Bottle grenades

I recently bottled my first batch after 11 days in primary (don't have a secondary yet, but I timed 2+ mins between gurgles.) I'm using 12 oz glass Heineken bottles. I added 3/4 cup dextrose for priming prior to bottling, and the storage temp is about 65 degrees. So far so good, but a friend told me some horror stories about homebrews resulting in "bottle grenades" that made a humongous mess. I see no reason why 3/4 cup would be a problem, but I was wondering if there were any danger signs I should look out for? Ie. is there any way to tell if a bottle is approaching critical pressure? Thanks!

The only way that I know of to check them, would be to open one up and see if there is an excessive amount of foam. Like if it starts spewing everywhere. Eleven days in the primary is a decent amount of time if it wasn't a high gravity brew, but if it was me, I would have waited until the bubbles stopped.

How long has it been in the bottles? If it has been a while, you could open one up and check. If it has a LOT of foam, put the rest in the fridge...

I was in Monterrey in Feb. Where were you?

Anyway, there are several reasons for bottle grenades.

The MOST common reason is bottling too early. If you did not check the FG reading and it was not within the FG range for the style then you bottled fermenting beer PLUS added more sugar. BOOM!!

Second reason is OVERPRIMING. Can also be a subset of reason 1.

Third reason is you let it OVERcondition. Once your beer has achieved the carbonation level you desire you should refridgerate the bottles to retard the process (puts yeast into a dormant state) or else they'll continue to carbonate.

There are other reasons, but those are the biggies.

I personally never heard of anyone with bottle bombs from making home brew. Generally you should wait for the fermentation to finish, therefore flat beer before you add the corn sugar and bottle. It sounds to me like your fermentation was about complete and you should have no problems. I don't know how long ago you bottled, after 4 or 5 days you can open a bottle and there should be slight carbonation if the beer shoots out like a volcanic eruption then you might have a problem.

The only time I've had bottle bombs is when I made root beer. I had a thread a while back on root beer and everyone that replied had bottle grenades and they sell root beer kits for children over 8

davidkrau said:

The only time I've had bottle bombs is when I made root beer. I had a thread a while back on root beer and everyone that replied had bottle grenades and they sell root beer kits for children over 8

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Same here!

yeah i kind of thought bottle grenades were just an urban legend created by big breweries to disuade people from home brewing, a friend of mine from brazil told me that youll go blind if you drink homebrew, stuff like that.

but i guess it can happen, if you either use the wrong type of bottles, (i had a vinnegar bottle bust on me), or if you bottle too soon.

i dont know about over-carbonating by way of over conditioning. I think if you stick to 1 cup or less corn sugar, youd be allright. I know that trappist ales are usually over-carbonated, but i dont see how that would make 'em blow up. I had one the other day that was bottled in 2004, and left on a warm shelf, and besides being slighty over carbed it was ok.

ive heard of beers that were infected that once opened the ENTIRE beer shot out like a cannon. Then again, beer bottles can hold alot of pressure, and unless the bottle's integrity is compromised they should be fine...

Going blind could happen with MOONSHINE, not beer.

Eeech ... Wish I'd held out for a couple days more, just to be on the safe side. I'll crack one open tomorrow and see how it plays out. If you hear about seismic unrest on the CA coast slightly off the usual fault lines, it's just me being out of luck.

HB99: I was here, as always. It's a nice town, but it seems the closest HBS is in Santa Cruz almost an hour drive away. Oh well, morebeer.com has free shipping...

Thanks guys!

i've never produced bottle grenades - but a friend of mine has. it was his fault as he was from the school of "a little is good - a lot must be better" in regards to priming sugar. he said thery were so scary he donned a motorcycle helmut - gloves, and leather jacket and gently uncapped all of the remaining.

brewhead said:

he said thery were so scary he donned a motorcycle helmut - gloves, and leather jacket and gently uncapped all of the remaining.

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Hmm... Sounds like my approach to fireworks when I was a kid -- I'd always spring for the biggest damn thing in the store, and then I'd be too stingy/stupid to leave the duds alone when there was a theoretical chance I could make'em go off with a little extra help. Fortunately, I was never successful.