adammc44
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- Sep 13, 2020
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Ok, so this week my wife and I were out of town, and 3 bottles went off with my mother in law watching the apartment (luckily she has been cool about it). Two went off last Thursday and one yesterday (a week between). Today, I plan to wrap myself up and use a faceshield I have to inspect. I have 3 batches of beer bottled. A few notes where I live it is quite hot (high 80s/low 90s) and the beers are stored in a room where we normally run the air off and on when home but can get quite hot if not.
While it depends on what I find, I think all 3 bottles are from one batch, a blond ale. It (as well as the other two batches) all fermented for 3 weeks and have been bottled for just over a month. All were bottled with 140g brown sugar. I haven't drunk many, but have had a few a bit fizzy when pouring but no gushers. For what it's worth a while back, I over carbonated some others (150g brown sugar) that produced a lot of gushers but had no bottle bombs stored in the same room.
That means I don't think this is just heat, and given the time frame from bottling, I don't think it's just the heat or due to over-priming. I also don't think fermentation had not finished as the heat usually leads to very quick, highly active fermentation for a few days, and there hadn't been any visible airlock activity for 2 weeks.
While it's possible the priming sugar didn't mix up enough (I poured it boiled in water in while syphoning from carboy and gave a few stirs before bottling) or that there was some bottle infections, I think my most likely explanation is an infection. The beer has a fruity taste to it, sort of like a saison (my wife described it as slightly sour pineapple). Not the tastiest but drinkable. I had assumed that was esters due to high fermentation temperatures, especially as it seemed to become less noticeable over time. I also threw in a second yeast pack after not getting much activity at the start (that was almost surely not necessary). But the bottles going off make me think it could very well be due to an infection.
I managed to accidentally break one of my airlocks, so this beer fermented the whole time with a blowoff tube. Maybe something creeped down the tube once fermentation cooled off? I didn't have any pellicle or anything like that, but if the 3 bombs have been all that beer, it seems like an infection is a pretty likely explanation.
Do you all agree with that diagnosis? Any other explanations?
Ok, now, the truth is while it won't be easy, I'd rather just dispose of this beer if it is dangerous. But how to go about doing that safely? I'm wondering if the best thing to do is just open them carefully and padded up and pour it out. I mean, I don't want to pack 45-50 bottles ready to explode for the trash guys to pick up. Is the split second when you open the beer any more dangerous? Is chilling them first with a couple hours of a/c and then a cooler first a smart idea?
Many thanks!
While it depends on what I find, I think all 3 bottles are from one batch, a blond ale. It (as well as the other two batches) all fermented for 3 weeks and have been bottled for just over a month. All were bottled with 140g brown sugar. I haven't drunk many, but have had a few a bit fizzy when pouring but no gushers. For what it's worth a while back, I over carbonated some others (150g brown sugar) that produced a lot of gushers but had no bottle bombs stored in the same room.
That means I don't think this is just heat, and given the time frame from bottling, I don't think it's just the heat or due to over-priming. I also don't think fermentation had not finished as the heat usually leads to very quick, highly active fermentation for a few days, and there hadn't been any visible airlock activity for 2 weeks.
While it's possible the priming sugar didn't mix up enough (I poured it boiled in water in while syphoning from carboy and gave a few stirs before bottling) or that there was some bottle infections, I think my most likely explanation is an infection. The beer has a fruity taste to it, sort of like a saison (my wife described it as slightly sour pineapple). Not the tastiest but drinkable. I had assumed that was esters due to high fermentation temperatures, especially as it seemed to become less noticeable over time. I also threw in a second yeast pack after not getting much activity at the start (that was almost surely not necessary). But the bottles going off make me think it could very well be due to an infection.
I managed to accidentally break one of my airlocks, so this beer fermented the whole time with a blowoff tube. Maybe something creeped down the tube once fermentation cooled off? I didn't have any pellicle or anything like that, but if the 3 bombs have been all that beer, it seems like an infection is a pretty likely explanation.
Do you all agree with that diagnosis? Any other explanations?
Ok, now, the truth is while it won't be easy, I'd rather just dispose of this beer if it is dangerous. But how to go about doing that safely? I'm wondering if the best thing to do is just open them carefully and padded up and pour it out. I mean, I don't want to pack 45-50 bottles ready to explode for the trash guys to pick up. Is the split second when you open the beer any more dangerous? Is chilling them first with a couple hours of a/c and then a cooler first a smart idea?
Many thanks!
