Exploding Barleywine Bottles: My Latest Failure

[Saint_Doyle]

I have been struggling with a Barleywine I made almost a year ago. There has been no activity in the air lock for several months though it still had a suspiciously high gravity reading of 1.029. It was suggested that I bottle it up and forget about it for another couple months.

2 weeks after bottling my Barleywine reared its ugly head once more.

Of my original 48 bottles only 27 remain. I have moved the survivors into my temperature controlled kegerator (currently set at 55 F). None of those have exploded thus far.

Here's some necessary information on the history of this brew:
-OG: 1.085
-FG: 1.029
-There was no air lock activity for several months before bottling.
-I dissolved the sugar in 2 cups of water on the stove and let it cool before adding it to the beer, so it should be evenly distributed.
-The bottles used were commercial bottles that I had cleaned and sanitized in my dish washer.

My questions for the forum:

1) Will 55 F be a low enough temp to stop further carbonation, or do I need to put them at regular refrigerator temperatures?

2) Given the number that have already exploded, do I need to open these remaining bottles and re-cap them?

 

[Saint_Doyle]

Here's a few more pictures of the disaster. I cleaned broken glass shards for 3 hours today.

See that little brown spot on the ceiling? That is a piece of shrapnel stuck in the ceiling. This picture was taken about an hour after I'd begun vacuuming up glass. There were tiny shards everywhere. I had a heavy blanket (~5 lbs) folded over and placed on top of this box. It had blown the blanket completely off the box and onto the closet floor.

It seemed to be a chain reaction, with one bottle exploding and setting off its neighbor. Next time I bottle anything I am going to put each bottle in an old sock to save me hours of clean up time after they all blow up.

I should also point out that this is the same beer that exploded out of my carboy when I was aerating it and got all over my dog and wife. My dog did NOT enjoy it, and my wife broke out in hives where it touched her skin. I'm fairly certain this beer will kill me when I drink it, if the bottle doesn't blow up in my hand.

On a plus note, what I have tasted of it isn't too bad.

 

[passedpawn]

I should also point out that this is the same beer that exploded out of my carboy when I was aerating it and got all over my dog and wife. My dog did NOT enjoy it, and my wife broke out in hives where it touched her skin.

100 hail mary's. damned dude it's a demon beer.

I'd open all the rest and let out some gas. No brainer at this point.

 

[runningweird]

that's ugly. Taking pictures of that would have made me an unhappy camper. way to stay strong. best to do as passedpawn says and uncap.

 

[beerandloathinginaustin]

If I were passing through Norman anytime soon I'd knock on your door just to give you a hug. A year of aging just to have a ton of bottle bombs is rough.

 

[scrambledegg81]

Hate seeing a good brew turn south on you like that.

With heftier beers like barleywine, the FG absolutely has to be reached or at least finish out very close to the intended FG, otherwise you end up with brewsasters like this one. For future reference, if you get a stuck fermentation like that, it's best to check your fermenting area (average temperature & amount of sunlight), adjust the conditions as needed (warmer/cooler locations, cover the fermenting vessel with a black t-shirt or towel), and possibly re-pitch another vial/smack pack of what you initially used. Sorry for the loss.

x2 for the re-cap idea, by the way.

 

[smokinghole]

Holy **** I guess I've been lucky. I have two bottles blow up since I started brewing. I suspect they were bottles with minor defects though. Luckily for me they did not set off a sympathetic detonation of neighboring bottles like you were unlucky enough to clean up. Pull the caps let them sit for at least two hours at room temp to slowly but surely push C02 off. Then after 2-3 hours you can recap. I had a tripel get too carbonated on me after sitting at room temp before bottling for 3 months it must have still been going ooh so slowly.

What yeast did you use? I have had WLP099 take FOREVER on the high gravity beers. It appears to finish sometimes but it's anything but done in some cases.

 

[BrewThruYou]

Just had my first bottle blow up...the bottom blew clean out. Bottled at 1.008, so I'm chalking it up to a bad bottle.

