Avoid More Bottle Bombs

[philmo418]

Hi,

I bottled a batch of ale about five days ago. I used about 2/3rds plastic and 1/3rd glass bottles. I noticed about two days in that the plastic bottles were already solid. I have been keeping an eye on these to make sure there were no bottle bombs. Today I found one of the plastic bottles blew out the bottom.

What should I do to prevent more blowouts? Would it be enough to open the bottles and release pressure and recap? Taking all the sanitary precautions of course. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Philmo.

 

[brewprint]

How long did this beer ferment before bottling?

 

[Hello]

Plastic blew out?! What kind of plastic bottle and then yes, how long did it ferment for?
SG/FG? Amount of priming sugar? What kind of sugar? How much beer was bottled?

 

[surffisher2a]

First thing I would do is get those existing bottles cooled off.

Then taste one of them and see how the carbonation level is. Take note of how much hiss you get opening the bottle.

 

[philmo418]

Hi all,

I fermented about 15 days. SG 1.050 FG 1.018. It is ~ 5 gallons. The bottle that blew was purchased from Austin HomeBrew. A standard 16.9 oz PET bottle.

Would opening and resealing fix the bottle bomb issue? Will the batch turn out flat?

Philmo.


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[philmo418]

I used the priming sugar provided in kit. The batch was just shy of 5 gallons. I didn't think it was short enough to make I difference in the carbonation.


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[Hello]

1.018 is high. What yeast and fermentation temp?

I'm worried about a plastic bottle blowing, that's insane. You sanitized them, right? I would chill all of them now and in one full day, at least, check the carbonation level. You don't want glass bombs, those suck even more and can really harm you.

 

[sweetcell]

plastic can hold more pressure than glass, so that plastic bottle that blew must have been defective/had a fault/etc.

chill a bottle (i'd try a glass one) for 24 hours and check out how carb'ed it is. if it's over-carb'ed, then proceed with prying off the caps, letting the pressure out, and re-capping (with new caps).

and yeah, 1.018 is high for an OG of 1.050. might still be some fermentation going on in the bottle.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

It was likely defective as the typical overpressure fault for plastic bottles is the neck separating, not the bottom blowing out.

But I haven't bottled in years (since I got my kegs) so that's all the input I can offer.

 

[philmo418]

Thanks for everyone's input. I will configure a homemade blast suit and open the bottles to release some pressure.


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[cubalz]

Keep us informed on what you found.....

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Do you have the recipe, like they said .018 is high. What was the fg supposed to be, was there lactose or something added? Low attenuation yeast?

 

[philmo418]

OK, So what went wrong is I bottled *WAY* too early. This being only about my forth batch I am still in learning mode and I didn't realize that a fermentation would/could stall. I still have not learned to RTFM! I figured it was done fermenting after no movement in my readings for several days and went to bottle. Oops.

So I was able to relieve pressure from the plastic bottles by loosening the top and having pressure release; however, the glass bottles went off like a fountain when I opened it and more than half went down the drain. I resisted the temptation to put my mouth over the bottle to help reduce waste. Guess I was lucky that only one bottle blew and that it was plastic one.

I had the batch contained and covered to prevent just such an event so no big mess to clean. As for the beer remaining in the glass bottles.... it will be tonight's liquid entertainment.

Philmo. The bottle test dummy.

 

[Hello]

Live and learn. If final gravity seems high and ABV seems low, check. Could be stalled fermentation. But I think it would be helpful to try and identify your stalled fermentation too. What yeast, what was the recipe, what temp did you ferment at? Did you aerate? If you can't list most of your process that we can identify why fermentation stopped so suddenly and so high. Doing this will help you in the long run. If you want to take the time then there are many people, including myself, that are willing to help.

 

[philmo418]

Live and learn indeed.

OK. It was a mini mash kit recipe from Austin Home Brew an American Ale. The cooking process was normal with no hitches. Cooled the wort to about 78 degrees and pitched Windsor British-Style yeast. The advice I received from the supplier was just to pitch the yeast straight from the packet into the wort. No need to do a starter.

Pitched the yeast, gave it a good stir and put in our bathroom. It usually stays fairly cool in there. My normal fermenting arrangement was out of commission so I had no real way to control temp. The next am it was going full bore, the air lock was boiling. I checked back about eight hours later and nothing. I grabbed a thermometer and the air temp had gotten to about 78 degrees. Too warm. So I put the fermenter in a cold tub of water and kept it about 65-66 for about 24 hours.

Action improved but very slow. My regular ferment room became available so I moved into there and kept the temp at about 68 degrees. The air lock started to show more activity then about five hours later nothing. At this point I am about 6 days in.

