Beer bottle dynamite :(

[easymode]

So I have just recently started brewing my own beer. Sadly though, my very first batch ended up exploding. I was hoping somebody could tell me what I did wrong. I followed the instructions on a brewing recipe. It's a recipe that many people have brewed and everything turned out fine. I used all the ingredients they said, except I made one change. After it had full time to ferments in the primary, the recipe said to add 1 cup of sugar after it has been raked. I did this, except instead of adding one cup of sugar I add 2 cups of sugar. I let it sit for almost a full day, and then I bottled it.

So I am wondering if my first problem was I added too much sugar so the yiest produced too much carbonation and caused the bottles to explode.

The second problem is that I used twist top bottles. The glass bottles are much thinner than normal bottles, so my question is, if I used regular glass bottles instead of the twist tops, would the extra cup of sugar still caused the explosion?

A follow-up question, before I go and buy new bottles I was wondering if anyone uses the plastic beer bottles you can purchase. The last brew store I went to said that a lot of people are switching to the brown plastic bottles with twist tops. Has anyone used to use with success, or are these susceptible to exploding also?

 

[meatcleaver]

too much priming sugar will cause bottle bombs no matter what container you decide to go with.

 

[snow16]

Hey live and learn, right?

Seems like you answered your own question correctly...definitely didn't need that second cup of sugar. Also, when adding priming sugar, there's no need to wait a full day for anything. You want that second fermentation to take place entirely within the bottle (with the right amount of sugar next time

As for twist off bottles, definitely avoid those. I've never used the brown plastic bottles but I see no reason why they wouldn't be just fine. But keep in mind that if you add enough priming sugar, any container is susceptible to explosions. Maybe less violent than glass, but still - you don't want to lose your beer!

Before bottling your next batch, Google 'beer priming calculator' and use one of those. Input the amount of beer you're bottling, the amount of carbonation you want, and the temperature of your beer at bottling - and it'll tell you exactly how much sugar to add. Assuming your beer is done fermenting before you add priming sugar and bottle, you won't have to worry about any more bottle bombs.

Best of luck!

 

[Gavin C]

To avoid bottles bmbs there are a few important steps to take.

1Verify you fermentation is complete prior to bottling
2 prepare the correct amount of priming sugar solution and put it into the bottling bucket
3 Rack the beer to your bottling bucket into which you have already placed the correct amount of boiled sugar water solution
4 Use bottles that can withstand the high pressures of bottle conditioned beer. Regular non screw top bottles are best but can be subbed for PET bottles designed for bottling beer

You used far too much sugar. Don't add the sugar solution to your fermented Uncarbonated beer it goes in the bottling bucket. Do this immediately prior to racking the beer to the bucket.

Best of luck next time. Check out the section on bottling in the forum. It's very useful

 

[doug293cz]

Whatever possessed you to double the amount of priming sugar (assuming the OP isn't just trolling)? That would double the pressure in the bottles, and that on top of using weaker bottles is just asking for grenades.

Priming sugar should be weighed, not measured by volume, based on calculated amounts from a priming calculator. Look at Norther Brewer's web site (http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/), Brewers Friend (http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/) or BeerSmith for priming calculators.

You should never use twist top glass bottles. They are weaker and the crown caps don't seal as well.

The plastic bottles take more pressure to rupture than glass bottles, and will not produce shrapnel if they do explode.

Brew on

 

[Kidagora]

As far as priming, be very careful how much you use. There are calculators and sites that others mentioned to adjust for style and carbonation level. Adding too much will easily overcarbonate. Add the exact amount recommended for the VOLUME YOU HAVE and be patient. I cover my bottles with boxes and place them on top of plastic bags in case of bombs. If you don't uniformly mix the priming sugar, some bottles may have more sugar than others causing inconsistent carbonation between bottles. And I wouldn't let it sit all day. Minimize exposure to O2 when bottling. Rack it to your bottling bucket. Check the total volume (is it less than 5 gallon? 4.5 gallons?), boil the appropriate amount of priming sugar for the volume you have in your bucket, cool the priming sugar, gently mix it for ~5 min with a spoon, and then bottle.

Why did you add 2 cups? Was this an accident? Did you want more carbonation? If the total volume was less than 5 gallons (because of trub loss) and you added twice the priming sugar, it's no wonder you had bombs. And it wouldn't matter which kind of bottles you would use...

Well...this was a late post. Second what everyone else said!

 

[shortyz]

oh another bottle bomb thread. shocking.

put in 3/4-1 cup AND NO MORE!

adding more priming sugar does NOT make it carb faster it kills you and your family faster.

