Bottle Bombs! Is the rest of my brew ok?

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Hebby5

Hebby5

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I got back from a great family vacation today and checked on my batch of brew that I bottled a week and half ago. To my surprise, I found two bottles that had exploded. After I finished cleaning up, I thought to myself "self it is warm". Then I remembered, my wife turned up the thermostat to 76 while we were gone for the last 5 days.

We are cooling down the house to our typical 72. Is the rest of my bottles of brew ok? Should the rest of the aging process take place in the fridge?

As always, thanks in advance.

Chris

Ps. It was an IPA: 9 days fermentation plus I dry hopped in the same fermentor for 6 more days, OG 1.064, and FG 1.013.
 
How much sugar (and what kind) did you use during bottling? What procedure did you use to mix the sugar with your beer?

Did you see any indication that those couple bottles were infected, and that the other bottles wouldn't be?

I ask these things because we have to determine whether your entire brew has the same amount of sugar and sanitation. Because if so, they *all* run the risk of exploding.

I don't think the temperature should matter. I had two cases bottle conditioning in an 80 degree room this weekend, before I remembered to move it down to the cooler room.
 
I used a package of corn sugar from my LHBS that is for one "batch" of beer. I followed the instructions on the bag (boiled water (1 cup i think) and had the corn sugar fully dissolve). I then dumped it in my bottling bucket and then auto-siphoned from the fermentor over to the bottle bucket.

I had two cases of bottles that I cleaned and sanitized. One case was very clean to start with, cleaned, and sanitized it. The other case was sitting around from some time ago and had to clean out extra funk on some bottles. Now that I think about it, some may be suspect but thought that I sanitized all very good.
 
If you sanitized well than I think you should be fine. I think bottles would be a hard spot to pick up infection. If my beer makes it pre pitch, through fermentation in a plastic bucket and through all the vinyl siphon hosing without an infection, I don't see sanitized bottles being a problem because there is not much sugar in the beer, and there is alcohol in it.

The heat can cause a bottle bomb, but any reasonable indoor heat shouldn't cause a bomb on an otherwise normally carbonated beer.

My vote is that you didn't mix the priming sugar well enough. That was the case with my one bottle bomb. I would just move them all to a safe spot away from people and pets, and somewhere that will be easy to clean up, in the event that another blows.

My guess is that they won't.

Actually what size batch did you make? the packet from your shop was for 5 gallons presumably
 
The temp wouldnt cause bottle bombs. Once the yeast eat all the sugar, they can't produce anymore c02 as a biproduct. So either it's carbed, not carbed enough, over carbed (potential for bottle bombs) or infected - once the sugar is gone, it's gone, no more c02.
 
I think it has to do more with the type of beer and the type of bottles. They do make different thicknesses of bottles for different types of beers that put more pressure on the bottles. Do a little bit of research in that area and see if you cant find some info.

Your beer should be fine, ive yet to see a single batch that wasnt drinkable other than that it tasted bad.
 
it was a 5 gallon batch. The bottles are mixed. Some from different beers that I've purchased and some from bottles that I bought from my LHBS.

I am guessing it could be one or multiple issues coming together for these bottle bombs (unclean bottle but not the batch, warmer temp, and priming sugar not mixed correctly).

I just put one in the fridge. I'll check it out tonight and report back.

Thanks everyone!

Chris
 
What happened was the yeast woke up in the warmer temperature and had a case of midnight munchies, and decided to eat not only your priming sugar, but more of the wort sugar as well. Now they produced more of the CO2 then they were supposed to and you get the bottle bombs.
1. Put the rest of the bottles in the fridge ASAP.
2. Get yourself the biggest beer mug you can find.
3. Open beer very carefully over the sink and poor it gently to your over-sized beer mug.
4. enjoy your beer! RDWHAHB :)
5. If you ever use this yeast again, try to do a diacetyl rest.
 
Quick question. When you poor your corn sugar / water mixture into the bottling bucket, do you typically stir it up after all the beer is siphoned over? I haven't done that in the past but have read some other threads of folks doing this.

Thoughts?

