About to have some bottle bombs, I guess

[jack13]

Brewed a wee heavy last month, which we bottled a few days ago. I do 5.5+ gallon batches, and usually check a bottle after 4 or 5 days. As you'd expect, at this point they usually show little-to-no carbonation. Well, when I opened this wee heavy--which I actually did a little earlier than usual--I got a much stronger hiss, and then in the glass it appeared to be fermenting! You can see this in the photo attached. I just opened another one warm and it overflowed out of the bottle.

I think the answer to "Why did this happen?" is clear enough: The beer wasn't done fermenting and I should not have bottled. But what isn't clear to me is how I would have known this. I have no choice but to dump now, and I'd like to avoid this in the future!

I brewed this on 8/20. OG was 1.073

The fermentation seemed normal (obvious activity for a few days, which slowed down, then appeared to stop). As I usually do, I let it sit around a while after this point, then a few days before the planned bottling day did a refractometer reading, then another one 2 days later to make sure they were the same. I did this two days before bottling, and got 8.9 brix, then again on bottling day and again got exactly 8.9, so went ahead. Total in primary between pitch and bottlng was 30 days (bottled on 9/19).

I did recognize that 8.9 was a bit high, but a) refractometer is unreliable when alcohol is present, b) I'd had others this high without issue, and c) I always thought the key was that the readings were the same, which they were. The FG with the hydrometer was 1.018.

So, any thoughts as to what I did wrong? BTW in the meantime I've put the bottles outside, and plan to start opening and dumping them shortly, unless by some miracle someone here has a way to save them.

Edit: Forgot to mention the yeast: Wyeast Irish Ale (harvested from previous batch...probably about half of the original yeast cake)

 

[jwelch1103]

Instead of dumping them, first try opening and immediately recapping. This will reduce the pressure in the bottles. It might release too much or too little, who knows but it should greatly definitely reduce the chance of bottle bombs. I'd still treat them as potential problem bottles but you may be able to drink the beer.

Like flying by the seat of your pants, it is not something you want to plan to do but when stuff happens you have to try something.

 

[Miraculix]

I would open them, pour them into a fermentation vessel, let them finish the fermentation (this time give them at least a week between the two readings, two days is way too little time, as you now know from first hand experience), and then bottle again with the right amount of priming sugar.

Chance that the flavour will be affected is there, but still better than dumping the whole batch.

Maybe you want to add a little bit of sugar to the fermenter after pouring all the bottles into it, just to make sure the yeast has enough material to generate the co2 blanket you need.

 

[magno]

Let me go against the grain (heh) here, and say that I would wait a bit longer and see if problems develop. I have had batches that had lots of swirling sediment in the past without issue. Opening a warm bottle of beer is sure to result in lots of foam.

I think that opening and recapping is not a bad idea, but I would not pour back into a fermenter. That is sure to oxidize your beer.

In the future, if your FG seems unreasonably high, try to rouse the yeast, or repitch with a more alcohol-tolerant strain.

 

[Miraculix]

Problem is, if there is a problem to appear, like bottles exploding or similar, it would be a serious health risk and he will lose the whole batch.

Opening and recapping may solve it, but maybe it doesn't. Maybe beer will be flat afterwards or, what is more likely, maybe bottles will still explode.... It is unpredictable.

Oxidation might be there and might be not, flavor might change a bit or it might not. If he adds some sugar to the fermenter, he would minimise the risk for that and still would be able to save the whole batch.

 

[Yooper]

1.018 isn't terribly high for a wee heavy, so my thinking is that opening the bottles warm (and that yeast for nucleation points) is the cause of the foaming.

I'd put them somewhere safe, and check a bottle again in a week or so, after chilling it at least 24 hours.

 

[jack13]

1.018 isn't terribly high for a wee heavy, so my thinking is that opening the bottles warm (and that yeast for nucleation points) is the cause of the foaming.

I'd put them somewhere safe, and check a bottle again in a week or so, after chilling it at least 24 hours.

Thank, all, for the feedback. Opening and recapping doesn't seem to be an option because of how fast the beer flows out. And--this goes to your point, Yooper--that's the case even after being in the fridge. That first one I opened had been in the fridge for a day, I think.

And you can't see it in the picture, but when it settled there was a ton of yeast. ...not sure if that impacts anyone's thoughts, just mentioning anything I think may be relevant.