 

[Saint_Doyle]

Uncapping/re-capping proved to be a giant pain. I flipped the top off one bottle and it gushed foam out the neck for over a minute. After it finally settled the bottle was only half full. So I lined up the bottles and one by one tipped the cap just a bit so as to let some of the pressure out. I would only be able to let one spurt out before the foam would creep up to the top of the bottle and I would have to move on to the next bottle. I should mention that I was banished to the 110° garage to do this because my wife forbade me from bringing any more explosives into the house. After 2 hours I was disgustingly sweaty and covered in a mist of barleywine. I tasted one of the bottles that I had gotten the cap off of and it tasted like balls juice so I gave up. I brought the whole load to band practice that night and didn't bother bringing any of it back home with me. No more high gravity beers for me for a while.

 

[Saint_Doyle]

What yeast did you use? I have had WLP099 take FOREVER on the high gravity beers. It appears to finish sometimes but it's anything but done in some cases.

Yeah, I had some of the WLP099 in there, along with tons of champagne yeast. I should have been more patient. Now I have to go to the liquor store until this next batch of American Wheat is done.

 

[iheartcraftbeer]

Dude, every one of your posts is hysterical. I am sorry for your loss, but at least you got a great story out of it. Thank you for giving me some laughs.

 

[david_42]

Sounds like a gusher infection. My last barleywine developed an infection after 4 years in the keg. Went to pull a pint and got about 30 gallons of foam! Well, at least enough to fill the utility sink. I hope the septic tank critters appreciated it.

 

[Saint_Doyle]

Thank you for giving me some laughs.

I'm glad someone could get something out of this.

Sounds like a gusher infection. My last barleywine developed an infection after 4 years in the keg. Went to pull a pint and got about 30 gallons of foam! Well, at least enough to fill the utility sink. I hope the septic tank critters appreciated it.

4 years!?!?! Did you forget about it or were you just not thirsty?

 

[Kaz]

I'm fairly certain this beer will kill me when I drink it, if the bottle doesn't blow up in my hand.

I agree with this statement...after everything this brew put you through, it would not have calmed down until you were out of the picture. Sorry you had to lose it, but I too got a good laugh out of sentence. After it killed you, it probably would've mellowed into a delicious Barleywine and tried to settle down with your wife

 

[Kaleco]

If I was going to bottle at that gravity and leave it for a couple more months I think I would have ditched the sugar. Sorry for the loss.

 

[Homercidal]

Barleywines can be tough that way. Kind of sounds like a gusher infection to me, although with a thick beer like that, an overcarb is possible too. You could have picked something up from your bottling bucket or hose.

Either way, it sucks to put all that money into grain and wait so long to end up like this. When I stop chuckling I'll heft a pint in your direction.

Just so you know, the first time I made soda, I added concentrate and sugar to some water in a carboy and stirred it all up and added yeast. Then I bottled in some old coke bottles and put it in the back bathroom. I kinda wondered how they yeast was gonna know when to stop.

Not too long after that I had my answer THEY DON'T! Bottles gave way in the middle of the night and I went in there with a heavy blanket in front of me and placed over the box of bottle bombs and set them in a plastic tote and carried them to the bathtub until morning. A few more went off.

Then it was lift a cap SLOWLY and recap and place them in the fridge to drink before they all gave way.

 

[day_trippr]

Reading through this epic thread, the only thing that jumps out is this: what was the SG when theChampagne Yeast added?

Cheers!

 

[Saint_Doyle]

What was the SG when theChampagne Yeast added?

I had to go check my brew journal. The SG was sitting at 1.064 when I dumped an ungodly amount of dry champagne yeast packets in there. I think 2 packets were called on for a 5 gallon batch. I doubled, maybe tripled that to make sure I could get the SG down to a reasonable amount. They were like 50¢ each, so why not, right? After that didn't work I tried some WLP099 (Super High Gravity Ale yeast, can supposedly ferment up to 25% alcohol).

If that seems like way too much yeast (and it should) I will again remind you that there was no activity in this carboy for months before I bottled it.