Mr. Beer Keg Explodes!!!

Well, I brewed two new batches on Sunday. I have two Mr. Beer kegs I got for Christmas.

The Honey Maibock is doing fine.

I brewed Love Potion Lager in an attempt to get my wife to drink some beer.
It is made with Whispering Wheat Weizenbier, Golden Wheat UME, a can of dark, sweet cherries, cinamon and nutmeg. I put it into the keg Sunday night.

Monday afternoon, it was going crazy. All types of fermentation going on I guess. It looked like the cherry particles were on a crazy ride swirling all around. Later it started hissing once in a while and spit out some foam from the top. I called the "experts" at Mr. Beer and his response was it just happens sometimes when you brew with fruit. He said remove the lid after putting on safety glasses and gloves. I asked about it ruining the beer and he said it was more important not to blow up the house. He could not provide me with any reason why it would be doing this. I did crack the lid allowing the pressure to escape. I did this several times as it continued to build. I, for one, am not about to ruin 2.5 gallons of beer on purpose.

Bedtime came and I let out the pressure again and loosened up the lid a lot. Not enough I guess. When I woke up, I found some purple foam on the wall and ceiling and no lid on the keg. I found pieces of the lid about twenty feet away. The beer had not blown out as it was still real close to the starting level. The foam had blown everywhere thoguh and the top was in 8 pieces. The beer was still doing it's crazy fermenting thing so I glued the top back together and sterilized it and put it back on loosely.

It seems to have calmed down now. Hopefully the beer is okay. With that much positive pressure, maybe no bad things got in.

Anyone have this happen before? Any insight as to why it might have happened?

The good thing to come out of this is now the wife gave me approval to get the two glass carboy setup at my local brew store. Once these are done, goodbye Mr. Beer. I still may keep them to experiment with.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. If nothing else, it is a funny story.

Eric

Sheepdog said:

The good thing to come out of this is now the wife gave me approval to get the two glass carboy setup at my local brew store. Once these are done, goodbye Mr. Beer. I still may keep them to experiment with.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. If nothing else, it is a funny story.

Eric

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It's a great story, with a happy ending, you get to further the obsession! There's been some great blowout stories around here but that's a classic. :rockin:

Pix would have really been good too!

Ize

Yes, I should have grabbed the camera, but was more pissed and surprised and just didn't think about it.

Oh well, let my go find one of my pale ales from the first batch.

Eric

Aren't you supposed to ferment with the cap loose on those things? I would think fermenting in any sealed vessel would lead to explisions...

Their directions say to keep it capped. If you remove the lid, you ruin the beer according to them.

There are two slots cut into the top of the keg to allow air to escape. It was hissing slightly and spitting out a little foam most of the day. Maybe a cherry piece got stuck in the slot and it caused it not to vent.

It is okay because I'll have real equipment next week.

Then I'll have to bug you guys a lot.

make the holes bigger, moot though...

No, I don't think I have ever been on that one.

Sheepdog said:

Their directions say to keep it capped. If you remove the lid, you ruin the beer according to them.

There are two slots cut into the top of the keg to allow air to escape. It was hissing slightly and spitting out a little foam most of the day. Maybe a cherry piece got stuck in the slot and it caused it not to vent.

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My guess is that you overfilled it. Probably the amount of beer you had was fine, but you didn't account for the extra volume taken up by the cherries. If you'd put in, say, half a gallon less beer, I bet it would've been okay.

I wondered about that. Their directions clearly state to fill up to the 8.5 qt mark and then add the fruit, which I did.

All other recipes end up with 8.5 qts though, so you may be exactly right.

I've blown the lid off of more than one plastic bucket. When you get the carboys, be certain to get blow-off tubing.

When you get the carboys, be certain to get blow-off tubing.

sorry about above, but make sure the carboys are in a safe area, b/c now you are dealing with glass

MMr Beer will explode if you overtighten the lid. Ut vents via 3 dumples in the thread. Overtightening defeats this vent.

Sounds like the perfect excuse to get a couple of carboys, airlocks, and blow off tubes!

Genghis77 said:

MMr Beer will explode if you overtighten the lid. Ut vents via 3 dumples in the thread. Overtightening defeats this vent.

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I don't think it was overtightened as it was spitting foam and hissing all day. I do think a piece of cherry or something got in the holes and blocked them off which gives the same result.

For those of you who have lost a top, did it ruin your beer? It looked fine at first, but after a day is just sitting there with hardly any foam on top. Any ideas to save it? Or should I just keep waiting and see what happens?

Thanks, Eric

I have blown many bucket lids and carboy stoppers out as well. One reason why I now use blow off tubes and put the carboy in the bathtub with the curtain drawn. Last time I woke up to a bang in the house and thought someone had broke in.........hahaha! Nope, just the bucket lid hitting the ceiling in the bathroom

anthrobe said:

I have blown many bucket lids and carboy stoppers out as well. One reason why I now use blow off tubes and put the carboy in the bathtub with the curtain drawn. Last time I woke up to a bang in the house and thought someone had broke in.........hahaha! Nope, just the bucket lid hitting the ceiling in the bathroom

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I've never blown a lid or airlock from my plastic bucket, but a buddy of mine had one helluva mess: The krausen foamed up into the airlock and got all globbed up in there. When he went to remove and clean it, the foam spewed all over him, the walls, and up to his 11-ft ceiling. Biggest damned mess he's ever had.

ColoradoXJ13 said:

make the holes bigger

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That's what she said.

Sheepdog said:

I don't think it was overtightened as it was spitting foam and hissing all day. I do think a piece of cherry or something got in the holes and blocked them off which gives the same result.

For those of you who have lost a top, did it ruin your beer? It looked fine at first, but after a day is just sitting there with hardly any foam on top. Any ideas to save it? Or should I just keep waiting and see what happens?

Thanks, Eric

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Dude, the beer should be fine. If there was enough pressure to pop the lid off, then there was probably enough positive pressure without the lid to keep baddies from getting inside. I've had not-quite-secure carboy bungs pop out before, and things turned out just fine.

Cool, I was going to keep going with it anyways. I ain't throwing away that much beer without being sure.

I am glad I am not the only one this has happened to.

Carboys with blowoff tubing, here I come.