 

[jack13]

Ultimately I think I'm just too nervous about having potential bombs, and don't have a truly safe space for them. Perhaps this is thus an opportunity to do something that's been on my mind for quite some time.

What if I poured the beer back into the fermenter, and left the fermenter open? This is just to see what happens. Now, I would not have brewed the wee heavy if I wasn't interested in drinking it, but I'm sure you'd all agree that we are more excited about some batches than others, and the wee heavy was squarely in the less-excited-about category. And as it turns out I'm not at all short on HB at the moment.

In other words, seems like a good time for an experiment.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? If I open the fermenter for yeast to get in, what should I put on top to keep other stuff out? Inside or out? Or even better: Any other ideas out there about something different/unusual/insane to do? Clearly I'm willing to take risks on this one.

...and FYI I will definitely reply back later with the end result.

 

[Yooper]

What I think is that you are considering ruining what may be a perfectly good beer. Oxidation will ruin it, so pouring it into a fermenter and leaving it open will just mean oxidized beer.

Of course, I understand your nervousness and your desire to avoid glass grenades. How about this? Chill another bottle for at least 48 hours, and open it. Let it go flat, and check the SG. If the SG is, say, 1.010, then you know you have bombs and you can adopt a "take no prisoners" approach. If it's 1.018, you know you won't have bombs and you just have a ton of yeast creating nucleation points. Either way, you'd know for sure before proceeding!

 

[magno]

Why leave it open, and not put an airlock on it? You should have ample yeast to ferment it out, it there is more residual sugar to be fermented. If the alcohol content is high enough, you should not have a huge risk of infection, but I'd be more worried about bugs getting in.

If you want to try something wacky, I'd consider adding brettanomyces. That should dry it out anyways. I'd still keep it airlocked though.

EDIT: I like Yooper's idea better though.

 

[Miraculix]

Yes, definitely either air lock or Yooper's idea. An open fermentation at this stage would be quite a silly thing to do if your intention is not to create vinegar.

 

[seatazzz]

Even dumping it back into the fermenter with an airlock isn't a great idea, because you're still going to oxidize the heck out of it. What I would ask, the bottles you did open...do you know if they were bottled towards the end of your bottling process, or closer to the beginning? You may just have some bottles with more yeast than others. I would refrigerate several and take a gander at the bottom of the bottle once the yeast has settled out. If there's a lot in some bottles, and not as much in others, the ones with more yeast are your potential "bombs" and you can either drink them up fast or dump them out. On the flip side, you may have a potential infection as well.

 

[brewcat]

Go buy a tote and throw them in that if you are nervous about exploding bottles. I'm guessing your beer was done fermenting. So that leads to two possibilities. How much priming sugar did you use? Was it mixed good? Or did you pick up an infection?

I once overprimed a dubbel but eventually after a couple months in the fridge they were about perfect.

 

[user 125772]

I sometimes put bottles in a large bucket so that IF something happens, I won't have to clean up. I'm with Yooper, let it ride !

...and I'm not trying to be mean here, but opening your naturally carbonating beer after 4 days is just a waste of a beer, it's warm, of course it's going to foam all over the place, that's the same as carbonating a keg and then trying to pour a beer when the keg is room temp.

 

[ncbrewer]

I would refrigerate several and take a gander at the bottom of the bottle once the yeast has settled out. If there's a lot in some bottles, and not as much in others, the ones with more yeast are your potential "bombs" and you can either drink them up fast or dump them out.

I mark the last couple of bottles from every batch because they've often picked up sediment from the bottling bucket. Sometimes they're gushers. I don't worry about bombs from these because I feel it's just nucleation points causing foaming. I could be wrong.

 

[jack13]

Hi all,

Thanks so much for all the replies. I definitely learned a couple things on this one!

Seems like everything is going to be OK...carb is much higher than normal but no bombs. It still tastes funky like it did at bottling, but perhaps over time that'll go away.

Brewing batch #51 tomorrow!

 

[kh54s10]

It is way to soon to make any judgements about carbonation levels. The co2 might not be fully absorbed into solution so soon. Wait at least 3 weeks to determine whether the carbonation is too much.

And for a wee heavy I would not think the flavor will have melded for at least another couple of months. This style benefits greatly from aging. I wouldn't expect it to peak in flavor until about a year to two years, maybe even longer.