Bottle Bomb Risk?

Noobie kinda question: After 11 days in the primary, I bottled a 4 gallon batch of cider (made from generic brand all natural apple juice and a 5 gram packet of Montrachet Dry Wine Yeast). the airlock activity had slowed to about a bubble a minute. I'm too lazy to deal with a hydrometer. I tasted it during bottling and it was quite yeasty still - which i don't really mind. I used a 1/2 cup of dextrose to prime it.

My concern is that even though fermentation had slowed down enough to make me think it was pretty much finished with primary, is there a risk that I will slowly produce bottle bombs? How long would that take? Looking forward to drinking a yeasty cider in a few weeks but don't want to worry about mess and danger with the kids.

Thanks for laying my mind to rest.

Sorry to not lay your mind at rest, but most fermentations take longer then 11 days. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that you are wrong, fermentation definitely could have been complete. But without hydrometer readings, and after only 11 days, I personally wouldn't want to bottle.

But I am an optimistic person and will say that you will most likely just get some good and carbed brew, hoping for your best. As a precaution, you might want to put them in a safe and liquid friendly place. Perhaps a bathroom or just use a tarp.

Only 11 days in the primary with a wine yeast, then to bottle? Yea, I'd be worried about bottle bombs. In the time it took you to write your post you could have easily taken a hydrometer reading. Get a hydrometer and use it. Save yourself the worry, save yourself the headaches, and save yourself the potential of having 4 gallons of bottled cider blowing up on you.

Use your hydrometer money and buy some tweezers, that way you can pick the glass shards out of your face.

I call fake.
"I'm too lazy to deal with a hydrometer" That's just trolling.

It will take longer than that for a decent Cider. Ciders finish out on the order of months. It goes beyond yeasty in the flavor of green Cider, you get some Sulphuric flavors and such. Not very appealing imho. I would be concerned about bottle bombs myself, as stated above. While most Ales will finish out quickly (usually less than 10 days), Cider seems to chug out the last few points over a longer period of time. This is a function of temperature and yeast strain as well.

At any rate, Welcome to the forums.

If you're too lazy to deal with a hydrometer, then I guess you'll be too lazy to clean up the mess from all those bottle bombs.


TL

Assuming you don't do anything else to them (re-bottle, etc), i would at VERY LEAST store your bottles in a thick black Hefty bag or something.

You'll thank me in a couple months.

I would wager money on all of them exploding, 4oz of corn sugar only adds about 1.005 to a 5 gallon batch, and the last .02 of cider take a month to drop fully. They might not bomb out all at once or bomb within the next couple weeks or days but they will bomb if not fully fermented.

OK. Thanks. Thats quite the consensus. Saying that I'm too lazy to use a hydrometer is not a sign of trolling. I've just gotten used to ales that always ferment out in 10 days. There have been whole dialogues on this site about whether you need to bother. Why bother with the risk of contamination by using the thief and hydrometer. OK so 10 days ain't nearly enough for a cider. I get that now. So what do I do besides hunker down in my bomb shelter and prepare for d-day. Can I pop the caps and let out some of the CO2 and then recap? Thanks for your honesty about the risk, but you could be a little more helpful with what to do. BTW, has anyone here actually had a bottle explode on them? From what I've been able to gather it's really a pretty rare occurence despite the fear.

Oh, it's pretty rare because most people wait until fermentation is finished before bottling. But I think in this case it's a 50/50 proposition. You might have wonderfully carbonated cider- or you might have bottle bombs. I just don't know.

I don't have any good advice- beyond use a hydrometer next time. I'd joke and say, "If you're too lazy to use a hydrometer (which takes 15 seconds) I'm too lazy to give advice", but that's not funny and not true. I just don't really know. You could uncap and if one foams out of control crazily, then put them all in a cold place ASAP. If it's ok, then that's good.

YooperBrew said:

You could uncap and if one foams out of control crazily, then put them all in a cold place ASAP. If it's ok, then that's good.

Click to expand...

Does this mean warm? Or Cold?