Chris
 
Hebby5 said:
Quick question. When you poor your corn sugar / water mixture into the bottling bucket, do you typically stir it up after all the beer is siphoned over? I haven't done that in the past but have read some other threads of folks doing this.

Thoughts?

Chris
Click to expand...

Yup, you want to mix the sugar with all the beer to get even distribution.
 
Hebby5 said:
Quick question. When you poor your corn sugar / water mixture into the bottling bucket, do you typically stir it up after all the beer is siphoned over? I haven't done that in the past but have read some other threads of folks doing this.

Thoughts?

Chris
Click to expand...

Yep from me also. The one time I didn't, I had some messed up bottling results. Some had no carb and some foamed out all over the place when opened. Probably near miss bottle bombs saved by the somewhat low temp in my bottling room at the time.
 
hops2it said:
Yep from me also. The one time I didn't, I had some messed up bottling results. Some had no carb and some foamed out all over the place when opened. Probably near miss bottle bombs saved by the somewhat low temp in my bottling room at the time.
Click to expand...

I'm about to bottle my first batch. My plan is to add the priming sugar solution to the bottling bucket, rack on top of that, and then with a sanitized spoon, gently swirl for about a minute. Seem sufficient? Too much?
 
grace1760 said:
I'm about to bottle my first batch. My plan is to add the priming sugar solution to the bottling bucket, rack on top of that, and then with a sanitized spoon, gently swirl for about a minute. Seem sufficient? Too much?
Click to expand...

I'd say that's about what I do. Maybe not even that long really. Just a slow and steady wins the race approach. Gentle mixing is all that's needed.
 
Hebby5 said:
Quick question. When you poor your corn sugar / water mixture into the bottling bucket, do you typically stir it up after all the beer is siphoned over?
Click to expand...

Nope. I rack on top of the priming solution and let the siphon tube lay at an angle so the beer is constantly swirling as it pours in. Never had any problems - except once when I opened a bottle too early and got 'the (carb) talk' from Revvy - but that wasn't due to poor mixing. I also don't risk any additional potential for infection by attempting to stir it myself.
 
Put one in the fridge for 24 hours and drank it tonight. Loads of suds but still plenty of beer and oooooh so good. Hope the rest is like this one. Thanks for all the tips and will give the bottling bucket (beer & corn sugar solution) a good swirl next time.

Chris
 
Just had my first bottle bomb last night too. Fortunately, all of the other bottles are ok. They're downstairs in my basement so they don't pose a threat to anyone, but I'd really rather not have to deal with anymore bottle bombs. What a waste of beer! I never mix my priming solution either. I just put it in the bottom of the bottling bucket and rack on top of it. From now on, I'll make sure to stir it for a little. Here's to hoping we don't get any more bombs in this batch.
 
I see this thread died a while ago. I find the comments interesting.

I have just had my first bottle bombs (2) and it happens to be the first time I didn't stir up the beer after racking it onto the priming sugar.

However I have been away for a week and the temperature got up to 33-34 Celsius a few times - could temperatures that high (and possibly higher in the garage where the beers are) caused the bombs? I used S05.

Also I need to be convinced not stirring up the mixed beer is the problem. I let the beer sit for about 2 hours after racking it before bottling. The sugar was completely dissolved when I put it in the bottling bucket. I can't see how it didn't mix in properly.

Also, the bottles that burst were in the last 3rd or quarter of the batch but not the last of the bottles. So if the sugar didn't mix in properly and sat at the bottom of the bucket the last bottle to be bottled should have been one of the bottles to burst, surely? Or alternatively if most of the sugar stayed near the bottom the bottles that burst should have been the first few to be bottled as the solution with the sugar was nearest the tap and would have come out first....
 
Likefully said:
I see this thread died a while ago. I find the comments interesting.

I have just had my first bottle bombs (2) and it happens to be the first time I didn't stir up the beer after racking it onto the priming sugar.

However I have been away for a week and the temperature got up to 33-34 Celsius a few times - could temperatures that high (and possibly higher in the garage where the beers are) caused the bombs? I used S05.

