My first bottle bomb

Ironically enough, it's not my beer. A buddy gave me 12 of his first batch. He'd screwed up priming (forgot to boil the sugar, just threw it into the bottling bucket) and probably also bottled before fermentation was done.

The first 3 were flat - so I'd left the rest to carbonate - and the next 2 were overcarbonated. I started worrying about bottle bombs, and sure enough, when I checked, one had popped.

I've thrown the remaining 6 into the fridge, to be drunk tomorrow!!!, but worry that cooling them will pop them in the fridge. Worried that SWMBO might get hurt....or me...

Will cooling them tend to pop them quicker? if yes, then I'll pull them out, put them in the garage, and drink them warm.

It's a shame, because it's a really good beer, just overcarbonated. An amazing first effort.

For my beers, I'm having trouble getting enough carbonation, and he gets too much...*SIGH*

I would think the fridge would be fine, because it would slow any fermentation. However the cooling might increase pressure, but I thought cooling decreased it... Not sure tho. I think you will be fine. Use cooking mits while moving them if your real worried.

The fridge will help. It should allow more CO2 to go into solution, decrease the pressure, and slow the carbonation process if any sugar is left. Still, be careful with those bottles.

Yuri_Rage said:

The fridge will help. It should allow more CO2 to go into solution, decrease the pressure, and slow the carbonation process if any sugar is left. Still, be careful with those bottles.

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Thanks Yuri. I suspect there's no sugar left, but tomorrow night will be a beer fest let's hope it's a safe one...

In the meantime, I'm going to put them into the veggie crisper by themselves. that should keep everyone safe.

I had two cases start exploding once. Once. That's all the times you need in order to drill it into your head to never bottle if the FG ain't right.

I had 5 bottles explode. The rest I chilled overnight and then, wearing a paintball mask and work gloves, uncapped them one at a time. EVERY bottle was a volcano, gushing about half the beer out as foam before it settled.
2 cases down the drain. I have not tried to make a stout since...

fortunately, these aren't gushers, I can get them into the glass before the foam gets too bad. But the glass is about 3/4 head, 1/4 beer and it takes about 10 min before the head drops.

as Yuri said co2 is more soluble in a liquid at colder temperature (this is why priming calculators ask for beer temp). so between the colder temp making the co2 more soluble and stopping or at least slowing any more fermentation you should be ok. just be careful when opening.
the only problem ive ever had with bombs is using Heineken bottles for a wheat beer and aiming for over 4 volumes of co2. and even then only 2 bottles split in half or popped the bottom off, no real explosions.

I had some bottle bombs on my last beer, which was high gravity.

If you rebottle a gusher do you have to reprime or can you just recap after filling them back up due to any loss? I just recapped.

killerhertz said:

I had some bottle bombs on my last beer, which was high gravity.

If you rebottle a gusher do you have to reprime or can you just recap after filling them back up due to any loss? I just recapped.

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Just recap. Re-priming will just give you more bombs.

drank 2 of them last night. popped the top, and it sounded just like a regular beer, no gusher, but it was all foam going into the glass & the foam took forever to die down. Pretty much a 1/2 hour wait until I could drink it.

So, I realized I couldn't drink 6 of these, so it'll take a couple more days

I had one batch that was mostly gushers when I first started brewing. A few weeks ago I had a bottle that blew out the bottom. I think the glass weak. I went to load up some beer in the fridge and grabbed that one I thought I capped an empty bottle.