MileHighHops
Well-Known Member
My fiance and I were just getting ready to relax and enjoy our Sunday evening when we heard a loud explosion. My first reaction was, damn that cat..what did he knock over this time? We ran into the living area (we have a 1 bedroom condo...not much room) and immediately noticed the beer pouring out of our buffet/cabinet. It was a damn mess. There were 6 broken bottles inside the cabinet. I'm guessing 1 blew up and decapitated 5 others in the process. I had about 40 bottles conditioning in there and about 50 other empty bottles, not to mention all of our wine glasses on the shelf above. All were covered in beer and shards of glass.
I was so paranoid that another one was going to blow during the clean up process that I made my fiance wear her sunglasses just in case something shot at her eyes. We quickly washed off all of the remaining full bottles and wrapped in trash bags in sets of 4 bottles per bag, then covered all in another trash bag, then covered that with two cardboard boxes in preparation for another bomb.
So, here are the facts of the explosive beer:
-Brew date was 4/2/11, 5 gallon batch partial boil
-American Amber extract kit which was pieced together by LHBS
-6lbs of LME
-3/4 lb of Crystal 40 Malt
-1/8 lb of Victory Malt
-1 oz Falcon Flight HopPellets 10.5% at 60 min
-1/2 oz Centennial HopPellets 9.2% at 30 min
-1/2 oz Centennial HopPellets 9.2% at 10 min
-White Labs East Coast Ale Yeast
Dry Hopped with 1oz 5% Cascade HopPellets (I added this to recipe)
OG = 1.048
FG = 1.014
ABV = 4.54%
74 IBUs
-Pitched yeast at 69 degrees
-Fermented in primary for 13 days at 72-75 degrees
-Secondary for about 2 weeks with 1oz Cascade dry hop
-Used 5 ounces of priming sugar at bottling, boiled in water, poured into bottling bucket, then siphoned beer on top with the siphon at the bottom of the bucket. Should have been an even mix of sugar
-Bottled on 4/29, so bottles are at 9 days bottle conditioning
-They've been in a dark cabinet at about 75 degrees
I tried one at 7 days (1 day in fridge) and it was good but definitely not anywhere close to being fully carbed. It was pretty flat
So....what are some explanations for this? I just assumed this happened when there was too much C02 pressure in the bottle. But a buddy of mine told me he read somewhere this can happen from a contamination of some type in the bottle. I like to think I'm pretty thorough with my sanitation methods, but I do collect all my bottles used so maybe something slipped through. Also, I used a bottling wand for the first time with this batch. In the past I would always just use the spigot and fill to about an inch below the cap. Never had any problems but 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?
I was so paranoid that another one was going to blow during the clean up process that I made my fiance wear her sunglasses just in case something shot at her eyes. We quickly washed off all of the remaining full bottles and wrapped in trash bags in sets of 4 bottles per bag, then covered all in another trash bag, then covered that with two cardboard boxes in preparation for another bomb.
So, here are the facts of the explosive beer:
-Brew date was 4/2/11, 5 gallon batch partial boil
-American Amber extract kit which was pieced together by LHBS
-6lbs of LME
-3/4 lb of Crystal 40 Malt
-1/8 lb of Victory Malt
-1 oz Falcon Flight HopPellets 10.5% at 60 min
-1/2 oz Centennial HopPellets 9.2% at 30 min
-1/2 oz Centennial HopPellets 9.2% at 10 min
-White Labs East Coast Ale Yeast
Dry Hopped with 1oz 5% Cascade HopPellets (I added this to recipe)
OG = 1.048
FG = 1.014
ABV = 4.54%
74 IBUs
-Pitched yeast at 69 degrees
-Fermented in primary for 13 days at 72-75 degrees
-Secondary for about 2 weeks with 1oz Cascade dry hop
-Used 5 ounces of priming sugar at bottling, boiled in water, poured into bottling bucket, then siphoned beer on top with the siphon at the bottom of the bucket. Should have been an even mix of sugar
-Bottled on 4/29, so bottles are at 9 days bottle conditioning
-They've been in a dark cabinet at about 75 degrees
I tried one at 7 days (1 day in fridge) and it was good but definitely not anywhere close to being fully carbed. It was pretty flat
So....what are some explanations for this? I just assumed this happened when there was too much C02 pressure in the bottle. But a buddy of mine told me he read somewhere this can happen from a contamination of some type in the bottle. I like to think I'm pretty thorough with my sanitation methods, but I do collect all my bottles used so maybe something slipped through. Also, I used a bottling wand for the first time with this batch. In the past I would always just use the spigot and fill to about an inch below the cap. Never had any problems but 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?