I warmed the room to about 69-70 and saw very little activity, but it did increase. I took a reading on day seven and it was about 1.021.

Let it set for another seven days and took a reading 1.018 left for another day and got the same reading. I figured it was complete so I went ahead and bottled. I used the kit priming sugar and got about 4.85 gallon yield. Placed the bottles in a dark room at about 72-74 degrees. After about 36 hours I noticed the plastic bottles were rock hard. I checked again about 12 hours later and discovered the blown bottle.

Philmo.

 

[Hello]

According to what I found online, the yeast will attenuate anywhere from 73% to 77%. So if your original gravity was 1.050, then I would estimate the final gravity to be 1.010. The advice you received to pitch dry was fine. There are may opinions on pitching dry yeast right over the wort versus not, but I've done both and found absolutely no difference.

Pitching at 78F is not bad. The yeast appreciates temps 62F to 72F though so you were slightly high. You did get it down to 65-66F which was good but that first 24 hours was tough for the yeast and it was likely stressed. Also, once you pitch your yeast there is no need to stir it, it'll do it's thing.

You didn't mention aeration so I am assuming you didn't really do that before you pitched the yeast. No biggie. Well it is, but technically right now it is not. It's a low gravity beer so the yeast would have been pretty okay I think. That 78F though was tough.


Airlock activity is never a sign that fermentation is done, which I think you probably know.

What I think happened was you stressed your yeast at 78F then you shocked it moving down to 66F; if that happened fast. What I would have done was very lightly swirled the bucket/carboy one time, just rotate it on an end. Don't splash the wort, just make it move and get some of that yeast that dropped back up there.

You waited a good amount of time but if you're sitting at 1.018 and your ABV is off by that much, I would have started googling stuck fermentation. It is not uncommon for extract batches to stop at 1.020 but not when they start at 1.050, not in my experience. Also, the fact that increasing your temp caused movement from 1.021 to 1.018, I would have waited another couple days after getting the 1.018 reading to get one more.

In truth, it may have never moved. I'll go back and say that the yeast could have died a slow death and what didn't were working but slowly. Racking to a bottling bucket roused the yeast, you heated it up more and that woke them up and they wanted to eat that sugar.

If you can chill to 70F going forward, your yeast will have a better chance to survive. Unless you're doing a saison or something that appreciates warm fermentation.

It does suck that you lost beer to this but the fact that only one bottle blew and it was plastic is luck.

 

[sweetcell]

What I think happened was you stressed your yeast at 78F then you shocked it moving down to 66F; if that happened fast. What I would have done was very lightly swirled the bucket/carboy one time, just rotate it on an end. Don't splash the wort, just make it move and get some of that yeast that dropped back up there.

good observation. cooling yeast isn't a good idea, especially a big swing from 78 to 66. that could well have put some of the yeast into hibernation mode, with not enough cells left to finish the job.

no need to aerate dry yeast, especially on a 1.050 beer. dry yeast already have all the sterols they need for a regular-gravity batch like this one. bigger beers might require some aeration.

pitching Windsor at 78 isn't optimal. british yeasts should be kept in the mid-60's. pitching that high can lead to an ester bomb and high alcohols.

rehydrating the yeast prior to pitching couldn't have hurt in this case. would have resulted in less cell death, so more cells to complete fermentation. if you've got everything else right - temps, nutrients, fermentable wort, etc. - then direct pitching should work because you can spare half the cell population (there are a lot of cells in a pack of dry yeast). but in less than ideal conditions, i would want to get all the cells i can in there.

 

[fartinmartin]

Must have been a faulty bottle, I have parked my a 2ton transit on a full bottle just as a pressure test, it held, we threw the bottle around letting it fall from great height onto concrete several times , then parked the Transit on it again, it still held. The pressure that these plastic bottles stand is phenomenal ! I suppose public safety makes sure of this with millions of them moving around the world with all sorts of contents and conditions.
If you have a dodgy brew that could go mad, it couldn't be in a better place than a plastic bottle !
But if you bottle when you shouldn't you are asking for problems.

 

[TimothyPatrick]

I had a problem with a batch that was over-carbonated and became gushers (no bottle bombs). After the bottles were chilled for a few days, I lifted the caps just enough to release the pressure and recapped with the same cap. This was done once a day over four days. The bottles are fine now. I tried one each day and they were properly carbonated to my taste after burping the caps four times. YMMV

 

[philmo418]

Thanks everyone. I think I have the situation under control now. I have learned a good deal from my mess up and especially from everyone who gave me input.

I am doing my first all grain this weekend and will pay much more attention to the fermentation process and my readings.

Philmo.