didn't oxidize.

If your other bottles are at normal carbonation, you may not have distributed priming sugar evenly, or you may have had a bit of gunk in a couple of bottles that harbored some bacteria. If they are sanitized, but not thoroughly clean, the sanitizer cannot completely take care of debris that can stubbornly cling to the glass.

mannye said:

First, I would use corn sugar next time for priming. Cane sugar can give a funky off flavor especially if you are working with a light beer.

Another plus for corn sugar which dissolves quicker!

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I use corn sugar all the time for bottling and don't have any off flavors. There is nothing wrong with it.
If you make a simple syrup with the sugar it is already dissolved. Add to beer same as corn sugar.

What was the gravity when you bottled?

It does seem odd that you'd get bombs so far apart. I wonder I this most recent one is a result of an infection - it would take a while for the bacteria and/or wild yeast to take hold, but eventually you could end up with a problem. This doesn't explain the first one though. Maybe that was just coincidence and it really was just a defective bottle, or maybe uneven priming.

And I second the fact that cane sugar will not give you any off flavors, especially when only adding 5oz at bottling. I use cane sugar almost exclusively for bottling.

The interesting part about this batch was that it seemed to be super carbonated after only one week in bottles (they have now been bottled 7 weeks). Tons of bubbles, huge head...but I have noticed that unless I pour them very slowly some of them tend to foam up quite a bit.

I'm thinking that I'm not being careful enough with cleaning and sanitzing when bottling. Basically, when I finish drinking one, I rinse it out, and store them. Then when it comes time to bottle, I just soak them in Iodophor for about a minute. Do I need to scrub all the bottles?

On a side note...this is the Houblonmonstre Tripel from NB and it's amazing! Bummed that I've lost 44oz of this one!

Hangfire said:

The interesting part about this batch was that it seemed to be super carbonated after only one week in bottles (they have now been bottled 7 weeks). Tons of bubbles, huge head...but I have noticed that unless I pour them very slowly some of them tend to foam up quite a bit.

I'm thinking that I'm not being careful enough with cleaning and sanitzing when bottling. Basically, when I finish drinking one, I rinse it out, and store them. Then when it comes time to bottle, I just soak them in Iodophor for about a minute. Do I need to scrub all the bottles?

On a side note...this is the Houblonmonstre Tripel from NB and it's amazing! Bummed that I've lost 44oz of this one!

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I wouldn't expect an infection to take hold that quick. If the beers were overcarbed after only a week, I would look at either 1) too much priming sugar (or perhaps unevenly mixed so that some bottles got too much) or 2) the beer was not done fermenting.

You mentioned that it was "definitely done fermenting (3 weeks primary 4 weeks secondary)", but do you know for certain it was? I think it is a fair assumption that after that long, it should be done, but what was your FG?

Did you upgrade the yeast to the Wyeast Belgian Ardennes? Or use the dry yeast?

Hangfire said:

The interesting part about this batch was that it seemed to be super carbonated after only one week in bottles

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I have two theories.

#1

You upgraded the yeast to Wyeast. You didn't make a starter. The yeast pooped out and you thought the fermentation was completed after 7 weeks. The act of bottling re-introduced enough oxygen to the beer for the yeast to restart, also aided by higher temps you used to bottle carb.

#2 You added other sugar adjuncts to the recipe in order to kick up the alcohol content. The yeast didn't like it, didn't attenuate fully, then when bottled, O2 was reintroduced and fermentation restarted, also aided by higher temps you used to bottle carb.


This kind of stuff normally happens with impatient wine and mead makers who assume it's done because it's been two months and fermentation stalled, so they bottle, and boom boom. But it can also happen with beer.

Hangfire said:

Sanitized all bottles the same, soaking in Iodophor and then letting them dry.

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Don't let the bottles dry after using the Iodophor. When wet with Iodophor, they are sanitized. Dry, they can once again pick up nasties.

Clann said:

I use corn sugar all the time for bottling and don't have any off flavors. There is nothing wrong with it.
If you make a simple syrup with the sugar it is already dissolved. Add to beer same as corn sugar.

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You mean CANE sugar right? He said he was using CANE sugar not CORN sugar. I use corn sugar exclusively since it doesn't affect the taste as much IMO.

That's why they say..... YMMV!

mannye said:

You mean CANE sugar right? He said he was using CANE sugar not CORN sugar. I use corn sugar exclusively since it doesn't affect the taste as much IMO.

That's why they say..... YMMV!

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Cane sugar is absolutely fine. But you need a tad less. Still, 5 ounces by weight shouldn't cause bottle bombs.

Is it possible for a beer to get an infection and still taste good...but still cause it to explode?

