Bottle Explosion!!

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killerhertz

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So I'm sitting down watching TV and BOOM I hear an explosion in my closet. Of course, this is where I keep my beer. Out of sight from the evil sun and sitting in a black garbage bag.

Turns out a bottle from my Old Ale decide to relieve itself of it's neck and cap. LOL! Forgive my newbness, this is only my 3rd brew.

What causes this? Was the yeast not done fermenting? I had it in primary for a week and secondary for two weeks. It was fairly close to the final desired gravity. Here are the gravities for my recipe:

Est Original Gravity: 1.072 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.076 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.021 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.17 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.20 %​

And carbonation:

Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar Volumes of CO2: 2.4
Pressure/Weight: 4.2 oz Carbonation Used: -
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 70.0 F Age for: 42.0 days
Storage Temperature: 70.0 F
​
I hadn't planned on tasting this for a month, but I decided to crack one to check the carbonation, being I had an explosion.

It seems a bit over-carbonated on the pour. i side poured at 45 degrees and had half a glass of transient head. The carb seems fine once the head settles.

Any ideas?
 
My friend, you've just experienced a bottle bomb. It's uncommon, but it happens because the beer wasn't finished when you bottled it. Since there was sugar remaining, in addition to the priming sugar you added, the yeast keep working, building pressure until...BANG!

1.021 is pretty high for an FG, though I'm sure your fermentation had slowed quite a bit since the beer was beginning to get high in alcohol, and the yeast were probably getting a little tired. They're not tired enough, though!

You need to contain those bottles, now! Carefully put them all into a plastic container. Wear some long sleeves and safety glasses or a face shield. Carefully open them all, then recap. Leave them in the plastic container for safekeeping until you're sure you've alleviated the problem.
 
MOD EDIT: Threads merged.

I bottled my Oatmeal Stout on March 9, 2008. Today three bottles exploded. I'm wondering why? I think it had to do with temp control in the room. But I'm not sure.
 
killerhertz said:
Est Original Gravity: 1.072 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.076 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.021 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.17 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.20 %​
Click to expand...
Here's the issue. It wasn't done fermenting when you bottled. That extra few gravity points is where the extra CO2 is coming from. You can purge the bottles of a little CO2 and then recap them to save the rest from becoming grenades.
 
killerhertz said:
,,,Here are the gravities for my recipe:

Est Original Gravity: 1.072 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.076 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.017 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.021 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 7.17 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.20 %​
Click to expand...

Wow....

Completely missed the obvious there....

and this is why I refrain from night time posting.......
 
5 gal. Partial Mash kit
O.G. 1.052
after one week fermenting the specific gravity was 1.014
I waited one more week then I bottled on 3/9/08.
Fermentation temp was around 75 F.
Used 2/3 cup corn sugar for priming.
I kept the beer inside cardboard boxes in a room with a/c. But for the past two weeks I was keeping the a/c off when I was not home to conserve energy. During the day the I believe the temp was anywhere between 78 F - 88 F
 
castillo, it sounds like your beer was finished when you bottled.

How did you prime? Did you dissolve the corn sugar in hot water, then add that to the beer, or did you just add dry sugar to the beer?

If the priming sugar is not mixed well, some bottles could have gotten more than their share of it, resulting in a few bottle bombs.
 
I dissolved the corn sugar in hot water and poured it into the bottling bucket. Then I racked the beer into the bottling bucket.
 
You used the best method I know of to mix the priming sugar. It's still possible that it was unevenly mixed, but it's not likely. Your beer may not have been completely done fermenting. In the future, take two hydrometer readings about 3 days apart. If the SG has not changed, it's time to bottle.

For now, see my first post in this thread and do some damage control. You can also refrigerate the bottles to slow the carbonation process, but they may eventually explode if you don't relieve the pressure.
 
I've already opened all the remaining bottles and every time I opened one the beer would shoot up out the bottle. But this is not the end... I submitted four bottles to the Sam Adams Longshot Homebrew contest about two weeks ago.
 
castillo said:
I've already opened all the remaining bottles and every time I opened one the beer would shoot up out the bottle. But this is not the end... I submitted four bottles to the Sam Adams Longshot Homebrew contest about two weeks ago.
Click to expand...
It's probably worth a call to SA to forewarn them that your bottles might be on the volatile side.
 
...and be careful - I had one explode in my hand only last week. Carton of long necks (800ml) that I had made years ago. Pretty rank tasting which is why I still had them. Was opening them and watering my lemon tree with them. Put the bottle opener on the top of one and boom. No cuts. Lucky. I will wear gloves and glasses if I have to do that again (which I shouldn't have to ;))
 
Cooling the beer helps keep the CO2 dissolved.

