Just had my first bottle bomb!!!!!

MileHighHops said:

I made my fiance wear her sunglasses just in case something shot at her eyes.

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Good idea!

I would still be careful.

I do not subscribe to the practice that the swirling beer from the siphon hose in enough to mix the sugar. My second batch ever was a testament to that. I had a little too long of a siphon hose so it was real slow. Didn't mix the sugar. All of my 22's (8 of them) and about a six pack of the first 12s I bottled would empty themselves on the counter when you opened them. Porter fountain. The vast majority of the batch had barely a whisper of carbonation. I bought a big, stainless one-piece spoon and from that point on my bottling bucket gets a gentle stir after racking on top of the priming sugar.

jigidyjim said:

I'm not sure I follow the logic here. It seems that either a) carbonation isn't done yet, since there's very little, or b) your sample bottle didn't have enough sugar.

Why does this point to having a bad bottle? If its (a), then wouldn't the bottle have to be *really* bad to explode when carbonation hasn't even finished?

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By bad bottle, I was meaning a contaminate in the bottle. Not so much a lack of integrity with the bottle itself. Poor wording I suppose. So the theory would be something foreign to the beer was in the bottle and started up fermentation again, which lead to the high amount of c02 in the exploded bottle. Again, it's just my best guess at this point.

smizak said:

I do not subscribe to the practice that the swirling beer from the siphon hose in enough to mix the sugar. My second batch ever was a testament to that. I had a little too long of a siphon hose so it was real slow. Didn't mix the sugar. All of my 22's (8 of them) and about a six pack of the first 12s I bottled would empty themselves on the counter when you opened them. Porter fountain. The vast majority of the batch had barely a whisper of carbonation. I bought a big, stainless one-piece spoon and from that point on my bottling bucket gets a gentle stir after racking on top of the priming sugar.

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I think I'll try that as well. I realize that many people on this board successfully whirlpool, so I'm not doubting that it's possible. I just think there's something subtle about how you set it up that differentiates between a well mixed batch and a not-so-well mixed batch.

OP here, I have new evidence to report that changes my hypothesis.....So, I just opened a bottle that conditioned for 18 days, and two additional in the fridge. It was a gusher! It was foaming like crazy! I tasted what beer was drinkable and it was like drinking champagne. So I opened another bottle that conditioned on that exact same schedule and it had very little head.

Also, I bottled a batch of pale ale last weekend and noticed the end of my siphon hose rose with the beer. Thus, with the sugar being at the bottom of the bucket and the siphon hose rising with the beer the sugar probably didn't mix properly. With the pale ale last week, I gently stirred the beer to ensure a good mix of the sugar. Did not do that with my explosive/gusher/flat amber batch.

With that said, I think I can safely say the bottle bomb was the result of poor mixing of the priming sugar. The first beers I bottled more than likely got more sugar than the end of the batch.

Here's a picture of the gusher. Notice the tiny yeasty producing all of those bubbles!!

Glad you got it figured out.

MileHighHops said:

I was told it was better to use a wand to force the oxygen out of the bottle...so I made the switch. But, with the wand I can't fill as high due to the volume the wand takes up while in the bottle, so I'm left with less beer in each bottle. Could this extra head space have cause the problem? Any other thoughts?

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Not sure having extra head space can cause excess of co2.

What I do is fill the bottle right to the top. Then when you pull the wand out the beer level will drop just to the right amount of head space about an inch from the cap.

MileHighHops said:

Also, I bottled a batch of pale ale last weekend and noticed the end of my siphon hose rose with the beer. Thus, with the sugar being at the bottom of the bucket and the siphon hose rising with the beer the sugar probably didn't mix properly. With the pale ale last week, I gently stirred the beer to ensure a good mix of the sugar. Did not do that with my explosive/gusher/flat amber batch.

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Was the hose actually floating on top of the beer? Or did it just rise somewhat (like maybe 1/4 way up the bucket). I'll have to watch for this next time I bottle.

If you guys get ambitious, here's a thread I started that shows my bottling bucket mod to solve the exact problem you're describing. I had a particularly bad transfer that drove me to act.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/bottling-bucket-mod-220521/

bosco_NJ said:

Not sure having extra head space can cause excess of co2.

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Papazian claims it can, FWIW. The theory is that since yeast is inhibited by pressure, too much headspace allows it to produce too much CO2 for the volume of beer before it reaches its final pressure (conversely, too little headspace causes it to reach maximum pressure too quickly, causing undercarbed beer).

I make zero claim to the validity of either the observation or the explanation. I'm just repeating what Papazian wrote in [i[Joy of Homebrewing[/i].

jsweet said:

Papazian claims it can, FWIW. The theory is that since yeast is inhibited by pressure, too much headspace allows it to produce too much CO2 for the volume of beer before it reaches its final pressure (conversely, too little headspace causes it to reach maximum pressure too quickly, causing undercarbed beer).

I make zero claim to the validity of either the observation or the explanation. I'm just repeating what Papazian wrote in [i[Joy of Homebrewing[/i].

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From my experience I have to totally agree with that. I was going to mention to the OP that same theory but wasn't absolutely positive if it was just my experience or if there was some science behind it.

AustinBrewDawg said:

I wonder if people in higher elevations are more susceptible to bottle bombs. I'm guessing no, if the beer was bottled at the same elevation, but has there ever been anything written about this?

MileHigh, you've got me worried. I bottled my first batch this past Saturday and your process sounds just like mine down to the letter.

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i live at just over 10,000ft. i haven't had any problems yet, but i can attest to having many other products blow up, from chip bags to toothpaste. i have also had glass screw top soda bottles blow off, but they were purchased back in ky.

Ok I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet but 5 ounces of priming sugar sounds high and is probably why you bombed. Knock on wood/stainless/whatever's handy, but I've had plenty of overcarbed beers but not one bomb and the most priming sugar I've used is 4 ounces (and that's usually too much). I'd scale down you priming sugar, you might have to wait longer for your beers to carb, but you won't have the mess, and you should always add the priming solution to your bucket first and then siphon the beer to it.

Cheers!

mkwasnie said:

Ok I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet but 5 ounces of priming sugar sounds high and is probably why you bombed!

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I disagree. According to http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html 5 ounces in a 5 gallon batch gives about 2.8 volumes, something any standard homebrew bottle should hold. Even 5 ounces in a 4 gallon batch is about 3.2 volumes, which is bubbly, but should still be ok in a bottle.

Most kits come standard with 5 oz corn sugar for priming.