Also...can too little of headspace in the bottle cause an explosion? Both bottles have been the 22oz, with about an inch of headspace.

A couple people have asked about FG...and to tell the truth, I'm not sure what it finished at. I'm pretty sure it was somewhere between 1.01 and 1.02 and hadn't moved for quite awhile. I used a starter, used the Wyeast, and everything seemed to go well except for the bit of foam up and bottle bombs.

I just had my first bottle bomb happen last night. I bottled about 2 weeks ago. It's a belgian saison, which calls for high carbonation, so I primed with 8 oz of DME (I arrived at that number with some online calculator I found, using I think 3 volumes of CO2). This is more than I usually use, but I wanted that saison rocky head. Now I'm afraid I overdid it and I wonder, is there anything one can do to prevent more? can I kill the yeast in the remaining bottles by putting them in a hot water bath? any other suggestions, besides just dumping them in a bucket and rebottling as described above? I've stored the rest of the bath in the fridge for now. Also, does anyone have advice about the likelihood of flip-top 750ml bottles blowing up compared to regular 12oz capped? (the one that went off last night was a 12oz)
The *really* sad thing is that I had planned to give several big bottles of this batch as gifts to friends that I see on an upcoming roadtrip, but now i'm pretty leery of that....

mannye said:

You mean CANE sugar right? He said he was using CANE sugar not CORN sugar. I use corn sugar exclusively since it doesn't affect the taste as much IMO.

That's why they say..... YMMV!

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Sorry yes I meant cane sugar

Clann said:

I use corn sugar all the time for bottling and don't have any off flavors. There is nothing wrong with it.
If you make a simple syrup with the sugar it is already dissolved. Add to beer same as corn sugar.

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thats what he said.... corn sugar does not have any off flavors

mannye said:

First, I would use corn sugar next time for priming. Cane sugar can give a funky off flavor especially if you are working with a light beer.

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no

Hangfire said:

Also...can too little of headspace in the bottle cause an explosion? Both bottles have been the 22oz, with about an inch of headspace.

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The engineer in me says that more headspace should reduce the pressure. But in practice, the bottles with more headspace seem to always have much more carbonation. It's one of the mysteries I haven't yet solved. Anyone?

While I don't have a solution for your over carbonation, I wonder if the two bottles that blew may have had an air bubble in the glass causing a weak point. I always inspect for this and dispose probably one bottle per every 50 or so.

steev23 said:

I just had my first bottle bomb happen last night. I bottled about 2 weeks ago. It's a belgian saison, which calls for high carbonation, so I primed with 8 oz of DME (I arrived at that number with some online calculator I found, using I think 3 volumes of CO2). This is more than I usually use, but I wanted that saison rocky head. Now I'm afraid I overdid it and I wonder, is there anything one can do to prevent more? can I kill the yeast in the remaining bottles by putting them in a hot water bath? any other suggestions, besides just dumping them in a bucket and rebottling as described above? I've stored the rest of the bath in the fridge for now. Also, does anyone have advice about the likelihood of flip-top 750ml bottles blowing up compared to regular 12oz capped? (the one that went off last night was a 12oz)
The *really* sad thing is that I had planned to give several big bottles of this batch as gifts to friends that I see on an upcoming roadtrip, but now i'm pretty leery of that....

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8oz of DME doesn't sound like too much - in fact seems on the low side depending on the beer volume and temp. Are you certain the beer was finished? Saison yeasts can/should really attenuate well. What was your FG?

I think Flip tops can hold more pressure, but I'm not 100% sure.

Are you refrigerating long enough. Although i often throw mine in the freezer for 40 min and never had them do that though.What kind of bottles are you using? Have you checked to see if some of the others are flat or weakly carbed if so then stir your priming sugar after racking/botteling.
Did you sustain the yeast temp requirements so they dont drop out during fermentation?

JLem said:

8oz of DME doesn't sound like too much - in fact seems on the low side depending on the beer volume and temp. Are you certain the beer was finished? Saison yeasts can/should really attenuate well. What was your FG?

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the FG was stable at 1.006, which was below the recipe estimate of 1.011. So it seemed done...

I think I'm going to chalk it up to uneven mixing or defective/weak bottle. I usually just count on the mixing action of the beer flowing into the bottling bucket from the racking cane but I'll be more careful from now on.

passedpawn said:

no

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+1,000,000

5 oz of priming sugar is a bit high for a
5 gallon batch in my experience. I usually use 3-4 oz. My guess is the beer wasn't done and it restarted at bottling due to the sugar and O2 it is introduced to. I have plenty experience with bottle bombs. My wife's cloths took the brunt of the most recent one. This is why I keg now.