Potential Bottle Bombs should be carefully moved to a fridge. Seperated from each other with cloth or cardboard or something else. If too close together you can literally have a chain reaction if they're all ready to go. Cooled as much as possible and then carefully opened.

Cooling from 70 F to 38 F can really contain alot of the potential energy in a bottle bomb.

Rudeboy
 
This scares the crap out of me. I just bottled an IPA after kegging everything for the last 8 months. I know I did everything right but apparently so did castillo. Those Sam Adams guys will be in for a rude awakening! Could this be construed as a mail bomb?:rolleyes:

Regards,
Al
 
Yuri_Rage said:
My friend, you've just experienced a bottle bomb. It's uncommon, but it happens because the beer wasn't finished when you bottled it. Since there was sugar remaining, in addition to the priming sugar you added, the yeast keep working, building pressure until...BANG!

1.021 is pretty high for an FG, though I'm sure your fermentation had slowed quite a bit since the beer was beginning to get high in alcohol, and the yeast were probably getting a little tired. They're not tired enough, though!

You need to contain those bottles, now! Carefully put them all into a plastic container. Wear some long sleeves and safety glasses or a face shield. Carefully open them all, then recap. Leave them in the plastic container for safekeeping until you're sure you've alleviated the problem.
Click to expand...

In general, how close is necessary to the estimated final gravity from the measured? I figured 4/1000 of a point wasn't much.

Will a lot of CO2 be lost from recapping? I'd hate to have lousy carb in my final beer. I guess that's better than no beer, or beer all over my floor :)

Edit: Indeed I think the yeast was overwhelmed from the alcohol and gave up for a bit. Bottling probably roused it and caused it to ferment the remaining sugars. I did take two separate FG measurements 2 days apart though and they were identical. I assumed it was ok to bottle then, not knowing that yeast could get "tired" from the alcohol.
 
So, here's what I think happened:

You racked the beer very early, taking it away from the hard working yeast. The remaining yeast, already working slowly because of their lack of numbers, began to "poop out" in the secondary at greater than 7% ABV. As a result, fermentation had slowed to a point where two days wasn't long enough to note a discernible difference in SG. Your beer wasn't done, it was just crawling to the finish. You got excited about bottling, and went ahead, even though the estimated FG hadn't quite been reached. A few weeks later...BANG!

How do you fix this in the future?

Easy. Patience. An OG of 1.070 or greater means rather big beer. Big beer needs time. NEVER be in a hurry to rack the beer out of the primary fermenter. Wait until it's close to the FG (you can leave it there for a month with no ill effects). I wait until it's completely done fermenting before racking. Then, give it some time to clear up. Don't just bottle based on hydrometer readings. The whole reason you racked was to get the beer away from the bulk of the yeast and trub while continuing to let it bulk condition and clear. For a big beer, a month of bulk conditioning is probably in order. Once the beer has dropped mostly clear, and the SG has stabilized for at least three days, start thinking about bottling.

Also, .004 points is fairly significant. I like to see my beer get within +/- .002 of the estimated FG.
 
Yuri_Rage said:
So, here's what I think happened:

You racked the beer very early, taking it away from the hard working yeast. The remaining yeast, already working slowly because of their lack of numbers, began to "poop out" in the secondary at greater than 7% ABV. As a result, fermentation had slowed to a point where two days wasn't long enough to note a discernible difference in SG. Your beer wasn't done, it was just crawling to the finish. You got excited about bottling, and went ahead, even though the estimated FG hadn't quite been reached. A few weeks later...BANG!

How do you fix this in the future?

Easy. Patience. An OG of 1.070 or greater means rather big beer. Big beer needs time. NEVER be in a hurry to rack the beer out of the primary fermenter. Wait until it's close to the FG (you can leave it there for a month with no ill effects). I wait until it's completely done fermenting before racking. Then, give it some time to clear up. Don't just bottle based on hydrometer readings. The whole reason you racked was to get the beer away from the bulk of the yeast and trub while continuing to let it bulk condition and clear. For a big beer, a month of bulk conditioning is probably in order. Once the beer has dropped mostly clear, and the SG has stabilized for at least three days, start thinking about bottling.

Also, .004 points is fairly significant. I like to see my beer get within +/- .002 of the estimated FG.
Click to expand...

Thanks Yuri.

At the time I thought I was patient. I used Wyeast London Ale (#1028) for the high alcohol tolerance and it went insanely active very early and petered out just as quickly. I did take a SG measurement before racking to secondary, but it's in my log at home and I can't recall. I suppose I get paranoid of all those dead yeast nasties tainting the beer. Sounds like I don't have to worry about this concern for a few weeks in primary from now on.
 

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