I Know What Happened...

Back in June, I brewed an amber ale and at bottling, I dropped a pellet of Perle in 8 bottles. The first 2 I opened in June acted and tasted good; actually, better than the non-hopped bottles. One I opened a few weeks later seemed to gush a little, but was good. As the months progressed, two of the hopped bottles exploded (fortunately, they were in the basement in a cardboard case on the concrete floor). Then about a month ago, another one blew. As far as the non-hopped ones, none had exploded, nor did they gush when opened. Then tonight I took one of the last two hopped bottles and opened it -- woh!! So, I opened the other. As you can see in the pic, another day or two and I'd have had more bombs.

I expect that given enough time, every one of the hopped bottles would have exploded. The un-hopped bottles were/are fine.

I'm pretty sure I know what happened, just wondered if anyone else has an idea. What do you think?

 

I am stupid and need to work on my reading comprehension.

Probably some dust or random crud attached itself to the hop particles. Next time can probably get away with a fresh packet and sanitized tweezers, better yet soak the hops in some vodka for a couple days, the spoon a tiny portion of it into each bottle.

 

i suspect it is because you didn't take the old labels off the bottles. This confused the beer.

It also could be hop particles were suspended creating nucleation points for the CO2.

I had a similar experience. A bottle of recently brewed Tripel had some sediment. As soon as a few particles of sediment hit the beer in the glass, instant foam.

 

Obviously you didn't wear a mask while bottling the ones with the hops......

Or like the others said some minor contamination on the hop pellets. I doubt it is the nucleation points as that would not have made bombs.

 

I'm not saying it was Aphid parts but ......

 

The fact that you had bottles explode says that there was more CO2 produced in the bottles with the hops added than in the bottles that had none. It takes more than nucleation to produce the pressures that cause bottles to burst. Since hops are a natural antibacterial and the beers tasted fine, we probably can rule out a bacterial infection but what can cause additional CO2 to be produced without off flavors? Something that can work while there are hops in the beer, right? Hmmm....Yeast works even when there is hops in the beer. It will even keep on working if you add dry hops.

I think you introduced a wild yeast when you added the hops. A wild yeast that doesn't know about the limits of attenuation. Want so more of it? I have it in the air of my house and I can't seem to get rid of it.

 

At the beginning of my brewing experiences, I brewed a black IPA that I accidentally sucked up some hop matter into the last few bottles. They all gushed. I suspect it was the bottle hopping creating nucleation sites as the first two respondents have said.

 

One thing I neglected to mention, so now I'll 'fess up.

The hops I used were already opened when I acquired them in a bulk CL purchase. Don't know for how long (could've been years). There were other hops that came with the 'deal' that had also been opened but smelled cheesy, so I tossed them. These Perle pellets smelled OK, so I used them to bottle-hop. For the record, I have previously bottle-hopped a batch with brand new hop pellets and didn't have this problem, which makes me wonder if the nucleation theory is correct.

My amateur conclusion in this case is that the hops, although smelling ok but having been opened by whom? for how long? stored where? and how? had carried some form of foreign bacteria with them into the bottles.

 

Nah. Knowing this might cause this very issue, I put brand new labels on the beer just so it wouldn't be confused.

 

as RM-Mn has already stated. Nucleation points makes no sense at all. Sure it does when the bottles are opened but, he had bottle bombs. That tells us that either the beer was not done fermenting or there was further fermenting in bottle. so only 2 things make sense
1 too much priming sugar - doesn't explain the non hopped bottles
2 wild yeast hitched a ride on hop pellets

I vote number 2

 

I mis-read the original post when he mentioned they exploded, thought it was a figure of speech when describing the high carbonation and the beer exploding out of the bottles when opened.

Amending that, it was probably a piece of dust/dirt/skin/hair that hitched a ride onto the pellets.