Bottle Bombs - Damage Reduction

[blisterman]

So far, thankfully I haven't had any bottle bombs, but I'm pretty worried about it happening, some time, and causing damage to myself and/or my apartment.

So, what I've been doing so far is

A: Reducing the risks of it happening, by giving my beer plenty of time to ferment, not using too much priming sugar, and trying to use good quality bottles (i.e. Bottled conditioned beer bottles not bottles from cheap cases of beer)
and
B: Storing them for a couple of weeks under the sink with towels draped over them, to stop shards of glass flying everywhere should it happen.

However, reading some threads here, it seems that bottle bombs can explode months after the beer is bottled. So I'm a bit wary of it exploding in my hand, when I try and drink it.

So, any advice people can give to reduce the risks of it happening, would be much appreciated.
For example, will leaving a decent amount of air in the bottle, when capping make much difference to the pressure inside?

Also, is it more likely that, in a good quality bottle, the cap will go, before the bottle? I did have one bottle, which I had laid on its side, completely leak out, possibly due to the cap not holding up to the pressure. Or it mightn't have been capped properly in the first place.

How should I store my bottles, to minimise damage, if one of them does go? Will one bottle exploding in a case full of bottles, set off all the other ones too?

By the way, Kegging is not an option for me.

 

[AndrwHock]

You probably don't need to be so worried about bottle bombs. If you follow your procedures correctly and don't use a butt load of priming sugar, they are rare. If you're still scared of them, try kegging.

 

[Yooper]

I've made about 200 batches of beer, and probably 50 of wine. I've never had a bottle bomb. Never even close.

If you follow good practices, you won't either. Be careful, but don't worry about it.

 

[TeleTwanger]

I never even think about bottle bombs.

 

[Ecnerwal]

A should take care of most of the possibility.

B can be improved a bit, but there's little need if A is done right. Improvements would be to use a cooler or rubbermaid tub to contain any mess (both liquid and glass).

Cases with separators would probably be better than loose cases in the event of something going off in long-term storage. Those are usually the result of an infection, so pay attention to sanitation and you probably won't have any trouble.

I've been bottling for 15 years and have not had a bottle bomb, so you might be getting a bit overly paranoid.

 

[bnscherm]

You do not want to leave "more" head-space in the bottle to reduce pressure. This could be counter-productive, and possibly more conducive to a bottle-bomb that causes damage. Leaving a larger head-space allow for a larger volume of expandable gases should the bottle break. The best example I have would be the comparison of a water balloon half filled with air and water and another water balloon filled entirely with water except for a small headspace volume bubble. Which will be louder (more violent) when the balloon ruptures? The balloon that contains half air will break much more violently throwing water as the larger volume of compressed gas (air) in the balloon expands.

I recently bottled a wheat beer with my normal bottling procedure where the dextrose did not mix well. One of the bottles broke from over-carbonation a few weeks later, but the glass and beer did not make it out of the plastic container I store the bottles in. In my younger dumber years we used to make snow-bowl bombs in glass bottles that only had about 4 oz of fluid in them. When these bottles ruptured it was much more devastating and easily would have torn through the plastic container I store homebrew in.

When bottling I now sanitize a stirring spoon prior to racking so that I can stir the priming sugars in thoroughly before I bottle. As opposed to assuming that the racking is sufficient to blend in the the priming sugar.

 

[Saccharomyces]

I've had one bottle explode and it was my first batch. I cracked it while I was cleaning the bottles and didn't notice until it went off a week after bottling. I started throwing away bumped bottles after that.

If you are really paranoid you can store your bottles in plastic tubs which is what I do. It's nice because you can fill the bottles in the tub, take out the bottles as you cap them, clean out the tub, and then put them back in the clean dry tub for storage. The tubs stack well.

 

[Bobby_M]

The only bottle bomb I've ever had was one that someone else sent to me in a HBT swap. My wife picked up the 22oz bottle that had been sitting in my basement for months and it went. She's fine.

 

[Saccharomyces]

The only bottle bomb I've ever had was one that someone else sent to me in a HBT swap. My wife picked up the 22oz bottle that had been sitting in my basement for months and it went. She's fine.

Hopefully the recurring nightmares went away with therapy??

 

[Pivzavod]

Hopefully the recurring nightmares went away with therapy??

She drank 3 gallons of Bobby's barley wine to kill the pain and to forget.

 

[giligson]

If you really are paranoid about it and it keeps you up at night then bottle in PET plastic bottles - they can withstand a lot more pressure than glass bottles before exploding - and when they do there is less risk of injury (not none - just less) than glass.

 

[HBHoss]

All good advice. Also make sure and keep the beer in a cool environment. If it gets too warm where ever it's being stored it could lead to trouble. Cooler than 70 F.

 

[HBHoss]

If you really are paranoid about it and it keeps you up at night then bottle in PET plastic bottles - they can withstand a lot more pressure than glass bottles before exploding - and when they do there is less risk of injury (not none - just less) than glass.

That's what I use and you can also give them a squeeze to see if they are carbing properly. If you notice a bottle swelling more than normal it could be an indication of a problem.

 

[ILurvTheWhiskey]

I lost an arm to a bottle bomb once...

...Not really.

I've actually tried to create a bomb out of two or three of my different batches using 2 or even 3 times the priming sugar recommend as a test. I wrapped those bottles in a plastic baggy, inside a towel, inside another baggy. Other than having really freaking carbonated beer, I have never succeeded.