Bottle Bomb City - Brainstorming (Pics & Videos)

[NWMushroom]

OK so today I noticed that one of my 22oz bottles had exploded so I opened some more bottles to see if they were under excessive pressure.

It looks like they were (video stops at 1 minute, but foaming continued for over 5 minutes):



Bottle after bottle was the same:



Now, here's the thing. I bottled this beer (an ESB) on August 13, 2011. The brew day was July 13. It was a 5.5 gallon batch and I added only 1oz of priming sugar. My opening gravity was 1.049 and my final gravity was 1.013.

I then opened a random bottle from two other batches that had been in the bottle for a good couple of months - the same thing happened - a bottle fountain. Again, a couple of weeks ago there was no excessive carbonation.

All the beers that are producing fountains taste fine, so I don't think there's an infection at play here. Furthermore, I bottled the 5.5 gallons of ESB with only 1oz of priming sugar, and it had a month in the fermenter before bottling.

The only explanation I can think of is we recently switched the heating back on in the house. As a result, the temperature in the room where the beers are stored went to an average of 70 degrees F, probably from a previous average of mid to low 60s. Could this have reawakened the yeast? I would have thought that regardless of temperature, there wouldn't be enough sugar for the yeast to feed on to build up such a high amount of pressure?

Any ideas what could be behind this?

 

[MalFet]

Temperature won't do something like that. Too cool or too warm will certainly impact the rate at which bottles carb-up, but won't actually change the about of carbonation you get.

You've got an infection, most likely wild yeast. This happened to me once a while back. Five or six batches in a row. Never found the cause, and ended up throwing out pretty much everything that wasn't steel. Time to reevaluate your sanitation practices.

 

[NWMushroom]

Thanks for the help. Odd thing is the beer tastes fine. Furthermore, a beer I brewed about four months ago and tastes great is starting to foam out of the bottle too.

I will think through my sanitation processes again, but I am very thorough so can't imagine where an infection could have occurred.

 

[drawdy10]

consider starting with new fermentation vessels, those plastic buckets may be infected.

 

[blizzard]

What yeast are you using? When I use wyeast 1968 it takes some care to keep it from dropping to early. If it does it will wake back up in the bottles and chew through the rest of the sugar.

 

[pd230soi]

Is this what people would call a Gusher infection?

I have a story that runs just like yours. All was well batch after batch and then suddenly batch after batch would gush and foam all over the place.

I took a brewing stand down and tossed my plastic hoses, applied a bleach and water solution to anything nearby, moved my grain milling to another part of the house, tightened up my grain storage, re bleached, re cleaned everything.

Now I have just bottle three batches that waited during my stand down and we will see.

I did notice that the gushing didn't really hit until the beer had been bottled for a month or more.

Bottom line - I would toss what you can, bleach bomb everything else.

Good Luck,
Jon

 

[NWMushroom]

I took a brewing stand down and tossed my plastic hoses, applied a bleach and water solution to anything nearby, moved my grain milling to another part of the house, tightened up my grain storage, re bleached, re cleaned everything.

Always good to know I am not alone!

I would have thought the milling and grain storage wouldn't be an issue since all these processes take place prior to the boil.

Post boil, I can't think of any steps when I could have introduced infection. I do aerate by transferring wort between boil kettle and fermenter - perhaps something in the air got in?

 

[rhamilton]

Open bottle. Drink fast

 

[Elweydoloco]

Open bottle. Drink fast

+1 HA!

In all seriousness though, OXYCLEAN the crap out of everything. Then rinse the crap out of it with HOT water. Sanitize and try again. Inspect the buckets for scratches maybe something is sticking inside a scratch and you just haven't noticed it.

 

[COLObrewer]

Always good to know I am not alone!

I would have thought the milling and grain storage wouldn't be an issue since all these processes take place prior to the boil. . . . . . . perhaps something in the air got in?

There is bacterium on grain so if you ferment near the same place you mill your grain some of the dust could get in. Also, yes there is bacteria all around us everywhere, I'm surprised any of us can brew without getting infected.

That being said, just curious, were the bottles well chilled when you opened them? Once they are done gushing does the remainder seem to be well carbonated?

 

[NWMushroom]

I mill, mash and boil downstairs and ferment in a spare room upstairs.

The gushers in the video are at room temperature. They still taste carbonated after the gushing episode. Since they still taste ok, I recapped and put them in the basement.

 

[houndsbreath]

I had an IPA brewed with Saison yeast and a Hefe (Weinstephaner yeast) do this. Try getting them REALLY cold before opening; I put mine in the fridge overnight then the freezer for about 20 minutes. I think this dissolves more CO2 into he beer, but regardless of why it works, it helped mine. Aging also helped reduce the gushing. After about a month of conditioning I saw decreased gushing.

 

[JLem]

Thanks for the help. Odd thing is the beer tastes fine. Furthermore, a beer I brewed about four months ago and tastes great is starting to foam out of the bottle too.

I will think through my sanitation processes again, but I am very thorough so can't imagine where an infection could have occurred.

I brewed an experimental beer this past Spring using wild yeast I "harvested" from my back yard. I was expecting a very flavor-forward result, but I was amazed at how clean the final beer turned out. You may have an infection and not be able to taste it yet.

 

[NWMushroom]

After being in the fridge overnight they're gushers no longer. Still, I need to identify and address the cause of this...

 

[blizzard]

After being in the fridge overnight they're gushers no longer. Still, I need to identify and address the cause of this...

It's because they were warm.

 

[dogbar]

There are really only four options:

1) You're not mixing the priming sugar well enough (some bottles flat, others gush).

