Is my friend brewing bottle bombs?

I have a friend who is just getting into brewing and instead of waiting for me to show him the ropes he jumped in with both feet. He has another friend who went out and spent tons of money on canned kits and equipment he doesn't need yet. I tried to help them and give them advice but did they listen? NO.

Here is how their first batch is going. First they are using a Coopers canned, no-boil kit. I have no problem with that for a first batch. Easy, no stress, just through it in the fermenter, top it off, pitch the yeast and wait. They did just that, well sort of. They topped off the carboy all the way to the neck, pitched the yeast, then stood back and said, "hmmm, I don't think that is enough head room". So they racked out about a gallon and then thought they should compensate for the lost sugar and yeast by dumping dextrose and more dry yeast directly into the carboy. Ok ok, I can chalk that up to being a noob. It's no big deal. They shouldn't have any trouble with that as long as the dextrose dissolves completely so the yeasties can get to it. I made sure and told them to check the gravity before bottling and make sure fermentation was complete. I didn't want them to have bottle bombs on the first batch. Did they listen? NO.

They brewed a week ago and bottled tonight with NO gravity readings at all! When I asked them if they checked the gravity they said, "The bubbles were taking about 90 seconds between them". I told them to say a prayer and knock on a lot of wood because they could have bombs a brewing.

We shall see...

Has anyone heard of someone bottling 7 days after pitching yeast and having success? I'd love to hear about it.

Prosit!

Hopefully they listened to you telling them to keep the bottles in trash bags while they age...

or in a large tuperware or something to contain the glass...

Boom goes the dynamite.

This is sounds like a tragedy in the making to me...

The only saving grace they may have coming is if they did not use priming sugar and can get them chilled at the right time. Question stands, did they add priming sugar? because it sounds bad, also what was the exact recipe?

Qeelin said:

Has anyone heard of someone bottling 7 days after pitching yeast and having success? I'd love to hear about it.

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I keg, generally, but if you pitch enough yeast a week should be plenty of time for fermentation to finish up - more than enough, really.

Of course, it sounds like they added extra sugar, and being newbies probably under-pitched. So they might not be so lucky.

Zamial said:

This is sounds like a tragedy in the making to me...

The only saving grace they may have coming is if they did not use priming sugar and can get them chilled at the right time. Question stands, did they add priming sugar? because it sounds bad, also what was the exact recipe?

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I thought the same thing but they used the bottling sugar that came with the Coopers kit. I'm not sure which one they used but it was a dark ale.

PSA #1: Shrapnel is no joke...

PSA #2: Glass splinters under stress or force AND as it moves through solid materials...

PSA #3: Glass does not show up on X-rays...

Oh I have to subscribe to this so I can see something to this extent in a few days:

"UPDATE: Grenades."

It's going to happen.... I'd say 99% chance of shrapnel in their future.

Uh oh...

Your friend didn't jump in with both feet. He jumped off the high dive drunk in the pitch black of night without looking down to make sure there was water in the pool.

Definitely at least make sure he stores those bottles in a VERY safe place, they could really hurt someone. We make jokes here, but high speed glass shrapnel can lead to really bad consequences.

Rut Roh Raggy....

Is a hefty black trash bag enough to contain the devastation?

dantheman13 said:

Is a hefty black trash bag enough to contain the devastation?

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Probably not, I'd put it in something more solid. Preferably a rubbermaid container or bucket... at least a cardboard box. A bag inside or around the container is a good idea but I wouldn't trust a bag on its own.

subscribed!

Can you take pics of the destruction??

Uh oh. Let's see how this goes. I hope they listen to your safety advice at least!

Time is my friend....

The hydrometer is also my friend.....

If that fails, conditioning all the bottles in lidded totes will back up those friendships.

Brewing >3 years, no problems so far......

A large majority of my fermentations are complete within 7 days. The only real exception is lagers. They'll be fine.

BrookdaleBrew said:

A large majority of my fermentations are complete within 7 days. The only real exception is lagers. They'll be fine.

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Key word being majority. Still a slim chance if they pitched old yeast that stalled until it was racked and restarted like my 1st beer did in secondary at 14 days.

It WAS still bubbling when they bottled...just sayin'

Bubbling every 90 seconds could very well just be due to temperature changes or other atmospheric pressure changes. Fermentation is probably over.

