Did I make bottle bombs??

Hi all,

I recently found out the hard way that using 6.5L glass carboys for the primary fermenter is not a good idea!

I made a batch of Brew House Oktoberfest and a batch of Brew House Winterfest simultaneously, and the resulting blow off was equal to losing about 3 liters from each carboy.

That sucked.

Today I finally bottled both batches in 650ml glass bottles, and I'm wondering if I'm going to end up with bottle bombs since I did not decrease the priming sugar at all even though the volume of wort was only 20 liters or so as opposed to the regular 23 liter yield.

I used the Munton's beer conditioner package for each batch which is intended for a 23L batch, should I have removed some of it before adding it to the wort for priming at bottling, or will it be ok adding the beer conditioner to only 20L or so of wort?

I'm hoping that having 3 or so liters less of wort and still adding the package of priming/conditioner intended for 23L wont cause the bottles to explode, what do you think?

Should I be worried?

Thanks!

Chris

I think you should be ok. I have accidentally done this before with no negative repercussions. That said, I was using plastic bottles that were easier to monitor.

You'll be fine. It's not like bottles will explode.

deafil said:

You'll be fine. It's not like bottles will explode.

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Is that sarcasm?
LOL

I've had one explode and it's not pretty.

johnmcc said:

I've had one explode and it's not pretty.

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Now I'm worried!

Lol! It's more likely they will turn out alright. If you are paranoid you can re cap the bottles again. thumbs up

Nah, should be fine. If its only a 3l loss the beer might carb up a little higher than anticipated, but I wouldn't worry about any bottle bombs.

I was worried about bottle bombs with my first batch. I kept the boxes my bottles came in and returned the freshly filled bottles to them in case there were to an explosion.

It's nothing to be worried about.

For example, if the max temperature was 68°, and the amount of priming sugar used was enough to carbonate to 2.7 volumes (it's probably less, but just to make a point...), it will now instead be carbed to 2.9758 volumes.

It's just not a big deal.

emjay said:

It's nothing to be worried about.

For example, if the max temperature was 68°, and the amount of priming sugar used was enough to carbonate to 2.7 volumes (it's probably less, but just to make a point...), it will now instead be carbed to 2.9758 volumes.

It's just not a big deal.

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Kewl,
Thanks for all your replies!

Until I get more knowledge and experience in this, I'll probably be a bit on the paranoid side, especially when it comes to things that could potentially explode.

LOL

I noticed that when I'm using that beer enhancer, that when I fill the bottle, and then just lay the cap on top until I get a half dozen or more that I will then apply the capper to, the caps sorta hop around a bit on the top of the bottle!

It doesn't do that when I'm just adding dextrose as a primer, so I'm guessing the CO2 starts right away when you add the enhancer.

I opened a bottle of the earlier batch of Festa West Coast IPA that's only been in bottle for 5 days, (which I used the enhancer as primer) and it already produced a huge creamy head and was fizzy! Very impressive!

Thanks again all!

Chris

I definitely wouldn't use a 6.5L glass carboy to ferment a 23L batch.
But using a 6.5 gallon carboy as a primary fermenter for 19 - 20 L batch works out fine. I wouldn't like to go above 20 liters however because I keg, and anything over 19 liters just gets thrown away.

-a.

ajf said:

I definitely wouldn't use a 6.5L glass carboy to ferment a 23L batch.
But using a 6.5 gallon carboy as a primary fermenter for 19 - 20 L batch works out fine. I wouldn't like to go above 20 liters however because I keg, and anything over 19 liters just gets thrown away.

-a.

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Actually,
I asked on a few forums about using a 6.5L glass carboy as a primary, and was told "no problem", just use a blow off tube for the overflow.

What I wasn't told was that the overflow was LOST beer...ugh/

LOL

Live and learn!!

Chris

6.5gal carboy is the only primary I've ever used and never had a problem.

I've done a few brew house kits and only add 4 liters instead of the 8 (did this with ipa ) it increases abv but lowers bottle count , added hops and dry hopped.

Come bottling time I used all the sugar included without second guessing it turned out fine wasn't even overcharbed.

NScooknet said:

Actually,
I asked on a few forums about using a 6.5L glass carboy as a primary, and was told "no problem", just use a blow off tube for the overflow.

What I wasn't told was that the overflow was LOST beer...ugh/

LOL

Live and learn!!

Chris

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I would have thought that it was pretty obvious that you couldn't ferment 23 liters in a 6.5 liter carboy.

-a.

ajf said:

I would have thought that it was pretty obvious that you couldn't ferment 23 liters in a 6.5 liter carboy.

-a.

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Well maybe it is for someone experienced like yourself, but for a newbie, it's hard to know what to expect.

That's why I ask.

????6.5L carboy.. you meant gallons....right? As long as it was fermented out in primary it will be fine. If you do have a concern, check one in a week or two. There is a thread for over carb bottles and how to fix it. Cheers

BOBrob said:

????6.5L carboy.. you meant gallons....right? As long as it was fermented out in primary it will be fine. If you do have a concern, check one in a week or two. There is a thread for over carb bottles and how to fix it. Cheers

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Hahaha

I'm an idiot...lol.

Us Canadians have metric drilled into our heads from a young age, and I'm just old enough to be in that era where I was a young school boy when they were changing over to metric, so i have a lifetime of "meaning" to say gallons, but mistakenly say or "type" liters....LOL

I hate trying to convert everything all the time, but the world doesn't run on metric alone, so I have no choice.

Sorry about that, thanks for the correction!

Yes, it's a 6.5 GALLON glass carboy!

My confusion is simply knowing what kind of fermentation i'm facing when choosing a primary fermenter, for example, the Festa kits barely make a little fart, with only a very thin scum of krausen on the surface, but the Brew House kits seem to go crazy with a very violent fermentation.

I'm learning!

Chris