Woot! My first bottle bomb!

My first bottle bomb went off yesterday, on my 12th batch: An AHS Promotional Amber Ale.
It finished high, about 1.019 FG instead of the 1.012 it was supposed to, but after 4 weeks in the carboy (2 weeks at about 62-65 deg, 2 weeks at 76 deg) and repeated agitation, that gravity was going nowhere. I used Safale-04 yeast for the batch. Used 4.5 oz of priming sugar and stirred well at bottling time, and used cleaned and oven-sterilized bottles of various shapes and sizes.

The bomb went off 2 days after bottling inside a closed rubbermaid-type plastic storage thingy to a loud pop and was thankfully contained inside the container. No other bottles seem to have been damaged, but I didn't dare take too close a look yet, since it happened around the time of peak fermentation activity inside the bottles.

I am planning on just letting the other bottles sit for a couple of more days before gearing up with gloves and eye protection to take the bottles out, drain the mess (to avoid mold), and place the bottles back in the bin. Unless any more of them blow, I suspect the deceased bottle may have been weakened by too-rapid oven sterilization or some other fault (maybe having been dropped), so I am not too worried. If any more blow, I'll stick the rest into the fridge for 2-3 weeks.

you seem a little too excited about having a bottle bomb, that isn't a good thing. I would do something with the rest of that beer, so you don't get a bunch more bombs, or at least open another one to see what your carbonation is at.

chill the beer! then open one to see what it is like.

html034 said:

you seem a little too excited about having a bottle bomb, that isn't a good thing. I would do something with the rest of that beer, so you don't get a bunch more bombs, or at least open another one to see what your carbonation is at.

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I am not excited per se, but I figure that what happened can't be changed now, so I might as well make the best out of it. I am glad that it happened on a batch I am not particularly excited about, and that my precautions for minimizing damage seem to have paid off.

What happens during the next 18 hours or so will determine how I will handle the situation. I may well have to chill, vent and re-cap, but I'll evaluate that tomorrow - it may well have been a one-bottle infection, a defective bottle or an excessively rapid fermentation.

ArcaneXor said:

I am not excited per se, but I figure that what happened can't be changed now,

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AND you were smart (Spelled LUCKY) enough to have it contained.

Any crash you walk away from is a good crash. Congratulations man.

It was as I suspected - the carbonation level in the bottles I cracked open was normal, with no gushing whatsoever. It must have been a bad bottle or single-bottle infection that caused the bomb.

Out of curiosity...

Did you prime the entire batch together in the bottleing bucket or add sugar to individual bottles?

rmck1 said:

Out of curiosity...

Did you prime the entire batch together in the bottleing bucket or add sugar to individual bottles?

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I primed in the bottling bucket, using a solution of 4.5 oz dextrose in ca. 500 mL boiled/chilled water.
If I prime bottles individually, I always use Munton's Carbtabs, but I didn't do that for this batch.

One more reason to get out of that god forsaken bottling. Never had a bottle bomb but i wonder what a keg bomb would be like. I think kegs are rated to 130psi. Anyone down for an experiment????

Just to follow up, that solitary bottle bomb was definitely a defective bottle that probably got overstressed when I oven-sterilized.

I had one on my first batch. I bumped the bottle on the counter top, must have weakened it. I'm more careful washing the bottles now!

- Eric

Mythbusters did a show on what happens when drunk morons throw a keg onto a bonfire. The explosion was epic. Steam everywhere.

My stepdad had a bottle explode just like that, elowe. He was setting it down on the concrete floor and it popped in his hand. Luckily just the bottom fell out of it, no harm done.