Bottle Bomb Disposal

A few weeks ago I had a bottle of my hefeweizen explode in my closet. I had only ever had one other bottle bomb (also a hefeweizen) which I had determined was due to using a cider bottle that wasn't meant for the pressure of beer.

Well today I had another from the same batch give me a scare when it gushed upon opening so I went to uncap the rest. It was a good thing I wore long sleeves, gloves, a ski mask and eye protection as one shattered the top of the bottle as it opened sending small shards flying. I dumped the beer out and threw away all the bottles from the batch just to be on the safe side as a few had noticeable damage near the lips. It's surprising that the bottle bombs have only just started happening as the beer was bottled about 6 months ago and, while heavily carbonated, hadn't shown any issues until now. I've always been an advocate of not dumping beer, but when it becomes this hazardous there shouldn't be any thought required.

Just thought I'd share my story for anyone else who suddenly discovers this danger.

I had a batch of oatmeal stout from one of my first batches that I had the same trouble with. The final gravity was high but stable for a month in the fermentor before bottling. I didn't really like the beer so they sat around for a while before starting to explode.

I was nervous loading them in a rubbermade tote to take them out of the house to dispose of them.