Bottle Bombs

[uglykidneil]

I tried brewing a homemade knock-off recipe of a beer from a local brewery a couple months ago. I’m not in love with the outcome so I’ve slowly been chipping away at the 5 gallons.
I bottled all of the beer, and the first 1/3 or so of the bottles were fine. Now they’re all bombs. As soon as I open any of them they foam like a volcano all over the place.

I used fizz drops to carbonate
I fermented the batch for just over 2 weeks. My airlock stopped bubbling at around 1 week.
They fermented and have been stored at around 65 degrees. I only put what I need in the fridge.

Is it more likely that they were infected or continued to ferment after bottling?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Did you take hydrometer readings?

 

[uglykidneil]

I did. My original gravity was 1.030. I wrote down final gravity and can’t find it. I do know my readings weren’t what I wanted them to be. I assumed I had poor efficiency. This was my first all grain batch using biab. If I recall correctly my abv ended up only being around 2.8%.

 

[RPh_Guy]

A few things could cause over-carbonation:

1. The beer wasn't finished fermenting when you bottled. S.g. measurements help determine whether it is finished.
2. Contamination. Some wild yeast can ferment complex malt sugar that most brewers yeast cannot.
3. Too much priming sugar or improper mixing.

 

[Soulshine2]

I tried brewing a homemade knock-off recipe of a beer from a local brewery a couple months ago. I’m not in love with the outcome so I’ve slowly been chipping away at the 5 gallons.
I bottled all of the beer, and the first 1/3 or so of the bottles were fine. Now they’re all bombs. As soon as I open any of them they foam like a volcano all over the place.

I used fizz drops to carbonate
I fermented the batch for just over 2 weeks. My airlock stopped bubbling at around 1 week.
They fermented and have been stored at around 65 degrees. I only put what I need in the fridge.

Is it more likely that they were infected or continued to ferment after bottling?

airlock activity or lack thereof is not a good indicator . Also, 1 week isnt long enough .

 

[RPh_Guy]

It had two weeks in the fermenter, and 1-2 weeks should be long enough depending on the recipe and the process.

Still, I agree it's hard to guage why it's over-carbonated without knowing the FG reading (incomplete fermentation vs contamination).

 

[NGD]

@uglykidneil are the fizz drops the ones sold at Northern and Midwest? I think they are 1 per 12oz bottle if I remember correctly. I’ve heard of others having issues with those but there are always other factors involved so the blame can’t be pointed at just one culprit.

@RPh_Guy is on the money. Its impossible to tell w/o a FG reading

 

[uglykidneil]

Ok so here were my readings.
Original gravity 1.030
Final gravity 1.008

I thought those were unusual readings and I chalked it up to poor efficiency.

This was also my first time using fizz drops. I normally use priming sugar and haven’t had any problems.

Also not sure if it is relevant but my bottles have quite a bit of sediment in the bottom. More than I’ve ever had.

Thanks y’all.

 

[uglykidneil]

@uglykidneil are the fizz drops the ones sold at Northern and Midwest? I think they are 1 per 12oz bottle if I remember correctly. I’ve heard of others having issues with those but there are always other factors involved so the blame can’t be pointed at just one culprit.

@RPh_Guy is on the money. Its impossible to tell w/o a FG reading

Yes I bought the fizz drops from northern brewer. They were designed for 12 oz bottles.

 

[RPh_Guy]

73% apparent attenuation seems reasonable for most ale yeast.

That makes me lean toward contamination as more likely, though either is still possible.

 

[Soulshine2]

Ok so here were my readings.
Original gravity 1.030
Final gravity 1.008

I thought those were unusual readings and I chalked it up to poor efficiency.

This was also my first time using fizz drops. I normally use priming sugar and haven’t had any problems.

Also not sure if it is relevant but my bottles have quite a bit of sediment in the bottom. More than I’ve ever had.

Thanks y’all.

30 seems low. my gravs end up in the high 40s to 50s . I've never used fizz drops but if you usually use priming sugar in the past,and this is a one time problem, I would go back to that.
Hate to keep saying this but try kraeusening your beer instead of adding the priming sugars. if your wort volume is high enough , save a formulated amount of sterilized unfermented wort and add it back at bottling. I save mine in a growler and a flip top ( Grolsch bottle) its pure beer that way and I've found the results although subtle , are worth it. Finer bubbles in the head and carbonation is more uniform. Once I started doing it , (3 batches now?)I wont go back to priming with sugar.
Sounds like you may have mashing issues on top of that though.

