Bottle Bomb #1

I thought I was good enough to have this not happen to me. That was a mistake.

The real mistake was not mixing the priming solution enough! My bottling bucket's spigot had a leak, so I skipped the bucket and just swirled the mixture into the beer.

Five weeks later, after drinking my wheat beer for a solid 2 weeks a 24oz glass bottle explodes in my closet. Since I had used the big bottles first in bottling, I cracked open the remaining 2 and sure enough! Beer gushing everywhere. The rest are in the fridge in a paper bag, but I imagine these are the under-carbed beers that I kept running into.

I know there's plenty of info on the forums already, but it always helps to have reminders: STIR YOUR PRIMING SOLUTION WELL!!!

So how did you bottle without your bottling bucket?

An LHBS in San Francisco recommended to my brother to bottle right out of the fermenter. Siphon. The old guy was paranoid of infection.

I'l bet some on here know him: Grizz at Brewcraft. Nutty dude.

jaycount said:

So how did you bottle without your bottling bucket?

Click to expand...

I just didn't transfer over into another bucket. I poured the priming solution into the carboy via funnel, then using the auto siphon stirred the beer. (albeit, not well enough apparently!)

I've done this before with good results. But those times I must have stirred the solution in well enough, and gave it time to mix thoroughly.

Edit: I wouldn't be so afraid of infection so long as you have StarSan on your side! I also would recommend using a bottling bucket. I'm not sure why someone at a LHBS that stocks StarSan would recommend to skip it...