Also I need to be convinced not stirring up the mixed beer is the problem. I let the beer sit for about 2 hours after racking it before bottling. The sugar was completely dissolved when I put it in the bottling bucket. I can't see how it didn't mix in properly.

Also, the bottles that burst were in the last 3rd or quarter of the batch but not the last of the bottles. So if the sugar didn't mix in properly and sat at the bottom of the bucket the last bottle to be bottled should have been one of the bottles to burst, surely? Or alternatively if most of the sugar stayed near the bottom the bottles that burst should have been the first few to be bottled as the solution with the sugar was nearest the tap and would have come out first....
Click to expand...

If you're uncertain, some people will advise you to sanitize, crack open the caps just until you hear the excess gas escape, and retighten the caps with your capper. I imagine that virtually guarantees that undercarbed bottles will remain undercarbed, but it will help you ensure that overcarbed bottles don't become bombs.
 
FatDragon said:
If you're uncertain, some people will advise you to sanitize, crack open the caps just until you hear the excess gas escape, and retighten the caps with your capper. I imagine that virtually guarantees that undercarbed bottles will remain undercarbed, but it will help you ensure that overcarbed bottles don't become bombs.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I have put all the beers in the fridge and will take my chances...I am not a fan of undercarbed beer!

I bottled the beer on 14 September and when I came back from a week away on the 28th I found the exploded bottles - so am presuming the bottles that haven't bombed are not potential bombs and (am hoping) they have all carbed enough.
 
Likefully said:
Thanks, I have put all the beers in the fridge and will take my chances...I am not a fan of undercarbed beer!

I bottled the beer on 14 September and when I came back from a week away on the 28th I found the exploded bottles - so am presuming the bottles that haven't bombed are not potential bombs and (am hoping) they have all carbed enough.
Click to expand...

Don't presume anything about the bottles. Your bottles that blew may not have been as strong as the rest or the yeast may have acted quicker on those bottles. I had a bottle blow 4 months after bottling so you can't assume you won't have more blow yet either. Temperature will have a large effect on the pressure in the bottles so refrigerating them was the best thing to do and the next best thing is to drink that batch soon as it may still keep carbonating and building pressure.
 
How long are you guys staying in your primary/secondary. Maybe the yeast were not finished yet, and there was still some fermentables when you bottled. Maybe the yeast are not cleaning up all the way and then when you are conditioning your beer at "warmer" temperatures, they start cleaning and you get more co2. Just a thought
 
Inkdrop said:
How long are you guys staying in your primary/secondary. Maybe the yeast were not finished yet, and there was still some fermentables when you bottled. Maybe the yeast are not cleaning up all the way and then when you are conditioning your beer at "warmer" temperatures, they start cleaning and you get more co2. Just a thought
Click to expand...

In my case, I'm pretty sure the yeast wasn't done. The gravity when bottled was at the predicted final but I had used Windsor yeast not knowing that it tended not to finish really well and not thinking that I usually attenuate below predicted FG. I had trouble with 2 batches, one left for only 2 weeks, the other for 3.
 
Inkdrop said:
How long are you guys staying in your primary/secondary. Maybe the yeast were not finished yet, and there was still some fermentables when you bottled. Maybe the yeast are not cleaning up all the way and then when you are conditioning your beer at "warmer" temperatures, they start cleaning and you get more co2. Just a thought
Click to expand...

It was in primary for 16 days and I pushed the temp to the upper end of the range recommended for the yeast for a few days. My previous batch was the same beer and that came out fine and magical things happened to it when it cold conditioned so am hoping that happens again!
 
I think my problem is that sugar wasn't evenly mixed - some bottles definitely have less gas than others. I will always swirl the beer after racking it onto the priming sugar in the future........
 
A while back I brewed a "Who's Your Taddy Porter" (a brown porter). It sat in primary for about 3 weeks, and was done fermenting my multiple checks on the gravity. That particular batch I was preoccupied about something else. After I racked into the bottle bucket I didn't give it a good stir and found out when the bottling bucket still had syrup in the bottom, my error. I have opened 2 so far, and the first was carbonated fine, the next wasn't very carbed at all. I have once again learned, if my mind is busy elsewhere, don't rack.
 

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