 

[RatsoRizzo]

You have all the advice you need about priming and avoiding bottle bombs but a word about PET bottles.

I use the Coopers 500ml brown PET bottles and they work fine. Get a bag of replacement caps as they do wear out after a lot of use. The bottles themselves are hard to clean though. Yeast tends to stick on the inside of the bottles as it drops during carbonation. Normal rinsing with hot water will not remove it. You cannot use a bottle brush either as that will scratch the plastic leaving places for evil bugs to hide. The only way to clean PET bottles is by filling them up with PBW solution and letting that work for an hour or two, empty half of the solution and then shake for a few minutes and rinse two or three times. Unscented dishwasher powder might also work and is cheaper than PBW.

 

[easymode]

Thank you very much for everyone that has replied. I learned so much in this thread. For those of you that were wondering why I added more sugar, it wasn't until after I added the extra sugar that I realized that the carbonation was coming from the east eating the sugar adding pressure within the bottle. I didn't know that. I was adding the extra sugar to make it sweeter, because I'm trying to brew hard to root beer.

 

[azazel1024]

You are probably going to have to filter out the yeast and pasturize to get something like hard root beer (to avoid dead yeast flavors) and then force carbonate it. That or you'll need to add a lot of unfermentable sugar, a lot. Lactose is what is used in Milk stouts to make it sweeter. Lactose is not terribly sweet, so you'll need to add a lot of it, if I were to guess, something like 2-3lbs of lactose in a 5 gallon batch.

It still will be fairly mild on the sweetness compared to normal soda.

 

[Psylocide]

oh another bottle bomb thread. shocking.

put in 3/4-1 cup AND NO MORE!

adding more priming sugar does NOT make it carb faster it kills you and your family faster.

So, add 3/4 - 1 cup to a 1 gallon batch?

 

[Yooper]

So, add 3/4 - 1 cup to a 1 gallon batch?

No. for beer, you'd use about 2/3-3/4 cup for a typical 5 gallon batch. It is much more accurate to use a scale, though, and use 4-5 ounces by weight.

I'm not familiar with hard root beer, but that would be a tricky one since you want a sweet drink in the end. The yeast will eat any fermentable sugar, creating bottle bombs. For root beer soda, the bottles are refrigerated as soon as they are firm and that slows down the yeast. There is a very slight amount of alcohol from the bottle fermentation, but it's very low and even kids can drink it. With a combination of sweetness, alcohol, and carbonation, a hard root beer could be a definite recipe for bottle bombs. The yeast won't know when to stop. A kegging set up is probably the only safe way to do this, but it could work with plastic bottles and quick refrigeration possibly.

 

[Psylocide]

No. for beer, you'd use about 2/3-3/4 cup for a typical 5 gallon batch. It is much more accurate to use a scale, though, and use 4-5 ounces by weight.

I'm not familiar with hard root beer, but that would be a tricky one since you want a sweet drink in the end. The yeast will eat any fermentable sugar, creating bottle bombs. For root beer soda, the bottles are refrigerated as soon as they are firm and that slows down the yeast. There is a very slight amount of alcohol from the bottle fermentation, but it's very low and even kids can drink it. With a combination of sweetness, alcohol, and carbonation, a hard root beer could be a definite recipe for bottle bombs. The yeast won't know when to stop. A kegging set up is probably the only safe way to do this, but it could work with plastic bottles and quick refrigeration possibly.

Sorry Yooper, I was being sarcastic there... should probably keep that out of the beginner's forum, but the post I quoted was a little harsh and um, wrong... especially if you don't know the batch size.

 

[easymode]

I just talked to some home brew experts at a local shop and they said for 1 gallon it's 1.25oz granulated sugar, or 2oz honey. Lol so that's a huge difference in the amount of sugars.

I can use truvia, which I will use in the next batch and see how it works out.

I do have lactos in it, but that's more for adding a full body flavor.

 

[Gavin C]

I would use corn sugar ( dextrose) for priming

 

[doug293cz]

I would use corn sugar ( dextrose) for priming

Why? Do you have supportable evidence that it is better than other sugars?

Brew on

 

[MaxStout]

One question for the OP: Do you have any unexploded bottles remaining from that batch? If so, go uncap them, RIGHT NOW. I'll wait.

Seriously, you don't want any repeat performances. Put on a pair of goggles before uncapping them and open them carefully over a sink or outside.

 

[Gavin C]

Why? Do you have supportable evidence that it is better than other sugars?

Brew on

None but I find it a lot easier to measure accurately than honey that the OP says was used. AIn addition honey can be somewhat messy. I'm afraid I don't know what studies would measure the messy coefficient of a priming sugar.

