Bottles keep exploding - 1st brew.

My first brew was an extract version of Yooper's Stone Ruination clone. I only pulled 4 gallons of brew out, but didn't measure before pulling it out. I had assumed that I had 5 gallons of brew, so that is how much priming solution I put in.

I had one of my bombers explode a couple of days ago. I thought maybe it was just a bad bottle. But, two more of my bombers exploded today.

My original gravity was 1.076. Final gravity was 1.011.

None of my 12 oz bottles have exploded yet. Just the bombers - which sucks I have lost a lot of beer.

Should I just refrigerate the rest, or de-cap and re-cap?

refriderate.

+ 1 on refrigeration

Wear gloves and eye protection just in case.

+1 On the cold box, if you could put them in something with a lid, it might save some clean up.
Jim

I got all of the bombers in my garage fridge. Luckily, I had all of these stored in a large rubbermaid container - so cleanup has been relatively easy. I am still at a bit of a loss as to why it happened, though. From what I have read the difference in the amount of corn sugar shouldn't be enough to create bombs.

The brew sat in the fermenter for just a bit over three weeks. I guess one mistake is that I only took one gravity reading right near the end - which was 1.011 as indicated above. Perhaps it dried out even further.

I thought I was extra-anal about cleaning and sanitizing, so I wouldn't suspect a bug of any kind.

Good news is that the wife suggested that I just go ahead and start kegging. But, before that happens I have to clear out some space in the garage. This means building a shed, which is something that I have been wanting to do any way.

Oh well.

Ok, so out of curiosity, I cracked one of the small 12 oz bottles tonight. With the way that the bombers were exploding, I was expecting serious foaming. I had thrown this 12 ozer in the fridge with the bombers yesterday. Well, no foaming. Actually, the beer was really flat - almost no carbonation at all. These have been bottled for almost 2 weeks. I have read that it takes up to 3 weeks (maybe longer for high OG beers) to carb up, but with the bombers exploding, I was really expecting more foam - maybe not CO2 dissolved in the beer, but definitely was expecting foam.

Then I got to thinking - I filled the bombers up first. Maybe the priming sugar solution didn't get mixed up well? I just poured all of the solution into the bottom of the priming bucket like Palmer's book says. I had read Revvy's post about splitting it up, but honestly didn't think about it at the time of bottling. I just put it all in the bottom. So maybe most of the sugar ended up in the first few bottles? I don't know.

So, I am going to leave the 12 ozers out in the 70 degree temps enclosed in coolers in case another one bursts. The bombers are going to stay in the fridge. In another week or two, I will crack some and see what unfolds.....

Oh, and BTW, although it was fairly flat - the brew tasted amazing.

if you filled the large bottle first, and they are the ones exploding and the 12oz ones are flat,

it sounds like your priming sugar wasn't mixed well in your bottling bucket and just sitting at the bottom.
I always boil my sugar and add it as a cooled solution as the buckets filling

Is a bomber the same as a growler? I didn't think they were made for in-bottle carbonation, but only to hold already-carbonated beer, such as you might pull from a keg.

to me, a bomber is a 22oz bottle

smyrnaquince said:

Is a bomber the same as a growler? I didn't think they were made for in-bottle carbonation, but only to hold already-carbonated beer, such as you might pull from a keg.

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Bombers are 20-24 ounce bottles and are usually fine for in-bottle carbonation.

I would say that amandabab has the right idea. You possibly didn't have your sugar mix thoroughly and the first bottles filled got all of the sugar from the bottom of the bucket. Also its possible that the bombers have more beer but the same amount of headspace as the 12 oz and the yeast produced more gas that had no where to go??? Maye a lot of yeast left in your bottled beer and a quick fermentation kicked up after the bottling sugar???

smyrnaquince said:

Is a bomber the same as a growler? I didn't think they were made for in-bottle carbonation, but only to hold already-carbonated beer, such as you might pull from a keg.

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When I say bomber, I am referring to 22 oz. cappable bottles.

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone.