bottling question - Bottle bombs?!?

Hi,

So I bottled 3 batches last week and I was wondering if I could get opinions if on the potential for bottle bombs. I didn't use any chemical stabilizers and here's why:

1) 2 batches had gravities at 0.996 or less and had been at these grravities for
weeks.

2) 1 batch is a bochet and had a gravity of 1.002. This gravity has been stable for a month or more. I also brought this mead into a warmer area of the house to see if action started up again (ec1118). Haven't seen action for about a month.

I had to leave a case of wine at my parents in their basement and keep picturing an explosion...eek!

Thanks for any opinions!

How did you carb the bottles? what priming sugar and how much did you use? how did you add the priming sugar? I have had bottle bombs before but it was as a result of a total rookie mistake. I was trying to have a beer ready for a party, so I bottled before I got a stable FG. As a result the beer never made it to the party because they blew up one by one. It was a wasted batch. But with a stable FG you will likely be ok.

I don't see anything in the OP about carbing.

huesmann said:

I don't see anything in the OP about carbing.

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Correct me if I mis understood, but I thought his concern was bottles exploding after he bottled? That generally is a result of over carbonation, either due from too much priming sugar or the beer still actively fermenting when it goes into the bottles causing them to over pressurize and break the glass. I guess I assumed because he was bottling that he was carbonating in the bottle. I know you could bottle with a product like the beer gun but bottle bombs after that would be less likely. OP are you bottle conditioning?

fluidmechanics said:

Correct me if I mis understood, but I thought his concern was bottles exploding after he bottled? That generally is a result of over carbonation, either due from too much priming sugar or the beer still actively fermenting when it goes into the bottles causing them to over pressurize and break the glass. I guess I assumed because he was bottling that he was carbonating in the bottle. I know you could bottle with a product like the beer gun but bottle bombs after that would be less likely. OP are you bottle conditioning?

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It's mead not beer.

You should be fine. What was the SG on the Bochet?

Hi,

Yes there was no priming involved...more just concerned that the mead isn't finished fermenting. The bochet was a peach bochet..so with canned peaches and the juice. Also I only burnt about a 1/3 of the honey. The starting gravity was 1.09 and I started it on Oct 19/12. It fermented aggressively for a week and then slowed.

For the other 2..no reason to be concerned right?

Thanks,
Erin

Also...I only bottled because I was moving across the country and had to get the mead out of carboys!!

I think the bochet has some potential, simply because mead can take a few months to drop those final points and the yeast choice is well known for going dry (below 1.000) with an OG of 1.090. Typically you can see a good level of carbonation with a drop in SG of 0.003-0.004, a very sparkling cider would drop 0.005-0.006. So, the potential is there, but hopefully you will just have sparkling mead and no bombs.
What type of bottle did you use?
I had a mead with same yeast, same OG, good nutrient load and I was convinced it was stable at 1.003. It was bulk aging and out of curiosity I checked it 4 months later and it was down to 0.997--and it stayed there for the remaining 8 months that it aged prior to bottling.