 

[1977Brewer]

None but I find it a lot easier to measure accurately than honey that the OP says was used. AIn addition honey can be somewhat messy. I'm afraid I don't know what studies would measure the messy coefficient of a priming sugar.

I tried priming with whole sugar cane. What a mess

 

[MindenMan]

How did whole cane sugar make a mess, did you not dissolve it water first?

 

[1977Brewer]

That was the hard part. Leaves everywhere. Not to mention the Puerto Rican kids sleeping on the couch.

 

[easymode]

I have one bottle that did not explode. It was only half full. I put it in the fridge to stop the yiest.

When it comes to using honey, it's pretty easy. It's only 1.99oz for a gallon (2 oz rounded up). Just have a cup of water (boiling hot) on your scale and Zero it out. Then slowly pour in the honey until you hit 2 oz. stir to dissolve it and let it cool a bit, then add it to the batch.

 

[Gavin C]

How did whole cane sugar make a mess, did you not dissolve it water first?

Whole sugar cane not cane sugar

 

[doug293cz]

None but I find it a lot easier to measure accurately than honey that the OP says was used. AIn addition honey can be somewhat messy. I'm afraid I don't know what studies would measure the messy coefficient of a priming sugar.

I wouldn't bother with honey either. Just about any granulated sugar can be used to prime with equal ease. All should be weighed, rather than measured by volume. Volumes for priming are small enough that flavor contribution is minor, if detectable at all.

Brew on

 

[mrgrimm101]

I use dextrose (corn sugar) and once I learned the proper racking/priming technique in my bottling bucket, I haven't had a single problem. Dextrose is easy to handle and measure, it's not messy like honey, and you can get 5oz bags from most LHBS..it works perfect for me. It's been said already, but if you wanted to backsweeten you need to add non-fermentable sugars. Whatever sugar you added was fermentable and the yeasties went to town on it. Also, as stated before, you definitely didn't need 2 whole cups. When I prime, I use the online calculator from NorthernBrewer (link at the bottom of this post). Depending on style, I typically use 3-4 oz of priming sugar. As stated previously, you should prime the batch and bottle right away. There's no need to let it sit for any period of time before bottling. Lastly, I would stay away from twist-off caps as well. The glass is said to be thinner and weaker and I never trust them to seal properly (maybe I'm paranoid).

Sorry I realize everyone already touched on these points..I just wanted to put my 2 cents in.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

 

[xjvhj]

too much priming sugar will cause bottle bombs no matter what container you decide to go with.

 

[Owly055]

Assuming a 5 gallon recipe, the recommended priming is about twice what I use for most of my beers.... depending on style. I can't imagine adding that amount of priming sugar. My procedure is to add priming sugar (syrup) as I transfer into a container I use for cold crashing. It sits in this container for several days to a week...... depending on available bottles, and then I bottle it. Due to the natural tendency toward randomness of distribution of particles in a solution (entropy), it is impossible to have uneven distribution from bottle to bottle.
Entropy really means the tendency to move from order to chaos........ Ah.....wouldn't that also apply to bottle bombs ;-)

H.W.

 

[mrgrimm101]

Assuming a 5 gallon recipe, the recommended priming is about twice what I use for most of my beers.... depending on style. I can't imagine adding that amount of priming sugar. My procedure is to add priming sugar (syrup) as I transfer into a container I use for cold crashing. It sits in this container for several days to a week...... depending on available bottles, and then I bottle it. Due to the natural tendency toward randomness of distribution of particles in a solution (entropy), it is impossible to have uneven distribution from bottle to bottle.
Entropy really means the tendency to move from order to chaos........ Ah.....wouldn't that also apply to bottle bombs ;-)

H.W.

What kind of syrup? I would imagine that you would have better distribution of priming sugars in the beer if you racked on top of the priming solution in the bottling bucket and let the hose coil to create a swirling motion. Cold crashing can be done prior to getting the priming solution ready. Sometimes I use a stirring spoon/paddle to gently(so as not to create bubbles/foam) stir the solution and beer. I've done it this way for many batches and I always seem to get good, consistent carbonation in every bottle.

What would be the benefit of adding the priming solution and then letting the batch sit for multiple days? Why wouldn't you just prepare the solution and bottle all in the same time frame?

 

[azazel1024]

What kind of syrup? I would imagine that you would have better distribution of priming sugars in the beer if you racked on top of the priming solution in the bottling bucket and let the hose coil to create a swirling motion. Cold crashing can be done prior to getting the priming solution ready. Sometimes I use a stirring spoon/paddle to gently(so as not to create bubbles/foam) stir the solution and beer. I've done it this way for many batches and I always seem to get good, consistent carbonation in every bottle.