 

[AkTom]

@Soulshine2 , can you post a link to this krausening? I’ve never heard of it before.
Thanks

 

[CoreyD]

I was also curious about krausening, so I looked it up. Interesting. Might have to try this.
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/exploring-the-german-technique-of-krausening/

 

[RPh_Guy]

save a formulated amount of sterilized unfermented wort and add it back at bottling.

FYI the correct term for this is speise. Not krausening.

 

[Soulshine2]

FYI the correct term for this is speise. Not krausening.

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Kraeusening

 

[Soulshine2]

@Soulshine2 , can you post a link to this krausening? I’ve never heard of it before.
Thanks

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Kraeusening

 

[Soulshine2]

I was also curious about krausening, so I looked it up. Interesting. Might have to try this.
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/exploring-the-german-technique-of-krausening/

the link you posted gives a better practical description of the process and effects. thanks for posting it. As I said, Ive been using this method for 3 batches or more now.

 

[Soulshine2]

FYI the correct term for this is speise. Not krausening.

the method can be done with either fermented (started by harvesting some yeast at the bottom of the fermenter )or sterile un-fermented wort. Using the un-fermented is IMO a little easier because it has a uniform amount of yeast in it, none. It also doesnt contribute to any clouding of the finished beer. It provides unfermented sugars exactly the same as the rest of the batch. It gives the tiny amount of yeast a kick to add the right amount of carbonation while bottle conditioning. I save mine right from the boil kettle just before I add my hops.
After reading the other link, it cleans up after any oxidation that could have occurred,and "matures" a beer more quickly, among other things.

 

[S-Met]

It could be semantics, but it sounds like you have gushers more than bombs. I don't know if most consider a gusher a precursor to a bomb or not. Either way, pressure is higher than anticipated or desired in the bottle.

Curious, have you taken a gravity reading of a gusher? I would assume that a carb drop will have a net zero effect to the gravity (maybe someone could verify as I've never used drops). My curiosity is thinking that if your gravity is lower than your measured fg, you may have an infection or were not fully fermented.

 

[passedpawn]

It could be semantics, but it sounds like you have gushers more than bombs. I don't know if most consider a gusher a precursor to a bomb or not. Either way, pressure is higher than anticipated or desired in the bottle.

Curious, have you taken a gravity reading of a gusher? I would assume that a carb drop will have a net zero effect to the gravity (maybe someone could verify as I've never used drops). My curiosity is thinking that if your gravity is lower than your measured fg, you may have an infection or were not fully fermented.

I had gushers once (long time ago). I set the box of them on the kitchen counter and, one at a time, opened them into the sink. Each one was a volcano.

While doing that, I hear a loud violent bang behind me. BAM! One of the bottles (not in a box) had exploded. Glass everwhere, big mess. I skedadled out of the scene and returned with flannel shirt, gloves, and chemistry goggles. Holy crap that was dicey.

So, my point is that gushers are just prepubescent bombs.

 

[balrog]

...and saying prepubescent bombs 3 times fast is difficult

OP, open a gusher, stir the daylights out of it, take another FG. Still measure 1.008? If less, you can be sure something is still eating sugars and making CO2.

But +1 on the goggles.

 

[balrog]

FYI the correct term for this is speise. Not krausening.

Correct. Speise=unfermented wort added to bottles;
Krausening=actively fermenting wort added to bottles

 

[RPh_Guy]

the method can be done with either fermented (started by harvesting some yeast at the bottom of the fermenter )or sterile un-fermented wort. Using the un-fermented is IMO a little easier because it has a uniform amount of yeast in it, none.

I'm not challenging the method, just the term you used.
Read the first sentence of the link you posted. Adding unfermented wort is speise (literally, "food").
Cheers.

 

[Soulshine2]

I'm not challenging the method, just the term you used.
Read the first sentence of the link you posted. Adding unfermented wort is speise (literally, "food").
Cheers.

im just posting what I have read so others can try doing it.
There seems to be 2 similar terms that are confusing everyone because the 2 terms are being used for 2 separate and different things interchangeably.