I bet they wont have bottle bombs if they used a reasonable amount of priming sugar. But they will have green gross beer.

I'm assuming those kits come with an aggressive yeast, that'll ferment out quickly. Like an S-04 or something which can finish in 3 days.

I've never had a bottle bomb, I can't understand how people get bottle bombs.

EoinMag said:

I've never had a bottle bomb, I can't understand how people get bottle bombs.

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Better knock on wood.

doctorRobert said:

I bet they wont have bottle bombs if they used a reasonable amount of priming sugar. But they will have green gross beer.

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No kidding. I have been tasting my first batch of Coopers IPA, and the first week in bottles it was very apple tasting and sweet. Mind you this was after 4 weeks in a secondary (1 week in a primary, which I think was one of my problems). I tasted it again at 2 weeks in bottles, and the apple taste died down a lot, but it is still a bit sweet.

I can't imagine how bad it would taste if bottled at 7 days.

These guys are so impatient and have had bad beer for so long that they will probably drink it all up in a few days and say it was "Awesome dude!".

They wouldn't know a good beer if it kicked them in the nuts.

It probably finished just fine. I am sure they fermented hot too. How would they know or consider putting it somewhere in the low 60's. Probably got to 75 deg during fermentation.

onthekeg said:

It probably finished just fine. I am sure they fermented hot too. How would they know or consider putting it somewhere in the low 60's. Probably got to 75 deg during fermentation.

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Very true. We ARE in Texas too.

I would start sampling early (5 days in even) and move the entire batch to a fridge when they are exhibiting any degree of carbonation. That will prevent them from exploding. Having said that, if he hasn't listened to you yet, why now? School of hard knocks works too

BrookdaleBrew said:

A large majority of my fermentations are complete within 7 days. The only real exception is lagers. They'll be fine.

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Except those that seem to take 3 days to get started. You know the one's that 20-30 panicked new brewers post about every day, and we have a sticky about how "fermentation can take up to 72 hours to start." Which means that it is just as probable that there bottled beer that has been fermenting only 4 days.....

I'm sure they will be fine. I don't think it will taste great by any stretch and it could really benefit from additional time in the fermenter, but I'd bet those bubbles were from residual CO2 in solution and not the sign of CO2 generation by yeast converting sugar to alcohol.

I'm responding primarily to watch the panic.

I should also note that the vast majority of my ale ferments are over within 72 hours of pitching. That's with proper pitching technique, of course, but consider that an 11g sachet of dry yeast is in most circumstances good cell count.

I've packaged after seven days in primary with no issues. My Mild - which leans strongly on Uncle Charlie's Cheeks to the Wind - often gets packaged after seven days; 48 hours, the ferment is done, 4-5 days after that, it's star-bright and ready for packaging. Tastes just as good as if I leave it sit for weeks. [shrug] YMMV.

In this instance, if they used the sachet in the lid of the tinned kit only, I'd say don some safety glasses. But since they knocked in another sachet of yeast, it better be done fermenting, or there's something really put of whack.

One thing you really need to do is , though.

Cheers,

Bob

beerspitnight said:

subscribed!

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lol...

I'll point this line out from your initial post....

Qeelin said:

I have no problem with that for a first batch. Easy, no stress, j

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Although your friends are probably having no stress about this, we sure as heck are. In a fun way of course....they're just happily oblivious to their possible danger.

Too bad you can't show up in one of these for the ****s and giggles...



On a lighter note, this is what I found on youtube looking for beer bottle bombs.

Wow, that was REALLY dumb Revvy, lol!

In before the chaos

Qeelin said:

Wow, that was REALLY dumb Revvy, lol!

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You think that one was dumb, you should see some of their other videos...that's about 25 minutes of my life I'll never get back. :fro:

Revvy said:

You think that one was dumb, you should see some of their other videos...that's about 25 minutes of my life I'll never get back. :fro:

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I don't doubt it. There's a lot of dumb people out there man...

Well it appears that they dodged a bullet this time. They seemed to find some patience somewhere and let the beer condition for two weeks. I heard that they drank some and they claim that it was good but I'm willing to bet that they have a gusher or two.

Well unless it's already all gone I'm still waiting out for bottle bombs. Two weeks isn't long enough for proper carbonation, let alone over-carbonation resulting in bombs.