What would be the benefit of adding the priming solution and then letting the batch sit for multiple days? Why wouldn't you just prepare the solution and bottle all in the same time frame?

Yeah, I gently stir with a large paddle spoon so as not to introduce any aeration. So far, no issues with that and rare is it that my bottles are unevenly carbonated (I have had a couple of batches over carbed and a couple under carbed, but none that have been unevenly carbed).

I switched with corn sugar to just granulated cane sugar. It costs a small amount less and the color contribution is minor (at a guess, it is around 2SRM when I boil in 3oz to about a cup and a half of water). Just took a bit of adjusting because of the higher CO2 potentail of cane sugar over corn sugar. I also ALWAYS have a ton of it sitting around where as corn sugar I'd have to get at the LHBS, make sure I had enough for bottling day AND it is messier. Downside, cane sugar is kind of harder to dissolve in water, but it just means a small amount more effort.

3.5oz per 5 gallon batch +/- a little depending on the style and temp of the ale/lager at bottling time.

 

[GHBWNY]

With a combination of sweetness, alcohol, and carbonation, a hard root beer could be a definite recipe for bottle bombs.

This^ Been there, done that. After ~24 hrs. @ room temp, bottles will like be rock-hard. Stick in fridge immediately or else...

 

[Owly055]

What kind of syrup? I would imagine that you would have better distribution of priming sugars in the beer if you racked on top of the priming solution in the bottling bucket and let the hose coil to create a swirling motion. Cold crashing can be done prior to getting the priming solution ready. Sometimes I use a stirring spoon/paddle to gently(so as not to create bubbles/foam) stir the solution and beer. I've done it this way for many batches and I always seem to get good, consistent carbonation in every bottle.

What would be the benefit of adding the priming solution and then letting the batch sit for multiple days? Why wouldn't you just prepare the solution and bottle all in the same time frame?

I do things the way I do because it's efficient.......... I transfer into my cold crash container which has a spigot. At that time I add priming sugar water syrup with some gelatin. I bottle directly from the spigot..... I don't use a bottling bucket. It also pretty much guarantees good distribution without any swirling, etc..... I can't imagine that I would possibly get better distribution by swirling or mixing than by letting nature take it's course. My cold crash container serves as my bottling bucket.

Think entropy........... Entropy is a very real force, so real that it creates measurable osmotic pressure.... We all studied osmotic pressure in high school physics didn't we? Even gravity itself is recently said to be an entropic force....... though the theoretical physics behind that one is way beyond me. Entropy is what your wife sees when she's gone for a week and comes home to chaos, or what you see in your kid's room........... A very real force that drives things from order to chaos. Take sugar water or salt water and if you could place it alongside fresh water in a container without disturbing either at all.... a completely static situation, they would soon become mixed and homogenous with no apparent motion at all. The force is so great that if separated by a semi permiable membrane that water can pass through but not sugar or salt, the water level on the salty or sugary side will be observably higher............. an amazing world we live in!! Some of these forces are so ingrained in every day experience that we do not recognize them at all.

H.W.

 

[mrgrimm101]

Fair enough.

 

[easymode]

So how long do you let it sit with the priming solution before you bottle it?

 

[Owly055]

So how long do you let it sit with the priming solution before you bottle it?

Until I have enough empty bottles..... often it could be a week.... I try to run on a week cycle. A week in primary, a week in secondary (I don't transfer), and a week in cold crash.



H.W.

 

[easymode]

I read on a few brewing sites that once the east is done for imaging, which is about a 3 to 4 day process, that it should sit for two weeks befor bottling.

Is that not accurate?

 

[doug293cz]

I read on a few brewing sites that once the east is done for imaging, which is about a 3 to 4 day process, that it should sit for two weeks befor bottling.

Is that not accurate?

The bulk of active fermentation can often be complete in 3-4 days, but the yeast has not finished its work at that point. There are lots of compounds that can be created during fermentation that will lead to off flavors in the beer. Many of these can be metabolized by the yeast if you give the yeast a chance to do it. Many people like to go at least three weeks before they consider bottling, to let the yeast clear things up. Usually all the time can be spent in the primary fermenter.

Before you bottle, you want to make sure that the yeast have at least converted all the sugars they can to alcohol. Otherwise when you bottle, there can be more sugar in the bottles than you planned, which will lead to over-carbonation and possibly bottle bombs. To make sure the yeast are done with the original sugar, take SG readings at least two, and preferably three days apart. When you get two successive SG readings that are the same, it is safe to bottle.

Brew on