Bulging bottle

I bottled my brew on last Thursday. As a gauge I put 12 ounces into a 16 ounce Poland Spring water bottle. I squeezed all the air out until the ale was right up to the top and capped it. Over the past few days the bottle as expected "re-inflated" to the point where the bottom is bulging out.

How much pressure can the bottle hold? Will it last the full 2 weeks? Does this mean the rest of the regular glass bottles are ready?

A water bottle was never made to hold pressure. If you want to use a plastic bottle, it should be something that had a carbonated liquid in it. I'd worry about it springing a leak and making a big mess in the near future. Might put that into a container or something.

Your glass bottles are likely carbonating just like the plastic one is, but will need a little more time. Give them a full 2 weeks before thinking about trying one and at least 3 weeks before you expect them to be right.

Gustav said:

I bottled my brew on last Thursday. As a gauge I put 12 ounces into a 16 ounce Poland Spring water bottle.
How much pressure can the bottle hold?

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I would seriously suggest putting on some heavy gloves and safety glasses, taking that bottle to the bathtub and opening it up right now, before it gets the chance to burst.

Water bottles are not designed to hold pressure like soda bottles are.

And it WILL explode, rather voilently, if it gets to pressurized. put leather gloves on, maybe safety glasses, and open that then up outside.

don't do it again.

As the others said, water bottles aren't designed to hold pressure. However, you can use any soda bottle with this experiment. I often do this- fill a couple of plastic soda bottles, and cap tightly. When they are rock hard, I stick them in the fridge to get my first sample of the brew. They are a pretty good indicator that the other bottles are carbing up, too. You can use any soda bottle, but I find that the clear sodas like 7UP don't smell up the container as badly as root beer.

I also bought about a dozen 19 ounce PET bottles for bottling so I can take beer in places glass bottles aren't allowed (like beaches, parks, etc) but alcohol is. Amber PET Bottles - 500 ml screw finish

There were expensive, but no beer or soda smell remains in them, so I'm very happy with them.

Even better...
Put it in the back yard in the sun.
Then put a video camera on it.
Then go hide until you hear a boom.

Then upload the video.

Gustav said:

I bottled my brew on last Thursday. As a gauge I put 12 ounces into a 16 ounce Poland Spring water bottle. I squeezed all the air out until the ale was right up to the top and capped it. Over the past few days the bottle as expected "re-inflated" to the point where the bottom is bulging out.

How much pressure can the bottle hold? Will it last the full 2 weeks? Does this mean the rest of the regular glass bottles are ready?

Click to expand...

Be. Very. Careful.

Put on heavy leather gloves, a winter jacket or leather jacket, and safety glasses/goggles. Open it up now and then enjoy the drink, but open it now.

Yes, it's probably overkill, yes, you probably don't need the safety gear. But my buddy made the mistake once of pressurizing a water bottle, (he was making a drano bomb, but the pressure bit is the same)....he went to pick it up, (after it didn't go boom), and when he touched it, it exploded. He has a 4 inch long scar on his hand now where a shard of plastic nearly took off his thumb.

I wonder if it would be safer to stick it in the fridge before opening it. Chill it down and let it absorb some of the CO2 to reduce the pressure.

In my experience with making dry ice bottle bombs, most water bottles usually suffer a small failure and just start leaking long before they get enough pressure to explode. Same reason they don't work for carbonating beer.

Well it's done. I opened it and there was a small phhhhhtt. Cooled it for a while in the fridge along with a pilsner glass. Poured it into the chilled pilsner and enjoyed a flat homebrew.

Gustav said:

Well it's done. I opened it and there was a small phhhhhtt. Cooled it for a while in the fridge along with a pilsner glass. Poured it into the chilled pilsner and enjoyed a flat homebrew.

Click to expand...

LOL, well, so we over cautioned like hell......but 99/100 times you are fine, 1/100 times you have a bad accident...better safe than sorry....

I've heard that club soda bottles are good for test bottles like that. Built for pressure and they don't have root beer or cola flavor impregnated in the plastic.

I've done dry ice water bottle bombs, they were loud as hell, the neighbors came out to see what blew up. We dropped the bottles into a jack o lantern.