1st batch, 1st bottle bomb

[MoonMaster]

And damn was that thing loud! My first beer (an Irish Red) has been conditioning in bottles for just over two weeks now and everything seemed to be going well until last night when disaster struck. It was only one bottle, but it was absolutely pulverized and tiny shards of glass were all over my cabinet which was a major pain to clean.

I had understood that this was a very rare occurrence, but having it happen on my first brew was more than a little unsettling. I have been trying to figure out why it happened because now I am very paranoid that it will happen again.

My best guess: the cabinet that I have them in is directly over my stove. I brewed another batch yesterday afternoon so maybe the heat got to it? The explosion was several hours later so I'm not sure if this explains it but now I'm wondering if I should consider relocating them elsewhere.

Also: I used starsan for the first time to clean the bottles and the foam kinda freaked me out so I used a tiny bit of tapwater to rinse them all out before I filled them. This was probably not wise.

The only other explanation I can consider is I was using the full amount of sugar but I only ended up transferring maybe 4 1/2 gallons into the bottling bucket. I dont know if this is a plausible explanation, but I'm trying to figure out the cause.

Which of these is the most likely culprit? I want to safeguard against this happening again!

 

[johnnyspade]

First of all, don't rinse the StarSan ... don't fear the foam. I'm going to start putting that on t-shirts.

You say you used the full amount of priming sugar, how much was that exactly?

 

[Makeyermark]

Is it possible that you bottled before the yeast were done? What were your gravity readings?

 

[mrdauber64]

I also used to bottle condition next to my stove, and after having two bottle bombs out of my first three batches I started bottling conditioning in a separate room away from my any heat sources. I have since done twelve other batches and have not had another bottle bomb. I would suggest bottle conditioning in a place where you don't have fluctuating temperatures.

 

[MoonMaster]

Yea, I know now that rinsing starsan = bad, but they were so loaded with foam it really freaked me out. I bottled another batch yesterday and I left it in, so I have learned my lesson there.

It is entirely possible that the yeast was not done, since I did not check up on my gravity readings like I should have... I forgot to take an OG and my FG was around 1.010. I did not take daily readings at the end, I just did one week primary and one week secondary which a few people had told me was plenty of time.

EDIT: Oh and I didnt see the question about sugar before: it was 5oz.

 

[Monkey55]

Definetely move them away from any heat.

Put them in a rubber container just in case any more explode.

E

 

[MRD911]

Probably a combination of temperature fluctuation and the yeast not being done yet. 1 week in primary and 1 week in secondary is not long enough.
It is best of course to take gravity readings, but if this can not be done a good rule of thumb is at least 3 weeks for fermentation.

MRD