I'll be brewing on Saturday so I thought tonight would be a good time for starters. I had some bottles of Fat Tire yeast slurry saved in the fridge for about a year, and apparently when you keep them in an icy prison for 14 months they get a little hacked off. When I was ready to pitch them into the wort I pried the cap off...and it exploded! The top ring of the bottle went flying, and apparently bounced off my finger. I have a half-inch cut on the side of one finger and smaller nicks on two more.
Thankfully I was able to get the stopper and airlock in before I realized I was bleeding or I might have gotten a little rattled. I checked it over, realized no limbs were missing, and didn't see blood *inside* the container. Thankfully I was able to staunch the flow with a towel and finish up the starters one-handed. I'd have stopped but I didn't want to feel like a wuss or waste yeast (the Fat Tire yeast was the Wyeast VSS strain, and I also had a smacked pack waiting to pitch in the other starter).
The bottle cap got mangled pretty bad as well so there was a *ton* of pressure inside that bottle. We've been saving small quantities of starters in 12-oz bottles and apparently not leaving enough headspace, so they become bottle bombs. I'm not sure if the bottle opener (shaped like a shark) caught the edge of the glass or if the pressure was too much, but we gotta rethink this idea.
Or wear safety equipment.
Thankfully I was able to get the stopper and airlock in before I realized I was bleeding or I might have gotten a little rattled. I checked it over, realized no limbs were missing, and didn't see blood *inside* the container. Thankfully I was able to staunch the flow with a towel and finish up the starters one-handed. I'd have stopped but I didn't want to feel like a wuss or waste yeast (the Fat Tire yeast was the Wyeast VSS strain, and I also had a smacked pack waiting to pitch in the other starter).
The bottle cap got mangled pretty bad as well so there was a *ton* of pressure inside that bottle. We've been saving small quantities of starters in 12-oz bottles and apparently not leaving enough headspace, so they become bottle bombs. I'm not sure if the bottle opener (shaped like a shark) caught the edge of the glass or if the pressure was too much, but we gotta rethink this idea.
Or wear safety equipment.