2) You're adding too much priming sugar (hard to do)

3) You're bottling before fermentation is complete (hydrometer can mostly rule this out)

4) You have an infection (flavor will continue to diminish while gushing increases)

That's pretty much it.

 

[dogbar]

It's because they were warm.

If a bottle exploded, it's not just a temperature issue.

 

[blizzard]

If a bottle exploded, it's not just a temperature issue.

Good point. I was thinking if it doesn't gush when cold it's probably not overcarbed to the point of being explosive.

 

[Slobberchops]

Good thread; I am having a similar issue. This thread is making me want to toss my 3 plastic fermenters.

Like the OP, I have a batch that is gushing with several exploding. Unfortunately, I have 3 other batches (2 in fermentation and 1 just bottled) that it is too early to tell if they are similarly affected so I'm not sure if this is a systematic issue or just a one-off.

In the meantime, my bottled Dark Belgian Ale is contained in a plastic tub, covered with a wool blanket. I had another one blow last night (it's in the basement but the sound woke me), but glass and beer are contained.

I just bottled up an Amber for Thanksgiving at my Dad's. He is passing through my town tomorrow, and I am planning on giving them to him to carry back to his house (I will be short on space in the car when the fam travels to his house). I am a little afraid to give them to him. They are not the detonating batch, but I may need to find a little blast containment, just as insurance in case this issue is not limited to one batch.

 

[unionrdr]

I brewed an English Bitter (called ordinary bitter) that got down to an FG of 1.009. Maybe your ESB at 1.013 wasn't done yet. Also,bitters are low carbonation,my ordinary bitter was a stated max of 1.3 volumes co2. You may likely have used to much priming sugar?...Also,I fridge mine a minimum of 1 week to get the co2 well into solution,& more tightly compact the yeast trub. But 2 weeks is even better,thicker head & longer lasting carbonation. All things being equal.

 

[Hybridthreat]

I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this.

This happened to me last night.

I've brewed about 20 batches now, and one of my more recent was oatmeal stout. I bottled it about 5 months ago. The first few I had last month where great. I pulled out 4 bottles of it last night, I opened the first of the 4 and it started shooting everywhere. The other 3 did the same thing. Still have 18 22oz bottles of the stout, was wondering if I can expect the same thing from those.

 

[xjmox14x]

It is my understanding that gushers can be produced by wild yeast strains that eat higher order sugars, such as dextrins, that typical brewing yeast do not consume (from How to Brew).

Would it not stand to reason then that to prove you have an infection, you should empty a few bottles into a vessel and take a gravity reading? If it is lower than your specific gravity reading (previous final) at bottling, then it should be a clear indicator that you have an infection as more alcohol will have been produced. If the gravity reading is the same, you should be able to rule out an infection.

 

[pd230soi]

Update from my end...

After my brewing Stand Down and Bleach party I bottle three batches.

All are non-exploders and non-gushers.

In my specific case I think I had an infection.

 

[NWMushroom]

OP here...

I think (hope) I found the source of the infection; the spigot on my fermenter.

I use the Williams siphonless fermenters and it didn't occur to me to clean and sanitize the spigot before using it to transfer to the bottling bucket. Of course, I use the spigot during fermentation to take readings so it's pretty easy for wild yeast or other nasties to get in there.

I determined the issue wasn't coming from the inside of the fermenters themselves since I do a minimum of 4 weeks in the buckets and the beer tastes great and looks good before bottling.

To be safe though, I replaced all my plastic tubing and have updated my cleaning practices to always soak everything in PBW before sanitizing to make sure no particles are left untouched.

We'll see how successful or how wrong I am in a few weeks, since I'll be bottling three batches this weekend.

 

[unionrdr]

That's why I always say to remove the spigot,& clean it,the seals,the lock lug,& mounting hole with PBW every time. Good insurance.

 

[MalFet]

That's why I always say to remove the spigot,& clean it,the seals,the lock lug,& mounting hole with PBW every time. Good insurance.

Good luck trying to do that with 5 gallons of beer in the bucket, as is the case in the situation the OP is describing.

 

[unionrdr]

Well,obviously,it needs to be done before adding wort & top off. That was my intended meaning to solve the problem.

 

[MalFet]

Well,obviously,it needs to be done before adding wort & top off. That was my intended meaning to solve the problem.

The source of the infection is the liquid left in the spigot after hydro samples. Cleaning before adding the wort wouldn't fix this.

 

[NWMushroom]

Of course I clean the spigot etc before adding the wort and using the fermenter. I should have been clearer - I was referring to cleaning and sanitizing the spigot after fermentation is complete and just prior to using the spigot to transfer the wort to the bottling bucket, as MalFet suggests above.

What I do now before transferring to the bottling bucket is pull off another sample, then spray the spigot with sanitizer, wait a few minutes and spray again before adding the transfer hose.

It's possible to turn the spigot upside down whilst still attached to the fermenter, too - so it gets a good soak.

 

[unionrdr]

What's left in the spigot would only be what coats the inside of the spout. The spigot itself is always full,being exposed to the wort/fermenting beer. I spray the spout a few times myself With PBW,let it sit & drip. Then star-san. no problems.

 

[NWMushroom]

What's left in the spigot would only be what coats the inside of the spout. The spigot itself is always full,being exposed to the wort/fermenting beer. I spray the spout a few times myself With PBW,let it sit & drip. Then star-san. no problems.

Precisely. In the past, this didn't even occur to me.

Lesson learnt!

 

[unionrdr]

Well...I guess it's easier for me to spot things,since the brew stand is to my right while I'm on the comp. It's something I happened to notice some time ago.