Bottle explosion question

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I know exploding bottle syndrome is caused by overcarbonation and bottling your batch before fermentation is complete. I just had an explosion tonight however from a batch that doesn't fit those criteria and I'm looking for answers as to whether I should be worried about all my homebrews from now on. Here's my batch

Style: Scottish Ale (extract)
Brew date: 11.20.11
Bottled: 12.11.11
OG: 1.037
FG: 1.012
Yeast: Wyeast 1056 American Ale

My cause for concern stems from the fact that when this batch became drinkable in late December, it was very very flat: almost no bubbles and very unsatisfying. I've opened them periodically up until now and they've gained a little carbonation but by no means incredible head or overcarbonation to speak of. So my question is: Did this one explode because it's been sitting around for so long and it builds up? Or is this just a fluke and I don't need to worry about putting a timestamp on all my bottles so I don't accidentally give bombs to people?

Thanks ahead of time.
 
What did you use to carb p the bottles? It it possible that more of it ended up in some bottles causing some (one) to overcatb while others are flat?
 
Could it have been a faulty bottle that had a weakness in it?
 
I had problems with exploding bottles because I hadn't made sure the priming sugar was mixed well enough. I just put it in the bucket, racked on top of it, and bottled. Several of the "early" bottles filled exploded. The "middle" bottles were great carbonation-wise, and the "later" bottles were flat.

Make sure to get the priming sugar mixed up somehow (gentle stir, or put it in in increments while racking).
 
4-5 oz of priming sugar. I most likely just poured it on top of the batch and was afraid of oxygenation so I didn't stir thoroughly. The problem I have is I'm not sure how much beer I have in my glass carboy so I wait until it's transferred off the trub and into my plastic bottling bucket to calculate out how much priming sugar I need. What if I use my stir plate to mix the beer with the sugar so there is no surface agitation?
 
If you put your priming sugar solution in the bottom of your bottling bucket, then lay your siphon tube at the bottom, once the beer starts flowing, it will cause the whole thing to gently swirl, which should sufficiently (and evenly) mix the sugar into the beer.
 
If you put your priming sugar solution in the bottom of your bottling bucket, then lay your siphon tube at the bottom, once the beer starts flowing, it will cause the whole thing to gently swirl, which should sufficiently (and evenly) mix the sugar into the beer.

Just make sure that your tube is indeed at the very bottom. I guess that mine wasn't. I had a nice swirl, but still had very uneven carbonation, with the early bottles over-primed (I could tell it was the early bottles, because I filled the bombers I had up first - 4 out of 10 of those bombers exploded, and 3 of the remaining were VERY fizzy).
 
If you put your priming sugar solution in the bottom of your bottling bucket, then lay your siphon tube at the bottom, once the beer starts flowing, it will cause the whole thing to gently swirl, which should sufficiently (and evenly) mix the sugar into the beer.

I thought so too and was getting uneven carbonation with almost every batch. Once I started sanitizing a spoon and gently stirring the beer (being careful not to splash) I no longer had the issue of uneven carbonation.
 
How long does a bottle bomb usually take to explode after being bottled?

Sounds like 69Bronc's bottles exploded right away, while mine exploded around 7 months later. So it all depends on how overcarbed they are. Mine were so flat to begin with, that an exploding bottle was the last thing I would have expected. I suppose it is also possible that one bottle got infected and that caused extra pressure.
 
Sounds like 69Bronc's bottles exploded right away, while mine exploded around 7 months later. So it all depends on how overcarbed they are. Mine were so flat to begin with, that an exploding bottle was the last thing I would have expected. I suppose it is also possible that one bottle got infected and that caused extra pressure.

That's what you get for not drinking your beer right away. ;)
Just messing with ya.
I guess i was thinking if a bottle was gonna blow it would do it within a few days of bottling. The seven month deal is kinda scary. I told my wife about the possibility of bombs and she just gave me THE LOOK.
 
Sounds like 69Bronc's bottles exploded right away, while mine exploded around 7 months later. So it all depends on how overcarbed they are. Mine were so flat to begin with, that an exploding bottle was the last thing I would have expected. I suppose it is also possible that one bottle got infected and that caused extra pressure.

My first one exploded after about 3 weeks in the bottle. The next ones exploded the very next day. I subsequently transferred all of them to the fridge in hopes to salvage some brew. No more exploded after the transfer.
 
Usually bottles that are way over carbonated will explode sooner rather than later. If they were in the bottle and were fine and then at a much later date began exploding an infection has occurred and began consuming the in fermented sugars.
 
Usually bottles that are way over carbonated will explode sooner rather than later. If they were in the bottle and were fine and then at a much later date began exploding an infection has occurred and began consuming the in fermented sugars.

This. Only reason I could think of why it'd wait so long. Something got in there that's chewing through the residuals slowly.
 
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