First bottle bomb - mystery

[underdogadam]

So after 20 brews, 1000 beers, i finally give a six pack to a friend to bring home with him. i'm not greedy, it's just the norm that people come to my place to drink.

so the first six pack i let leave the house, he sticks in a closet, and viola, explosion in his closet. now he's kinda pissed at me. but.... the same set did not explode at my place. nor have i ever had a bottle bomb period.

I'm in santa monica where it is a constant temperature of about 72 at all times, so i get to enjoy a natural banana-y fermentation for all my ales. he is down in the OC, where it has been averaging mid 80's the past few weeks. if he was letting his house naturally heat up all day while he wasn't home, is that enough to hit bottle bomb range?

i do kinda feel like a jerk, but i didn't know it was gunna happen! maybe i'm just overly sympathetic. but at the same time, i think i'm posting this becuase i wanna get ready. late july/august, it's natural to get into hte 80's for a while. if that's all it takes to turn into bombs, i'll need to be ready.

thanks for your time.

-a

 

[Bensiff]

Shouldn't be the temp unless you are carbing to the edge of the bottles capacity to handle it...ie 4+ volumes.

 

[beckaboo]

haha I think that's a funny story and I have no answer/solution. I'm sorry no one else has responded yet with an explanation.
A similar thing happened to me, but it was after I took it out of the fridge. The mixture of the cold and carbonation created some massive pressure, when I popped the top, beer flew straight for my face and the ceiling!
Haha I was laughing so hard, because what else could I do! My friends were all laughing with me, but I think they were happy they didn't have a faceful of beer!

 

[kyuagony]

I had my first bottle explode around my 20th batch a couple months ago. I woke up in the middle of the night with a strange feeling something was wrong (no joke) and went back to bed. The next day was in the living room next to the beer hutch. There was a faint smell of beer in the air (I presumed from the previous night's drinking) and the floor was all sticky! Then I remembered cleaning the bottles (650mL) and seeing a sort of pointy looking speck at the bottom of one that wouldn't come out with the bottle brush. It must have been a crack starting to form. Hindsight's 20/20.

I now inspect all my bottles for potential cracks!

 

[Zixxer10R]

You know guys, kegs don't explode in 80 degree temps!

 

[Bensiff]

You know guys, kegs don't explode in 80 degree temps!

Yup, mine are rated to 100psi...I wonder how much beer line you would need to keep 100psi carb level from being a foam bath?

 

[Vance71975]

Yup, mine are rated to 100psi...I wonder how much beer line you would need to keep 100psi carb level from being a foam bath?

300-400 feet maybe?

 

[Bensiff]

300-400 feet maybe?

You'd probably get a chemical burn from carbonic acid as it hits your tongue...awesome.

 

[smokinghole]

I've had two in a year. One was a beer with WLP099 which is a slow fermentor when it is almost finished. I learned my lesson. The other was a tripel I carbed the bottles slightly high and think I had one with a bottle defect. My guess is you had a bad bottle there's a reason they're "one time use" bottles.

Also if your friend is so pissed about free beer then I guess he gets no more. I understand he shouldn't get bottles blowing up but hey **** happens and he's just benefiting from your hobby, money and time.