Kraeusen - which is the rocky yeast floating rafts we see and refer to in a fermenter when yeast is at high initial activity. This is what we see before we should have installed a blowoff tube. as in "high kraeusen"
Kraeusening- which is what we've been talking about. Happens at the opposite end of the brewing process instead of using fizz drops ,priming sugar or force carbonating for all you keggers... adding either unfermented wort to the finished beer just before bottling. or adding a recent yeast started amount of wort to the batch just before bottling.
with this late addition of an amount of wort you made before fermentation ever began. Youre making beer according to the German Beer laws fondly known as Reinheitsgebot.

 

[Soulshine2]

(source- Beer Glossary)

Kraeusen n – The rocky head of foam which appears on the surface of the wort during fermentation. v – A method of conditioning in which a small quantity of unfermented wort is added to a fully fermented beer to create a secondary fermentation and natural carbonation.

Spiese - the German wort for reserved wort.

Keep in mind that Kraeusen and Spiese are both German words .

The link Ive provided below gives another great description .

https://www.winning-homebrew.com/krausening.html

 

[RPh_Guy]

It's called kräusening because you prime with fermenting beer that is at high kräusen.

You are simply priming with speise. "Beer Glossary" mistakenly used the terms interchangably.

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Kraeusening (link you provided)

Besides sugar and dried malt extract (DME), beer can also be carbonated with unfermented wort (a.k.a. Speise) or actively fermenting beer (Kräusen or Kräusen beer, sounds like croysen).

https://www.winning-homebrew.com/krausening.html (link you provided)

They found that adding the freshly fermenting wort not only provided a reliable means of carbonating their beer, it also greatly improved the flavor.
[...]
By adding a freshly fermenting (and hopped) wort to your final beer, and then either bottling or kegging it, these new hop flavors and aromatics are captured in your beer.
[...]
when the small beer is at high krausen, pitch it into your green beer.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/101/terms/

Kräusening The addition of a small proportion of partly fermented wort to a brew during lagering. Stimulates secondary fermentation and imparts a crisp, spritzy character.

http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/03/22/krausening-home-brewed-beer/

Krausening is a traditional German method for carbonating beers without using sugars or other adjuncts. Instead actively fermenting malt wort is added to the fermented beer to provide the malted sugars needed for carbonation.

https://www.anchorbrewing.com/blog/anchor-terminology-krausening/

“Kräusening” is the process of adding a proportion of active wort to cellar tanks containing fully-fermented beer. The term “kräusen” refers to wort when it is at its most active state of fermentation.

I'll stop there. Cheers.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

What RPh Guy is stating is accurate. Krausening is adding actively fermenting beer to to a batch of beer that is already fully fermented to carb it. Speise (food) is unfermented wort, before yeast is pitched that is reserved to later prime that beer.

 

[ncbrewer]

To circle back to the original question, I'll suggest taking two gravity samples 2 - 3 days apart after fermentation. If the second one is lower, it's not finished.

 

[Soulshine2]

What RPh Guy is stating is accurate. Krausening is adding actively fermenting beer to to a batch of beer that is already fully fermented to carb it. Speise (food) is unfermented wort, before yeast is pitched that is reserved to later prime that beer.

not to keep beating the dead horse...
http://brewwiki.com/index.php/Speise
https://www.brewersfriend.com/gyle-and-krausen-priming-calculator/
https://www.winning-homebrew.com/krausening.html
I'll just toss this wrench into the works while we're at it...

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gyle
but ,yes. both methods can be done to achieve the same outcome. Either (but not BOTH)can be done at the same point in the process ,which is at the end of fermentation and just before bottling or kegging to prime/condition the beer to its final carbonation.
IF one were brewing the same beer over and over (lets refer to it as a house session beer) adding the kraeusened new beer to the green beer ,cleaning up the beer and giving flavor ,etc,etc.


For ease of figuring the amount to add to the batch . Take the ACTUAL volume of the batch in gallons x 12, and divide by the last 2 numbers in your ORIGINAL gravity.

example-
your finished batch is 5 gallons ,multiply by 12=60
your gravity is 1.040...use 40

so your amount of kraeusened beer ,gyle or spiese to 5 gallons is 60/40= 1.5 quarts

 

[balrog]

batch in quarts
then example used gallons
Confused.